Led by Couturier, Konecny, Flyers win a ‘crazy’ one to snap 6-game skid originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The Flyers, in dire need of a win, got one Saturday afternoon.
A crazy one. But they got one.
It wasn’t the prettiest of victories but John Tortorella’s club will take it. After relinquishing three separate leads, the Flyers dug in to beat the Wild, 7-5, at the Wells Fargo Center.
Sean Couturier, Nick Seeler, Matvei Michkov, Travis Konecny and Rasmus Ristolainen scored the Flyers’ goals.
Ristolainen’s was the game-winner with 2:24 minutes left. Couturier finished off a hat trick with an empty-netter. His first goal marked his 500th career NHL point.
“I’ve been looking for centers, right? For two or three years since I’ve been here,” Tortorella said. “Who’s going to take over the No. 1 center? Who’s the second center? It goes right into this year. What Sean has done here, after he was put on wing and has come back into the middle, I hope it continues.”
Konecny’s third-period power play marker drew the Flyers even at 4-4. Couturier regained their lead about three and a half minutes later with his second of the game.
“He’s a hell of a leader, he’s our leader,” Ristolainen said. “We listen, we follow him. He showed up big time.”
In a big way, the 31-year-old captain snapped a 32-game goal-scoring drought, which dated back to last season.
“I thought I was getting some chances lately, the puck just wasn’t going in,” Couturier said. “You have those nights sometimes where everything seems to go in, the puck finds you. Just like those rebounds, they just seem to kind of pop right at me every time. Those are nice and you’ve got to take advantage of those.”
Couturier had a five-point game (three goals, two assists) and so did Konecny (one goal, four assists).
“One or two games ago, you could just sense it coming,” Konecny said of Couturier’s breakout performance. “I’m not shocked, I’m sure you guys aren’t shocked, we’ve all seen Coots when he’s going. It’s just great to see the game he had.”
The Flyers (2-5-1) halted a six-game losing streak.
“We’re young, we’re rebuilding, we are going to take some gut punches,” Tortorella said Friday. “But we’re better than this.”
His team got the much-needed win without top-pair defenseman Cam York, who has an upper-body injury. More on his status here.
“It probably goes unnoticed but we defended our ass off,” Tortorella said. “We spent a lot of time in our end zone, but we did a really good job defending. No one will talk about that, but it gave us a chance.”
The Wild (5-1-2) suffered their first regulation loss of the season. They visited Philadelphia on a four-game winning streak, with all four victories coming on the road.
• Samuel Ersson made 21 saves on 26 shots.
Minnesota grabbed its first lead at 4-3 early in the third period when Marcus Foligno deflected a shot past Ersson.
The Wild tied the game for a third time at 5-5 on Jake Middleton’s goal with 6:32 minutes remaining.
The Flyers have had an issue with committing too many bad penalties and that continued Saturday. Joel Eriksson Ek tied the game at 3-3 with 3.2 seconds left in the middle stanza. It was a power play goal after the Flyers were whistled for too many men on the ice.
“We’re taking way too many penalties,” Tortorella said. “It’s ridiculous the penalties we’re taking. We lead the league as far as the minutes being down. But we end up finding a way to win a crazy game.”
Wild netminder Filip Gustavsson stopped 16 of the Flyers’ 22 shots.
In the opening 3:51 minutes of the game, Couturier struck first to end his slump and Seeler added on to make it 2-0.
“A pretty special player,” Seeler said of Couturier. “Happy for him and he certainly got us going today.”
Minnesota then turned it on and outplayed the Flyers for a large stretch, eventually erasing the lead with goals in a 33-second span of the second period.
• Michkov had a two-point game (one goal, one assist), giving the 19-year-old rookie nine points (four goals, five assists) through eight games.
His goal, which came on a delayed penalty, reclaimed the Flyers their lead at 3-2 in the second period before the Wild tied it again.
• Prior to the game, the Flyers returned prospect Jett Luchanko to his junior club Guelph. More on that here.
“He’s definitely going to be a big part of this future,” Couturier said.
• The Flyers are right back at it Sunday when they welcome the Canadiens (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP).
