You never know what can happen in any Flyers vs. Penguins matchup. What a win last night.
After a disappointing effort against Pittsburgh this past Tuesday, the Flyers overcame an early 3-0 deficit and defeated their cross-state rival by a score of 4-3.
Through the first five minutes of the opening period it appeared as if it was going to be a long night for the orange and black. Moments after allowing a third goal in under a minute and a half, Sean Couturier broke his stick over the net in frustration and things were looking quite bleak. My twitter feed ran rampant with furious Flyers fans calling for Chuck Fletcher to call Nashville for Mattias Ekholm. The amount of yelling at the TV done in the first five minutes was enough for at least two to three periods.
Alain Vigneault then called a timeout, gathering his team to try and right the ship. Vigneault doesn’t use his timeouts often, and in this situation, it seemed to pay off for the rest of the game. The next five minutes after the timeout saw a momentum switch.
Who else but Couturier to get Philadelphia back in it, sending a slap shot right over the shoulder of Penguins netminder Tristan Jarry. The important first step of getting a goal back before the end of the period was accomplished. I’ve watched too many Flyers games with similar starts only to see us comeback over the course of the match, do not turn off the game at 3-0.
The second period saw only Philly score, as Claude Giroux finally potted one and got his second of the season. It was an important goal, and it was great to see him cash in after having multiple grade-A opportunities over the last few games.
No other scoring was done until under ten minutes left in the third period, when a Giroux shot deflected off Scott Laughton’s body to tie the game at 3-3. This assist would be the second of three points the captain would rack up on the night.
Just over four minutes later, after battling along the boards Giroux won great position for a tap-in deflection goal to take the lead; also, what a nice pass from Oskar Lindblom to find him. All that was left now was to hold off the Penguins and Sidney Crosby.
That is what Brian Elliot and the Flyers did, shutting the door on the Pens and grabbing a huge win. Elliot’s record now sits at 6-1-0. This is one of those moments where if we narrowly squeeze into the playoffs, we’ll say, “Wow, remember that comeback against Pittsburgh? Those two points were crucial.”
Oddly enough, the last time the Flyers overcame a three-goal deficit and won in regulation was back in Dec. of 2015 against the St. Louis Blues. I happened to be at that game with some friends, we got to see Evgeny Medvedev score the game-winner in that one.
The Flyers end their three-game saga against the Penguins tomorrow afternoon at 1:00PM. There’s no doubt that Pittsburgh will be out to avenge their collapse from last night, hopefully Philly can secure another vital win and take two out of three.