Draisaitl, McDavid Lead Oilers to Rout of Flyers

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

For the first 12 minutes of the second period, it was all Flyers. Down by one, the Flyers were continuing to maintain offensive zone pressure and get scoring chances. It felt like a matter of time before they could get the game time.

Then, Connor McDavid got a chance to show off his wheels.

McDavid out-raced Justin Braun to a pop-fly pass into the Flyers zone and beat Carter Hart going for a poke check to extend Edmonton's lead to two. Within four minutes, the game was well beyond reach.

It marked the Flyers third loss in a row to close a Western Canada trip, dropping an ugly game to the Oilers, 6-3, on Wednesday night.

In a nearly identical start to Tuesday's game in Calgary, the Flyers found themselves trailing early. Just 1:13 into the game, McDavid picked up a turnover in the Flyers end and dished to Leon Draisaitl on the wing. Draisaitl placed a perfect shot off the far post and in to beat Hart and make it 1-0.

The Flyers did answer back at 7:36 with Jake Voracek getting his first goal of the season on a rebound on the power play.

Edmonton regained the lead with 5:08 left in the first as Ethan Bear jumped into the rush and fired a shot from the high slot that beat Hart to make it 2-1.

Through 20 minutes, the Flyers had outshot the Oilers, 16-8.

From the start of the second, the Flyers got control and pushed play, opening up a 6-2 advantage in shots at the halfway point of the period. Then, McDavid got on the board at 12:34 and the game unraveled from there.

The Flyers took their first penalty of the game less than two minutes later and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins roofed his first goal of the season on the man-advantage to make it 4-1. That ended Hart's night, allowing four goals on 14 shots, as Brian Elliott took over.

Back on the power play, the Oilers struck again less than two minutes later as Draisaitl located a loose puck and put home the rebound chance to make it 5-1.

The onslaught continued early in the third as former Flyer Brandon Manning made it 6-1 with his first goal of the season. Oskar Lindblom scored on a deflection with 4:40 remaining and Voracek added his second on a 5-on-3 with 2:18 remaining to cap the scoring.

McDavid finished with five points and Draisaitl had three. Voracek also had a three-point game for the Flyers.

Elliott stopped six of eight shots in relief of Hart. Mikko Koskinen made 49 saves on 52 shots in the win.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• EDM Leon Draisaitl (5) (Connor McDavid) 1:13
• PHI Jake Voracek (1) PP (Claude Giroux, Sean Couturier) 7:36
• EDM Ethan Bear (1) (James Neal, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins) 14:52

2nd Period

• EDM McDavid (5) (Kris Russell, Oscar Klefbom) 12:34
• EDM Nugent-Hopkins (1) PP (Draisaitl, McDavid) 14:32
• EDM Draisaitl (6) PP (McDavid) 16:26

3rd Period

• EDM Brandon Manning (1) (McDavid, Zack Kassian) 3:40
• PHI Oskar Lindblom (3) (Voracek) 15:20
• PHI Voracek (2) PP (Ivan Provorov, Giroux) 17:42

Game Statistics