PHILADELPHIA — The Flyers, rebounding from a one-sided defeat the previous night, continued a remarkable, underpublicized streak Tuesday night.
And they did it with a shortened bench because of injuries to defenseman Phil Myers and center Morgan Frost.
They got outstanding goaltending from Brian Elliott and goals from Travis Konecny, Jake Voracek, and Kevin Hayes (empty-netter) as they outlasted the much-improved Buffalo Sabres, 3-0, at the Wells Fargo Center.
The Flyers (3-1), who dropped a 6-1 decision to Buffalo on Monday, have not lost consecutive home games in regulation since 2019 (March 31 and April 6). That’s a span of nearly 22 months.
Elliott made 40 saves and notched his 41st career shutout.
There was a negative: The Flyers, who lost star center Sean Couturier (rib injury) in Game 2, continued to keep trainer Jim McCrossin busy. Myers missed the last two periods with an undisclosed injury, and Frost was injured late in the second period and did not return.
Konecny took an off-the-sideboards pass from Oskar Lindblom in full stride, went on a breakaway and cleverly slid a backhander through the legs of goalie Carter Hutton to give the Flyers a 1-0 lead with 2:09 left in the second period.
Voracek made it 2-0 by converting a Kevin Hayes pass with 6:17 remaining in the third.
Frost, who was had replaced the injured Couturier, was hit by defenseman Jake McCabe behind the arm in the second period and went to the locker room. Frost appeared to be holding his left arm when he was knocked to the ice. Myers was also in the locker room, nursing an injury suffered in the opening period.
That left the Flyers with a thin bench when Konecny scored his fourth goal of the young season.
Buffalo had a power play midway through the second, but Elliott made key stops on Rasmus Ristolainen, Jack Eichel, Taylor Hall, and Rasmus Dahlin.
Elliott and the five-on-three penalty kill enabled the Flyers to keep the game scoreless in the opening 20 minutes.
Both teams had 11 shots in the first, but the Sabres had the more dangerous chances. Elliott’s two best saves were on Jeff Skinner, stopping him from point-blank range with 5:37 left in the first, and then denying him on the rebound.
Earlier in the first, Buffalo had a five-on-three for 59 seconds. The Sabres managed just one shot, and the Flyers got three clears during that span as Scott Laughton, Ivan Provorov and Justin Braun did a lot of the heavy work.
Alain Vigneault, whose team was coming off a 6-1 loss to the Sabres the previous night, changed three of his four lines and all three defensive pairings before Myers’ injury. The biggest defensive change had Travis Sanheim joining Provorov on the top pairing.
As for the line changes, Hayes centered Joel Farabee and Voracek; Nolan Patrick centered Lindblom and Konecny; and Frost centered James van Riemsdyk and Claude Giroux before his injury.
“We need to execute. We need to defend when it is time to defend and get on the right side of our checks and we need to make some plays with the puck,” Vigneault said before the game. “We are not making enough plays right now and we are not checking at the right time. That’s what happened last night. Like I said last night after the game, the beauty of last night’s game is that we can get right back at is tonight and play well. That is what I am very confident we are going to do as a group.”
They outhit the Sabres, 11-3, in the opening period, and then started to control play early in the second stanza.
Buffalo’s Carter Hutton, a former Flyers farmhand, made his best save of the night with 17:27 left in the second, robbing van Riemsdyk as he tried to jam home a rebound and appeared to have a lot of net. That kept the game scoreless.
Hutton did not come out to start the third, perhaps feeling the effects of a collision with Provorov earlier in the game. He was replaced by Jonas Johansson, who had been on the taxi squad a few days ago.
Elliott was sharp, stopping all 24 shots he faced in the first 40 minutes as the Flyers carried a 1-0 lead into the third period.
After playing 31:24 in relief of Carter Hart on Monday, Elliott made his first start of the season. His career numbers against Buffalo entering Tuesday: a 13-2-2 record with a 1.89 GAA and .937 save percentage.
The domination continued.
