The late, great Ed Snider would have turned 91 on Saturday. His Philadelphia Flyers turned in an effort that would’ve made him proud, producing a dynamite 3-2 win over the Calgary Flames at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday afternoon.
Morgan Frost, a healthy scratch on Thursday night against the Columbus Blue Jackets, provided the response head coach John Tortorella was looking for. “That’s a huge step for me with Frosty, is him coming in and saying, ‘You know what? This is what I think,’ Tortorella said on Friday. “It’s so important that players do that. It creates a little bit of a path for him and I as we try to go through this.” Reinstated into the Flyers’ lineup Saturday, Frost tied the game at 1-1 at the doorstep in the second period, and later earned the primary assist on Sean Couturier’s power play goal to again tie the game at 2-2.
Jonathan Huberdeau opened the scoring for the Flames with a breakaway goal at 01:55 before Frost tied things up. If you take away the Flames’ two games against the Flyers in the last week, Huberdeau has one point since the start of December. His frustrations must have boiled over when he gave Nick Seeler two extra shoves in the back at the final horn. Scott Laughton’s fists had some choice words for Huberdeau after that stunt.
MacKenzie Weegar’s goal restored Calgary’s one-goal lead at 2-1, but then hooked Cam Atkinson on a mini breakaway. Couturier scored for the Flyers on the ensuing power play to bring things level again. Weegar giveth, and Weegar taketh away.
The second period, in particular, didn’t lack action between these two teams, and there was certainly no love lost either. Elias Lindholm elbowed Cam York in the head, prompting Joel Farabee to drop the mitts and throw fists. By the end of the game, the Flyers and Flames levied a combined 31 hits against each other and had a total of nine power play opportunities. Surprisingly, Couturier’s goal for the Flyers was the only man-advantage goal of the afternoon. The Flyers also had nine shots on goal in the first and third periods, but poured on a whopping 24 in the middle frame. Offensively, that might’ve been the best they played all season.
A bogus Garnet Hathaway roughing penalty early in the period sent the Flyers to the penalty kill, but the puck doesn’t lie. All-Star Travis Konecny buried yet another short-handed goal off the rush, giving the Flyers a 3-2 lead that they would never relinquish. Konecny extended his season-long point streak to seven games with his fifth short-handed goal of the year. The 26-year-old is now tied with Simon Holmstrom for the most short-handed goals in the NHL.
With that win, all things are good in for now. The Flyers snapped a four-game losing streak with this win over the Flames, and four of their last five wins have been decided by a single goal. It wasn’t pretty, but a win is a win.
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