Farabee Scores 20th as Flyers Close Season with Win

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

It wasn't a pretty year for the Flyers, but in the final game of the season, their brightest spot shined again.

At 21 years old, Joel Farabee not only finished the season as the Flyers leading scorer, but also capped off his season with a pair of goals to reach the 20-goal mark in just his second NHL season. His two goals helped pave the way for a 4-2 Flyers win over the Devils to close out the 2020-21 season on Monday night at Wells Fargo Center.

The Devils came out firing and took advantage of a Flyers turnover early to grab the lead. At 3:29, Nico Hischier corraled a loose puck and centered back across the crease to a wide-open Pavel Zacha for the tip-in to make it 1-0.

Less than two minutes later, another turnover put the Flyers in a bigger hole. Nicolas Aube-Kubel coughed up the puck, then blocked Will Butcher's shot attempt. The puck bounced to Janne Kuokkanen at the bottom of the left circle and he fired it home to make it 2-0 at 5:21.

Midway through the period, the Flyers got on the board. A nice give-and-go between Kevin Hayes and Farabee resulted in a goal with Farabee making a move to beat Scott Wedgewood.

Late in the period, the Flyers got a power play, carrying 1:57 of power-play time to the second period. Through 20 minutes, shots were 11-10 New Jersey.

The Flyers were not able to score on that power play or the other two they got in the middle period. They did manage to get the game tied up though.

Just after the midpoint of regulation, the Flyers got the tying goal from Sean Couturier, who was at the side of the net to receive a slick pass from the skate of Claude Giroux. It was Couturier's 18th goal of the season.

Through two periods, the Flyers had a 20-19 lead in shots.

The Flyers had to kill off a pair of Devils power plays early in the third period. After successfully killing both, they got a power play of their own and finally took advantage.

After a near miss on a point shot, the Flyers went tic-tac-toe for the goal, with Giroux and Couturier setting up James van Riemsdyk at the side of the net for his 17th goal of the season with 7:35 to play.

Less than four minutes later, the Flyers put the icing on the cake in this game. After a shot by Wade Allison left a rebound, Farabee cleaned it up for his 20th goal of the season.

Brian Elliott finished off the game with 23 saves in the win. Wedgewood made 27 saves in the loss.

In addition to Farabee's two-goal game, Hayes, Giroux and Allison each had two assists. Couturier also finished with a goal and an assist.

The Flyers finished the 2020-21 season with a 25-23-8 record.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• NJ Pavel Zacha (17) (Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt) 3:29
• NJ Janne Kuokkanen (8) (Will Butcher, Yegor Sharangovich) 5:21
• PHI Joel Farabee (19) (Kevin Hayes, Wade Allison) 13:44

2nd Period

• PHI Sean Couturier (18) (Claude Giroux, Travis Konecny) 10:06

3rd Period

• PHI James van Riemsdyk (17) PP (Couturier, Giroux) 12:25
• PHI Farabee (20) (Allison, Hayes) 16:08

Game Statistics