Voracek, Giroux Help Lead Flyers Past Maple Leafs

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

For the second time this season, the Flyers had to try to turn frustration into motivation.

After Thursday's frustrating end, the Flyers were able to enter Toronto motivated and come away with a key two points in a 4-2 win over the Maple Leafs on Saturday night.

Shots were at a premium early as both teams played at a good pace to open the game. Nearing the midway point of the first, the Leafs broke the ice.

The Flyers were caught out of position at the end of a penalty kill, and that set up a two-on-one for Auston Matthews with Nazem Kadri. Matthews made a move around Ivan Provorov and fed a pass to Kadri for the easy goal to give Toronto the lead.

The Flyers answered back three minutes later. With the fourth line leading a rush, Brandon Manning joined as a trailer and beat Frederik Andersen with a high shot for his first goal of the season, one game after having a goal taken away on goalie interference.

The Flyers struck again late in the period. Jake Voracek scored, cutting the net with a nice move to finish off a rush.

Through 20 minutes, the Flyers carried a 2-1 lead despite trailing 10-6 in shots. 

Both teams generated good chances early in the second with both goaltenders standing tall. The Flyers had to kill off 26 seconds of a 5-on-3, and successfully did so.

It took until the midway point of the second, but the Flyers were finally given their first power play after a delay of game penalty on Nikita Zaitsev. The Flyers also capitalized, with Valtteri Filppula finishing off the rush on the power play to make it a two-goal game.

That lead was short-lived, as Toronto scored two minutes later. It was Kadri again, as he was able to finish after Connor Brown kicked the puck from under the glove of Brian Elliott to his teammate for the goal.

The Flyers managed to close out the period with another late goal. Claude Giroux took a lead pass from Voracek and finished on a two-on-one for his sixth goal of the season. 

The Flyers outshot the Leafs, 16-8, in the second period for a 22-18 advantage through 40 minutes.

The third period was a tight-checking period with limited space for both teams. The Flyers were able to withstand the push from the Maple Leafs in the later stages of the period and finish things off with a strong defensive effort.

Elliott led the charge in the final period, stopping all 12 Toronto shots and finishing with 28 saves in the win, his fifth of the season.

Voracek and Manning each finished with a goal and an assist for two-point nights.

The Flyers return home to face the Arizona Coyotes on Monday night at 7 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• TOR Nazem Kadri (5) (Auston Matthews, Josh Leivo) 9:07
• PHI Brandon Manning (1) (Scott Laughton, Taylor Leier) 12:06
• PHI Jake Voracek (2) (Radko Gudas, Sean Couturier) 18:38

2nd Period

• PHI Valtteri Filppula (5) PP (Travis Konecny, Shayne Gostisbehere) 11:03
• TOR Kadri (6) (Connor Brown, Ron Hainsey) 13:02
• PHI Claude Giroux (6) (Voracek) 15:20

3rd Period

• No Scoring

Game Statistics