Michkov scores another OT winner as Flyers keep rolling originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Matvei Michkov did it again in overtime.
The prized rookie winger scored his third OT winner, lifting the Flyers to a 3-2 decision Saturday night over the Blues at Enterprise Center in St. Louis.
Travis Konecny made an outstanding play to spring the 19-year-old for a breakaway goal.
Last season, the Flyers won only four games in overtime.
Owen Tippett and Tyson Foerster also scored for the Flyers (12-10-3), who are 8-2-2 in their last 12 games. They’ve gone to OT in eight of those 12 games.
The Flyers are also 11-5-2 since Oct. 26. In that span, only two teams have more points than their 24: the Hurricanes and Capitals, each with 25.
John Tortorella’s club picked up its first win when playing on the second night of a back-to-back set. The Flyers were 0-3-0 in such situations and had been outscored 16-9 before beating St. Louis. They were able to build off their 3-1 Black Friday win over the Rangers.
In this busy stretch of three games through four days, the Flyers won all three and allowed just five goals.
The Flyers swept the two-game regular-season series from the Blues (11-12-2). They beat St. Louis, 2-1, on Halloween. This time, they handed Jim Montgomery his first loss as the Blues’ head coach. Montgomery, now 2-0-1 with St. Louis, was fired by the Bruins last week.
• Michkov’s former development coach called him a “spotlight player” and we’re seeing why.
The youngster from Russia just seems to have a flair for the dramatic. And the Flyers have needed that type of talent.
Michkov also had an assist on Tippett’s marker. He leads all rookies in goals (nine), points (19), power play goals (four), power play assists (five) and overtime goals (three).
“When the game’s on the line, when something needs to happen, some players sort of like to hide in those situations,” Daniel Bochner said in July 2023. “Where he sort of likes to be the guy that says, ‘Hey, give me the puck, I’m going to do something here.'”
• Aleksei Kolosov was huge for the Flyers, converting 25 saves on 27 shots.
He couldn’t have done much more on Jake Neighbours’ game-tying goal with 20 seconds left in regulation. The Blues had a 6-on-4 as they emptied their net on a power play. Kolosov made back-to-back saves right before Neighbours scored.
St. Louis cracked Kolosov with 8:49 minutes remaining to draw even at 1-1. Prior to that, Kolosov twice upheld the Flyers’ 1-0 lead with excellent saves on breakaways. The first came on Jordan Kyrou in the final three minutes of the first period and the second on Mathieu Joseph in the opening five minutes of the second period.
Foerster regained the Flyers their lead 51 seconds after Dylan Holloway tied things up.
Over his last three starts, the 22-year-old Kolosov has gone 3-0-0 with 69 saves on 75 shots.
Samuel Ersson, recovering from a lower-body injury, missed a ninth straight game. Could he be nearing a return? More on that here.
Blues netminder Jordan Binnington was spectacular, stopping 28 of the Flyers’ 31 shots. He absolutely robbed Sean Couturier with just under a minute left in the second period on a sprawling glove save.
• How about Konecny?
Since Oct. 23, he’s among the top five scorers in the NHL with 27 points (11 goals, 16 assists) over 19 games.
More: Konecny has quietly been ‘terrific’ while also helping Michkov
• Jamie Drysdale was out for a 10th straight game with an upper-body injury.
After sitting the last four games as a healthy scratch, Egor Zamula drew back into the lineup for Helge Grans. He finished as a minus-1 in 14:39 minutes.
• The Flyers go the next four days without a game before hosting the Panthers on Thursday (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP).
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