With a scoreless opening period, the Devils had been unable to put any shots past Samuel Ersson, who made a total of 20 saves for Philadelphia. New Jersey has had a tough season with not only injured players but with losses that unfortunately blew their playoff hopes. For the Flyers, it's a different story. With this 1-0 victory on Saturday, April 13th at the Wells Fargo Center, they kept their playoff hopes alive as they needed a win to stay in the hunt for a spot. As the regular season is winding down, hopefully, the Devils have a bright future for the next season. They have one game remaining, which is on Monday, and they'll be taking on the New York Islanders to wrap it up.
Devils lineup against the Flyers:
Clarke - Hischier - Bratt
Meier - Haula - Mercer
Palat - Bowers - Holtz
MacDermid - Tierney - Foote
Hughes - Marino
Bahl - Smith
Siegenthaler - Nemec
Kahkonen
Allen
Flyers lineup against the Devils:
Foerster - Poehling - Konecny
Tippett - Frost - Brink
Cates - Couturier - Hathaway
Farabee - Laughton - Atkinson
York - Sanheim
Seeler - Drysdale
Zamula - Johnson
Ersson
Fedotov
In the first period, the Devils and Flyers weren't successful in scoring any goals to start it up. However, Philadelphia took the lead in the second, which had been the only goal scored in the entire 60 minutes. The Flyers made it out with a 1-0 victory and Samuel Ersson secured his fourth shutout of the season, and of his NHL career. The Devils did push in the third, successfully outshooting Philadelphia 9-4, but the Flyers held on.
Travis Konecny scored the one and only to put the Flyers ahead 1-0 with 9:10 remaining in the middle frame. This had been his NHL-best sixth short-handed goal, as well as his 33rd goal of the season. Konecny received a backhanded pass from Scott Laughton, who had gotten the puck from Nick Seeler, when he had been in alone, and sent a wrist shot past Kaapo Kahkonen from the slot.
Konecny leads Philadelphia with 68 points in 75 games (33 goals, 35 assists)... He ended an eight-game slide when he struck the third goal in their 4-1 victory against the New York Rangers on Thursday, April 11th.
Kaapo Kahkonen on the game overall: "Good effort. We battled, they battled. They, obviously, had a lot on the line. They're battling for a playoff spot still, and we knew that they were going to come hard and they were going to have a good effort. So, we knew we had to match that and I think we did for the most part. It's a tight game, they defended well at the end - just a tight game that went the other way today."
Nico Hischier on the game, what kept them from scoring, and Kaapo Kahkonen: "It was a tight game. Obviously, it was a really important game for them, not a lot of risk on both sides and yeah, a really tight game. I think it wasn't a bad game, but we didn't capitalize on our chances and they scored one goal," - "We could be a little bit more determined in front of the net... we still had some good looks - He played really solid, great game by him. He kept us in the whole game, and he played really well."
Notes:
- Kaapo Kahkonen made 20 saves for New Jersey.
- This had been Samuel Ersson's second straight game allowing one goal or fewer after he had allowed a total of 26 goals in his previous six starts.
Ersson is the first Philadelphia Flyers goaltender to record four shutouts in a single season since Steve Mason had four in the 2015-16 season. He is also the first Flyers rookie goaltender with four shutouts since Brian Boucher had four in 1999-2000.
- Travis Konecny's goal marked his 400th NHL career point, and his six short-handed goals are the most by a player since Michael Grabner recorded six in the 2018-19 season with the Arizona Coyotes.
- Before the game, the Philadelphia Flyers had honored former forward, Wayne Simmonds. He announced his retirement on March 18th, and he played eight of his 15 NHL career seasons as a Flyer.
*All photos used by the New Jersey Devils used with permission*
Comments
Post a Comment