Flyers Roll to Victory in 1st Meeting with Kraken

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

The Flyers welcomed the NHL's newest team to Wells Fargo Center on Monday night. And what a welcome it was.

The Flyers dropped three goals on the Seattle Kraken in the first period and added two more to take a 5-0 lead in the second period. The spirited game featured a pair of fights as well, as the Flyers defeated the Kraken, 6-1.

In the early part of the game, the Kraken got the better of the chances. A breakaway for Joonas Donskoi was stopped by Carter Hart, but started a big push from Seattle. Hart came up huge on a couple more chances, including a nice shoulder save on Ryan Donato and a spectacular stop at the side of the net on Jordan Eberle.

Just seconds later, the Flyers moved the other way with a rush and capitalized. Travis Konecny set up Claude Giroux for a one-timer fired by Philipp Grubauer for the game's first goal and Giroux's second of the season at 9:18.

Less than three minutes later, the Flyers were on the board again with some help from the top line. This time, Konecny took a nice pass from Keith Yandle and picked up his own rebound after a save by Grubauer to make it 2-0 at 12:12.

Less than three minutes after that at 14:36, the Flyers second line got in on the act with a greasy goal. After a great read at the blue line by Travis Sanheim, Derick Brassard was able to fire the puck from an angle off the skate of Carson Soucy and in to make it 3-0.

The Flyers finished the first period with a 16-8 lead in shots.

The Flyers picked up where they left on in the second. Two more goals padded the lead and chased Grubauer from the game.

First, Ryan Ellis struck for his first goal as a Flyer off a feed from Brassard in the corner, making it 4-0 at 7:10. Less than two minutes later, Justin Braun got in on the fun with a goal that leaked through Grubauer to make it 5-0 at 8:49. 

That was all for Grubauer, who made 15 saves on 20 shots. Chris Driedger came on in relief.

Immediately after that goal, things started to get chippy with a scrum right off the face-off. It continued a few minutes later, as multiple scrums broke out following a cross-checking penalty on Nicolas Aube-Kubel. Nick Seeler dropped the gloves with Jamie Oleksiak.

Seattle did get on the board late in the period, as Carson Soucy was able to follow up a shot and get his own rebound for the goal to make it 5-1 with 2:46 to go in the second.

The Flyers kept things going in the third. Off a rush, Cam Atkinson put a shot on goal that left a big rebound for Joel Farabee to bury to make it 6-1.

In the end, Hart finished with 24 saves on 25 shots in the win, the 50th of his career. Driedger made six saves on seven shots in relief.

Brassard finished with a three-point game. Konecny, Braun and Farabee each had two points. 

The Flyers get back on the ice on Wednesday night to face the Boston Bruins at 7:30 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• PHI Claude Giroux (2) (Travis Konecny) 9:18
• PHI Konecny (2) (Keith Yandle) 12:12
• PHI Derick Brassard (1) (Justin Braun, Travis Sanheim) 14:36

2nd Period

• PHI Ryan Ellis (1) (Brassard, Joel Farabee) 7:10
• PHI Braun (1) (James van Riemsdyk, Oskar Lindblom) 8:49
• SEA Carson Soucy (1) (Jared McCann, Joonas Donskoi) 17:14

3rd Period

• PHI Farabee (2) (Cam Atkinson, Brassard) 5:25

Game Statistics