PHILADELPHIA – Now that’s a first NHL goal for the storybook.
Porter Martone scored his first goal as a Flyer at 2:31 of overtime on Sunday to send the Flyers to a much-needed 2-1 win over the Boston Bruins.
By defeating the Bruins, the Flyers are in the driver’s seat for the third spot in the Metropolitan Division standings. And they’re also in contention for a wild card spot.
They jumped over the idle New York Islanders, who fired their coach, Patrick Roy, on Sunday afternoon.
Martone scored while the Flyers were on a rare five-on-three power play.
After putting home the winning goal, Martone raced away from the Boston net in celebration and was soon mobbed by teammates.
“That was pretty awesome,” Martone admitted after the game. “Pretty rare (a five-on-three power play) that ever happens. ‘Devo’ (Christian Dvorak) made a good play to me in the middle. Just buried the rebound. . .to see that crowd pop, that’s a big two points for us.”
And to think just the week before the 19-year-old Martone was playing college hockey for Michigan State.
Scoring a game-winner for a first NHL goal was memorable but executing it in these circumstances made it even more special.
“Overtime winner, first NHL goal, that’s pretty special,” Martone said. “Just keep playing my game, it’s who I am. My linemates have been setting me up special. It’s nice to see that one go in.
“(Trevor) Zegras got me in a pretty good headlock there. I really didn’t get to see it (the crowd reaction) much. It was awesome to get that win in front of these fans.”
All around the Flyers’ locker room, veteran players were smiling. Safe to say they felt good for the kid.
“Very smart player,” said Dvorak. “Massive goal for us.”
Martone has only played four NHL games but looks like a battle-tested veteran.
“Not easy to do,” Dvorak said. “Coming from college right into a playoff race, so that’s very impressive. Big body, smart, high hockey IQ player. That’s really important in this league. It’s been great to play with him.”
Noah Cates feels the same way.
“Kind of like Tyson (Foerster) out there, got a good stick, long stick,” Cates said. “For him to get that goal is awesome. He’s helped us, that’s the biggest thing. Especially for a younger kid, to come in and help us, bring energy.”
Goaltender Dan Vladar turned in another strong performance. As someone who tries to stop the league’s best shooters, he can appreciate Martone’s talent.
“He’s a great player,” Vladar said. “We are so excited to have him here. He’s been bringing a lot of energy. We knew even before he came here he was going to be great for us.”
Martone’s calm, steady approach to the game is what has caught coach Rick Tocchet’s eye.
“He loves the game, even on the bench, you tell him something, he’s a very engaged kid,” Tocchet said. “He’s not afraid to say something. Talking about the power play, he’ll say ‘I’ll be here, you be here.’ I like that. . .a young kid doing that. So you can tell he’s been around, he’s just a hockey player.”
With five games remaining on their schedule, the Flyers know they can end a five-year postseason drought with a decent showing in road games against New Jersey on Tuesday, Detroit on Thursday and Winnipeg on Saturday, plus season-ending home games against Carolina and Montreal.
Leading by a 1-0 lead going into the third period, the Flyers surrendered a power-play goal to Pavel Zacha at the 35-second mark. That extended the Flyers streak of no shutouts to 116, second-longest in team history.
Slow starts have been a problem for the Flyers throughout the season but not in this game.
They jumped on the Bruins early and held them to just three shots for the period.
Martone helped the Flyers get on the scoreboard first by triggering a two-on-one with Dvorak and Travis Konecny breaking up ice. Dvorak faked a pass to Konecny, then buried a shot past Joonas Korpisalo at 4:19.
The pass from Martone was a well-placed, between-the-legs delivery off the boards.
“I think it’s something I worked on a lot this year,” Martone said. “Drawing my wall play, not just in college but in the pros. He (Dvorak) had a really shot there.”
Defense took over in the second period. While the Bruins did get 11 shots, many were from low danger areas.
In the third, Zacha scored into a pileup with Vladar sprawled on the ice.
>Short shots
The Flyers head to New Jersey on Tuesday night for a game against the Devils. . .Denver Barkey was scratched for a second straight game. . .Matvei Michkov’s three-point game in Friday night’s 4-1 win at Long Island was the seven of his career. Only five players (Eric Lindros, Peter Zezel, Ken Linseman, Bill Barber and Mel Bridgman) have had more.
Travis Sanheim needs just one more goal to tie Ivan Provorov (65) for fourth place for goals by a Flyer defenseman in team history. Mark Howe holds the record with 138.
Be the first to comment