Flyers kick off homestand in dominant style, push point streak to 5 games originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The Flyers opened a five-game homestand in promising fashion Saturday night, rolling the Sabres for a 5-2 win at the Wells Fargo Center.
Five players had multi-point performances and Ivan Fedotov was strong in net again.
John Tortorella’s club is on a season-best five-game point streak (4-0-1) and has earned at least a point in eight of its last 11 games. The Flyers (8-8-2) have built some real momentum after a 1-5-1 start. They’ve won three straight games for the first time this season.
“The year that we had last year and the work that we put in, you forget how hard it was to play at that level and you think it’s just going to happen again when you come into a season,” Travis Sanheim said. “We’re doing a much better job of working for each other and competing. And we’re getting the results.”
Sanheim, Tyson Foerster, Egor Zamula and Travis Konecny all scored goals Saturday night. Foerster’s marker snapped a seven-game drought for the 22-year-old winger. It came on the power play and opened the scoring.
Sanheim made it 2-0 at first intermission before Zamula and Konecny made it 4-0 at second intermission.
Konecny iced the game with an empty-netter.
“The teams that get there in the end and the teams that become just who they are, who they want to be, are the ones that do it consistently,” Tortorella said. “I don’t think we’ve crossed that bridge yet; we’re 18 games into it and we’ve been up and down. We’ve steadied ourselves, but there’s still a little ways to go here.”
Matvei Michkov and Anthony Richard each had two assists. Michkov has 15 points (six goals, nine assists) in 16 games and Richard has six (two goals, four assists) in five.
“To be a part of this team, they’ve put me in good situations with good players,” Richard said. “It’s a chance I’ve been waiting for since I turned pro eight years ago.”
The Sabres (8-9-1) were without their leading scorer Tage Thompson, who is recovering from a lower-body injury. The Flyers don’t see Buffalo again until March 29 for the second of three meetings.
• Fedotov stopped 23 of 25 shots for the victory. The only goals he allowed were on a Sabres power play and when Buffalo emptied its net.
The 6-foot-7 Russian netminder has made 78 saves on 85 shots over his last three starts, all wins.
“You have a lot of games during a season. I didn’t want to make a lot of pressure for myself,” Fedotov said. “Game by game, you just have to keep your mind strong.”
He has been very good after giving up 14 goals in his first three starts and losing his backup job.
“Goaltenders are the heartbeat,” Tortorella said at morning skate. “When they’re playing lousy, your team’s miniature. When they’re letting in bad goals, your team is on its heels. When they present themselves as confident the way he has the past couple of games, it certainly affects what’s going on in front of him, how they feel about how they can play.”
Sabres netminder Devon Levi denied 27 of the Flyers’ 31 shots.
• Zamula played arguably his best game of the season and it was timely.
The Flyers have some decisions looming on the back end. The 24-year-old defenseman has lost playing time because of some struggles, but he was effective all night against Buffalo.
Zamula had his first multi-point effort of the season and was on the ice for three of the Flyers’ goals. In his last three games, he has four points (one goal, three assists) and a plus-5 rating.
“The biggest thing — and it’s a constant conversation that he and I have — is just the speed of the game,” Tortorella said. “He gets caught from behind a lot, he doesn’t see the play quick enough to move it. The speed of his mind, that’s what I think needs to improve in his game. But he’s getting better.”
Emil Andrae missed the final 9:21 minutes of the game with an undisclosed issue.
“He went out, I’m not sure what that is yet,” Tortorella said. “Eventually we’re going to have to make some decisions here when [Cam York] comes back.”
• Erik Johnson played in his 1,000th career NHL game. The Flyers will honor the veteran defenseman with a pregame ceremony Monday. They host the Avalanche, the team Johnson played parts of 13 seasons for and won the Stanley Cup with in 2022.
“It should be pretty special just to kind of thank those guys and thank my teammates here, the fans in Philly, the fans in Colorado, just everybody who supported me,” Johnson said Saturday morning. “It means a lot for me to just say thank you.”
Johnson came to the Flyers from the Sabres last season at the March trade deadline. The Flyers re-signed him this summer to a one-year, $1 million contract.
“You could tell it was a special room,” Johnson said. “I’m really not just saying that, I really think the culture here is awesome and the people here are amazing.”
• After missing his first game of the season because of a lower-body injury, Sean Couturier was back in the lineup.
York and Jamie Drysdale, both recovering from upper-body injuries, participated in morning skate.
York has practiced in full and appears to be nearing a return. The 23-year-old has been out for around three weeks.
Drysdale, who has missed the last three games, skated in a non-contact jersey.
Samuel Ersson, day to day with a lower-body injury, was not on the ice at morning skate. Aleksei Kolosov served as Fedotov’s backup for the second straight game.
• The Flyers are scheduled to practice Sunday at noon ET before welcoming Colorado on Monday (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP+).
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