PHILADELPHIA _ The Flyers, dead in the water for most of the game, were thrown a life jacket by rookie left winger Travis Konecny on Tuesday night at the reverberating Wells Fargo Center.
Claude Giroux scored the game-winner as the Flyers shocked the Buffalo Sabres, 4-3, in a shootout.
Giroux and Jake Voracek netted goals in the shootout, and Steve Mason, who entered the game in the second period, stopped both Buffalo shots.
The Flyers scored three goals in the third period, started by Konency's first tally of his career, and overcame a 3-0 deficit. They tied it on late power-play goals by Brayden Schenn with 2 minutes, 52 seconds left and by Mark Streit with 1:51 to go.
Wayne Simmonds fired a shot off the post with 1:20 left in regulation.
With 1:23 remaining in a Flyers-dominated overtime, Giroux weaved through the Sabres' defense, but Anders Nilsson made a great glove save from in close. A sprawling Nilsson then robbed Voracek, who was ahead of the pack, with 3.3 seconds to go.
Konecny tipped in a power-play blast by fellow 19-year-old rookie Ivan Provorov with 15 minutes, 30 seconds remaining, cutting the deficit to 3-1. A joy-struck Konecny leaped into the glass. The Flyers, looking listless most of the night after playing Monday in Montreal, became energized.
They outshot Buffalo, 19-5, in the third period.
The Sabres were missing two of their best offensive players, injured forwards Jack Eichel and Evander Kane, along with starting goalie Robin Lehner, who was ill and didn't make the trip.
No matter. They built a 3-0 lead and appeared to be coasting. Matt Moulson scored a pair of power-play goals, and Nilsson, a backup goalie with a 3.09 career goals-against average and .900 save percentage, made 38 regulation saves in his Sabres debut.
The Flyers, playing their third game in four nights, allowed the first goal for the sixth straight game, fell into a 2-0 hole early in the second period.
Michal Neuvirth allowed three goals on 17 shots and was pulled for the second time in his last two starts.
Slow starts have become a Flyers trademark in recent seasons. In the last four years, they have not had a winning record at the 10-game mark, thanks to seasons that started 0-3 in 2012-13, 0-3 in 2013-14, 0-2-2 in 2014-15, and 0-1-1 last season.
Just 2:06 into the second period, Buffalo snapped a scoreless tie when Rasmus Ristolainen's bad-angle shot from near the right boards was tipped in by Tyler Ennis _ after it deflected off the stick of Flyers defenseman Radko Gudas, who made his season debut after a six-game suspension.
Less than two minutes later, Moulson scored a power-play goal, a backhander from the slot after he went around Andrew MacDonald, to make it 2-0. The goal was scored six seconds after Claude Giroux went to the penalty box for boarding.
Moulson made it 3-0 with 4:17 left in the second, scoring from the left circle on another power play. Neuvirth was slow to react and was replaced by Mason.
Buffalo was playing for the first time in five nights, and the Sabres had much more energy than the turnover-plagued Flyers in the first 40 minutes. The Flyers were playing on back-to-back nights for the second of 18 times this season.
Boos echoed around the Wells Fargo Center as the Flyers left the ice at the end of the second period.
Early in the third period, Konecny's power-play goal earned a standing ovation and got the Flyers to within 3-1.
They weren't done.
