Flyers Bounce Back with Win in New Jersey

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

The Flyers missed out on an important point in Columbus on Thursday. They got the two points they needed against a depleted Devils team on Friday.

The Flyers got a pair of goals from James van Riemsdyk and Travis Konecny on the way to a 6-3 win over the Devils on Friday night.

The Flyers got outplayed early, failing to take advantage of a five-minute power play early in the game and allowing several quality chances. Midway through the period, the Flyers got another power play and took advantage of it.

van Riemsdyk opened the scoring with a one-timer from the slot off a pass from Claude Giroux to put the Flyers on the board first.

van Riemsdyk added a second goal less than two minutes later. Ryan Hartman got his first point as a Flyer with the lone assist, feeding van Riemsdyk with a nifty pass from behind the net. The pair of goals moved van Riemsdyk to 19 goals on the season.

The Flyers carried the 2-0 lead to the second, but it slipped away as the Devils continued to mount pressure. Damon Severson scored on a rebound to get the Devils on the board and four minutes later, Jesper Bratt scored on another big rebound to tie the game.

With 30 seconds remaining in the period, the Flyers got a bounce and regained the lead. Konecny had the puck go off his skate and bank in behind Cory Schneider off of Kevin Rooney. The puck slowly crept across the goal line to give the Flyers the lead again.

Just 27 seconds into the third, the Flyers extended the lead with Sean Couturier scoring from the slot for his 26th goal of the season. Ivan Provorov made it 5-2 with a nice deflection off a shot by Travis Sanheim.

With under five minutes to play, the Devils pulled the goalie and Konecny scored his 20th of the season into the empty net. 

The Devils got one more goal with Rooney scoring off a defensive breakdown with just over two minutes remaining.

Cam Talbot made 30 saves in his Flyers debut. The Flyers made history with Talbot in goal, becoming the first NHL team to start eight different goalies in a season. Talbot also becomes the fifth Flyers goalie to record a win. 

Voracek and van Riemsdyk each had three points. Konecny and Giroux each had two points.

The Flyers did not get help from around the standings. They gained one point on Pittsburgh, who lost to Buffalo in overtime, but remained six points back of Carolina, who picked up a win. The Flyers are five points out of a playoff spot. Columbus currently holds the spot, but has two games in hand on the Flyers.

The Flyers get back on the ice on Sunday afternoon to face the New York Islanders at 3 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• PHI James van Riemsdyk (18) PP (Claude Giroux, Jake Voracek) 12:53
• PHI van Riemsdyk (19) (Ryan Hartman) 14:16

2nd Period

• NJ Damon Severson (9) (Kenny Agostino, Travis Zajac) 4:25
• NJ Jesper Bratt (8) (Severson, Nico Hischier) 8:49
• PHI Travis Konecny (19) (Unassisted) 19:30

3rd Period

• PHI Sean Couturier (26) (Giroux, Voracek) 0:27
• PHI Ivan Provorov (7) (Travis Sanheim, Voracek) 6:33
• PHI Konecny (20) EN (van Riemsdyk, Scott Laughton) 16:12
• NJ Kevin Rooney (4) (Bratt, Severson) 17:48

Game Statistics