If the Flyers were looking for an opportune time to end a 20-attempt power-play skid, the third period of Saturday’s game was probably it.
With the score tied 1-1 early in the period of a game at San Jose, the Flyers picked up a goal from Christian Dvorak with the man advantage at 1:47 and went on to a 4-1 win at SAP Center at San Jose.
Philadelphia completed its California road trip 3-0 and improved its record against the Western Conference to 18-7-3 (just 16-16-8 vs. the Eastern).
The victory also extended the Flyers’ road win streak to seven games. This decision came in regulation time after the previous six had taken place after the standard 60 minutes of play, which is a National Hockey League record.
Now the Flyers are within one win of the team record of eight. That was recorded between Dec. 22, 1982 and Jan. 16, 1983.
Overall, the Flyers have defeated the Sharks five straight times dating back over the past three seasons.
Matvei Michkov picked up an assist on the Dvorak goal. Dvorak fired a shot past goaltender Alex Neveljkovic from the right faceoff dot. It was the 100th point of Michkov’s career.
After the game, Flyers coach Rick Tocchet said the Flyers did make some adjustments on the struggling power play and those paid off.
“I actually think the last couple games we’ve had some good looks,” Tocchet said. “We’re getting some chances, we’re not scoring. I thought we needed a little juice (hence the adjustments). They had some good looks.”
Dvorak has shown a knack for coming up with clutch goals this season. The Flyers had come up dry on their first three PP attempts. What was the mindset going into that man advantage early in the third?
“Just stick with it,” Dvorak said. “We had some good power plays, some good looks. That’s what matters. You can’t get frustrated. You have to stick with it and I thought we did that.”
Travis Sanheim and Noah Cates scored into an empty net with 1:12 and 35 seconds remaining respectively.
Owen Tippett opened the scoring at 2:26 of the second period with his fifth goal in the last eight games.
Tippett dodged defenseman Nick Leddy in the left circle, then beat Nedeljkovic with a shot to the far side for his 24th goal of the season and a team-leading 15th on the road.
That lead held up until Emil Andrae, pressed into duty at center from his normal defense position, was whistled for an unnecessary delay of game penalty (shooting the puck over the glass). On the Sharks’ power play, the Sharks tied it on a goal by Dmitry Orlov at 13:12.
On the play, Sharks All-Star Macklin Celebrini picked up an assist for his first career point against the Flyers. Philadelphia was the only team Celebrini had not registered a point against.
The Flyers have allowed at least one power-play goal in nine of their last 10 games.
Philadelphia was playing its third game in less than four full days but were trying not to make excuses.
“Obviously it’s a crazy schedule coming out west,” Tippett said in a televised second intermission interview. “Three games in three-and-a-half days. But I like our energy a lot. I think we came ready to play. I think we have to stick to the basics.”
In a scoreless first period, the Flyers allowed San Jose a couple power plays but managed to keep the Sharks sharpshooters off the board.
“I thought we were pretty good,” said Dvorak, one of the Flyers’ chief penalty killers. “We got on them, trying to not give them too much time. We have to stay out of the box, they have some pretty talented players out there.”
One fight highlighted play: The Flyers’ Garrett Wilson, just recalled from Lehigh Valley, took on Sharks tough guy Ryan Reaves. The exchanges were pretty even but Reaves later left to have repairs done on his left hand.
In postgame comments, Tippett said he believes the Flyers are onto something, which is evident in their play since the Olympic break ended.
“I think it’s just a belief and a will,” he said. “This was a really good road trip for us. Kind of turned things around after the Olympic break.”
>Andrae continues at center
With Sean Couturier and Denver Barkey still out of the lineup, the Flyers chose to use Andrae as a center on the fourth line for a second straight game.
Garnet Hathaway and Wilson joined Andrae on that line.
Hathaway has shown some life on offense lately.
“If you look at him, his fitness hasn’t dropped off,” coach Rick Tocchet said before the game. “Just a couple things he has to work on, just a couple things he has to improve on. Not a big dropoff. But he’s had a huge impact. Big blocked shot the other night.”
Barkey was a game-time decision and now listed as day-to-day.
>Short shots
With the road trip out of the way, the Flyers return home to play Columbus on Tuesday. . .Trevor Zegras’ seven shootout goals have taken over the lead in the NHL. . . Cates came to Trevor Zegras in a second period incident. Barclay Goodrow put a borderline hit on Zegras so Cates rushed over and exchanged punches with the Sharks player. Tippett said the Flyers’ willingness to stick up for each other has been important. “It’s huge,” he said. “He (Wilson) got us started in the first. That’s the group we have in that room. Nobody backs away from anything. Having each other’s backs. . .we get momentum off of that.”
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