Postgame Perspective: Flyers drought over, focus turns to building on scoring, wins

Brayden Schenn had his stick along the ice as Jake Voracek found him with a pass to the slot. The puck hit the back of the net.

Finally, the scoring drought was over for the Flyers.

In a second period that featured chance after chance with no payoff, you could see the weight lifted off the shoulders of the Flyers, particularly the guys who make up the first power play unit.

"It was nice to see one go in," head coach Dave Hakstol said. "I think we had by my estimation we probably had 12 to 14 scoring chances, maybe more in the second period so it was nice to see one go in. We had a couple pretty good looks in the first period and then came out and had a real good push in the second. It’s been awhile since one has gone in so that was good for our group."

"I felt like I’ve had some chances the past couple games," Brayden Schenn said. "I wasn’t happy with the penalty shot, and I wasn’t happy with the move. The shot hit the post like you said, so it’s nice to get rewarded. It was a great feed by Jake."

The goal came at 10:20 of the second period, 167:54 after the Flyers last goal against Los Angeles in the third period on Tuesday.

Moments later, the Flyers first shorthanded goal put them in command. Sean Couturier helped set up Claude Giroux for the shorthanded tally. It was quite possibly their best 40 minutes of the season, at least to open a game.

And then they took their foot off the gas. Back came the Hurricanes, and with 3:45 to play, Brett Pesce scored the tying goal that would force overtime.

Just nine days earlier, the Flyers found themselves in the opposite position, trailing 2-0 in the middle of the second period. The Flyers scored the tying goal with 3:15 remaining in the third on that night and later won in overtime.

Speaking of that tying goal then, it was the first game of the season for Shayne Gostisbehere. He took a point shot that deflected off of Wayne Simmonds for the tying goal then.

This time, Gostisbehere's shot from the high slot was not deflected. His overtime game-winner gave the Flyers the two points they deserved in previous games, deciding a 3-2 win. 

"We had about 10 seconds to drop a play," Gostisbehere said. "It wasn’t quite the play. I mean it worked out. It was a great play by [Giroux], you know Simmer got his eyes again so it was a great overall play."

So with the goalless drought snapped and the three-game losing streak — which included two shutout losses — snapped as well, the Flyers next task turns to building off the win, something they had talked about in Carolina.

"We need to find a way to play like that for 60 minutes," Giroux said. "Game in, game out, it’s hard to stay focused like that but good teams do it. We need to find a way to make sure everybody is ready to go for 60 minutes."

"It feels very good. It was a great team effort and we were playing the first 40 minutes playing maybe the best hockey of the season," Michal Neuvirth, who made 31 saves in earning his fourth win of the season, said. "That’s the way we got to play, put the pressure on them. I believe in this team, we got good players and we just got to stick to the system and believe in ourselves."

"We are pushing a lot of small areas in the right direction," Hakstol said. "We just have to keep pushing, I think the feeling and the focus in the locker room is good. Nobody is comfortable with our win loss record, and that’s a good thing. Yet, the work ethic and the focus for the most part has been in the right direction, as we look at it over the last couple of weeks. We just have to keep pushing on all the areas of our game. You can’t push fast forward, you just have to keep working day by day."

Kevin Durso is managing editor for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.