PHILADELPHIA – One of the big question marks coming into this Flyers season was whether Matvei Michkov could shake off the effects of his 2025-26 sophomore slump.
So far, so good.
Michkov scored his fourth goal of the season and added an assist on a Porter Martone marker to lead the Flyers to a 3-1 decision over Ottawa at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Saturday night, the team’s first victory of the schedule to end a season-opening franchise-record nine-game winless streak.
A power-play goal by Michkov at 18:33 of the second period broke a 1-1 tie.
Michkov guided home the rebound of a Martone entry past goaltender Linus Ullmark for just the Flyers’ third power-play goal of the season. Michkov leads the Flyers in goals, with Christian Dvorak and Martone (two goals apiece) the only other players on the roster with more than one goal.
When the game ended, there was a collective sigh of relief on the Flyers’ bench. They really needed this one.
“I think we could have done better at times but we did a good job sticking together,” captain Sean Couturier said. “Grinding and finding a way to get this win.
“Hopefully this can give us some confidence, something to build on. It’s one win, we’ve still got a lot of work to do. There’s still some areas we can be better. But I’m just happy that we finally got a win. It wasn’t pretty at times but we found a way.”
Michkov was all smiles as he continues to build a bounce-back year. And playing with Martone.
“Yeah, I like to play together (with him),” Michkov said. “I want to support him on ice. (Off ice) We have connection.”
Martone seems to have found a steady partner as well.
“I think this is our third game together,” he said. “I think we’re trying to see what our tendencies are like. I liked the show tonight. We’re two young players and as time goes on, I think we’ll develop more chemistry. I think we can bring a lot to this team.”
Alternate captain Travis Sanheim liked the way his team didn’t crumble once it took the lead in the third period. The Flyers outshot the Senators, 28-26, for the game and that’s a bit of a rarity.
The Flyers had to kill off a delay of game penalty by Tyson Foerster late in the game and that success was another good sign.
“The penalty kill came up huge at the end,” Sanheim said. “An all-around team effort, glad to get the win.”
Ottawa got on the board first at 5:55 of the second period when ex-Flyer Claude Giroux set up Drake Batherson off a two-on-one with only Oliver Bonk back on defense. It was the eighth time in 10 games an opponent of the Flyers has scored first.
But the Flyers didn’t lose their cool.
“I just think we liked the way that we were playing,” Sanheim said. “An unfortunate play there. The message was, just keep playing the way we were. Keep pushing. Then the power play came up huge. That’s what you need in tight games.”
Goaltender Dan Vladar was on his toes for this game, making one tough stop after another.
“We finally got the first one out of the way,” Vladar said. “At the same time, we can’t get too high from it. I think it’s going to bring a little more confidence. I give a lot of credit to our young bucks up front, they led the charge today. They were buzzing out there.”
The Flyers came back when Martone was able to connect off a Michkov setup at 9:03.
A scoreless first period was at least a small positive for the Flyers, who have been outscored, 7-3, in opening frames this season.
Also, the Flyers heeded the coaching staff’s advice and kept firing pucks at Ullmark in the first period, eventually piling up a 14-8 edge in shots.
Vladar kept the period scoreless by stopping Ottawa’s Warren Foegele on a clean breakaway.
Trevor Zegras scored with 13.8 seconds left to play into an empty net to wrap it up.
Coach Rick Tocchet liked how his team responded without several of its best players (the injured Travis Konecny, Rasmus Ristolainen, Cam York).
“A lot of guys hurt and some guys stepped up,” Tocchet said. “That (Ottawa) is a good hockey team over there. But nice to see some resilience. Saw a lot of compete tonight. Better execution. Some stuff that we really liked.
“We were jumping on loose pucks and I liked the fact we had a shot mentality (28 was one off the season high). We got some shots blocked but we didn’t get discouraged. We needed everybody. We just can’t have anybody on the sidelines.”
>Tribute to Sara Hart
In a pre-game ceremony, the Flyers paid tribute to Sara Hart, the widow of long-time team announcer Gene Hart, who passed away recently.
Mrs. Hart’s daughter, Lauren, has been the Flyers’ anthemist for a number of years and performed both the Canadian and American national anthems on Saturday night.
>Blocking those shots
In recent years the Flyers have come to be known as a team which blocks a lot of shots.
This year is no exception.
Going into Saturday action, the Flyers led the NHL in blocked shots with 149. Defenseman Nick Seeler is a big part of that statistic. He stood second in the league with 26 blocked shots.
>Game puck to Myrtetus
Flyers TV analyst Jason Myrtetus, a cancer survivor, gave an inspirational speech to the Flyers and Tocchet said it may have played a part in this Flyers’ performance.
Just before the post-game media session, Tocchet gave Myrtetus the game puck.
“Your speech may have won it,” Tocchet said. “So thank you.”
With a straight face, Tocchet added, “He’s going to be head coach now.”
>Short shots
The Flyers return to action on Monday night when they play host to the Colorado Avalanche. . .Couturier entered Saturday night’s game against the Senators with 73 faceoff wins, good for 10th in the NHL. . .The Flyers entered the game 13th in the NHL in penalty killing at 82.9 percent.
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