Farabee’s 4-Point Game Paces Flyers to Season-Opening Win

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

When the Flyers drafted Joel Farabee in the first round of the 2018 NHL Draft, they likely saw the scoring potential he had. He showed it in the season opener.

Behind a four-point game from the second-year forward, the Flyers rolled to a 6-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins in the season opener on Wednesday night at Wells Fargo Center.

The Flyers came out with a few solid shifts, but the Penguins drew first blood. Mark Jankowski was left alone in front of the net. Jared McCann hit him with a pass in the slot and his shot caught a piece of Carter Hart, but rose to the top of the net to make it 1-0 Pittsburgh. 

The Penguins pushed the play for the next several minutes, but the tide turned when the Flyers got a power play in the final six minutes of the period.

With the second power-play unit on, Erik Gustafsson took a shot through traffic that was deflected by James van Riemsdyk and in to make it 1-1.

With 15.2 seconds remaining in the period, the Penguins took another penalty to put the Flyers back on the power play. The second unit came on again and took advantage quickly, scoring just eight seconds into the man-advantage. This time, Gustafsson's shot was tipped in the high slot by Nolan Patrick and beat Jarry. Farabee also picked up his second assist on the goal.

After 20 minutes, shots were 13-10 Pittsburgh.

The Penguins got a power play early in the second. It appeared to be heading toward a successful kill, but Hart turned the puck over to Sidney Crosby at the side of the net and he was able to knock it into the net for the tying goal at 3:39.

The Flyers killed off another Pittsburgh power play and the Penguins started generating more chances throughout the period. But with 1:06 remaining in the second, the Flyers re-gained the lead with another late goal. Farabee picked up his third point of the game, tucking in a shot from the side of the net to make it 3-2 Flyers.

Through two periods, the Penguins had a 23-16 advantage in shots.

Early in the third, the Penguins killed off a Flyers power play, then took advantage of a neutral-zone turnover to tie the game. Brandon Tanev came off the bench and took a feed from Jankowski before firing a shot high on Hart to make it 3-3 at 3:01.

Less than three minutes later, the Flyers fourth line got in on the action, as Scott Laughton set up Michael Raffl at the front of the net for a goal to give the Flyers the 4-3 lead.

Then in a span of 20 seconds, the Flyers put their stamp on this one. Travis Konecny put a rebound home at 12:14. Originally credited to Konecny, he later admitted postgame that it actually hit off of Oskar Lindblom on the way in and the goal was later credited to Lindblom. Twenty seconds later, Kevin Hayes cashed in on a rebound off a shot by Farabee to make it 6-3. 

That was more than enough for the Flyers. Hart finished the game with 31 saves on 34 shots. Jarry stopped 19 of 25 shots.

The Flyers return to face the Penguins again on Friday night at 7 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• PIT Mark Jankowski (1) (Jared McCann) 5:13
• PHI James van Riemsdyk (1) PP (Erik Gustafsson, Joel Farabee) 15:11
• PHI Nolan Patrick (1) PP (Gustafsson, Farabee) 19:52

2nd Period

• PIT Sidney Crosby (1) PP (Unassisted) 3:39
• PHI Farabee (1) (Kevin Hayes) 18:54

3rd Period

• PIT Brandon Tanev (1) (Jankowski) 3:01
• PHI Michael Raffl (1) (Scott Laughton, Nicolas Aube-Kubel) 5:37
• PHI Oskar Lindblom (1) (Travis Konecny, Sean Couturier) 12:14
• PHI Hayes (1) (Farabee, Claude Giroux) 12:34

Game Statistics