In his first game back from a shoulder injury, winger Joel Farabee picked up scoring right where he left off.
Over the course of three games before he hurt himself against the New York Rangers on Dec. 1, Farabee established a three-game point streak (two goals, one assist). A collision into the boards kept Farabee out of the lineup for two and a half weeks, but he returned with a bang against the Ottawa Senators.
Late in the third period with the Senators up 3-2, Farabee evened the score when he tried to make a cross-ice pass low in the offensive zone. The puck deflected off of the leg defenseman Thomas Chabot and into the goal.
Farabee’s goal gave the Flyers new life, keeping the game tied through 60 minutes. Then, in overtime, winger Cam Atkinson set up defenseman Travis Sanheim for a goal to give the Flyers a 4-3 overtime victory.
First-period refresh
In their game against the Montréal Canadiens on Thursday, the Flyers put together an abysmal first-period performance. The Canadiens put 19 shots on goal to the Flyers’ eight, and Philadelphia was only down 1-0 after the first period because of goalie Carter Hart’s stellar performance. However, the Flyers left their first-period woes across the northern border with their energy on Saturday night, leading the Senators 2-0 after the first period.
Winger Oskar Lindblom led the charge with a dazzling effort in the first period, first with an assist on Giroux’s goal to put the Flyers up 1-0. A backhanded pass from Lindblom behind the net set Giroux up for a one-timer from the slot. Roughly three minutes later, Lindblom decided he wanted a goal of his own. Moments after hopping off the bench, Lindblom fired a slap-shot from above the right face-off circle toward Senators goalie Anton Forsberg to give the Flyers a 2-0 lead. Defenseman Thomas Chabot caught a piece of the shot, deflecting it into the goal. Lindblom also lent goalie Martin Jones a hand, clearing a puck from the crease that landed behind Jones late in the first period.
Giroux moves up the leaderboard
In his 15th season with the Flyers, captain Claude Giroux continues to cement his legacy as one of the best to ever don the Orange and Black as he moves up franchise leaderboards. Last week against the Vegas Golden Knights, Giroux set a record in franchise power play points (334) with an assist on Sean Couturier’s third-period goal.
On Saturday night, Giroux jumped up a rung on another Flyers all-time list. With his first-period goal against the Senators, Giroux moved into a two-way tie with Bill Barber in all-time franchise scoring with 883 career regular-season points. Giroux is on the cusp of yet another milestone — he’s one assist away from 600. While Giroux stands in second place on the franchise rankings in assists, he’s got his work cut out for him in his contract year if he’d like to catch Bobby Clarke (852).
Power play disaster
Early in the second period, defenseman Ivan Provorov drew a hooking penalty against winger Drake Batherson, earning the Flyers their first man-advantage of the night. Since interim head coach Mike Yeo took over following the firings of Alain Vigneault and assistant coach Michel Therrien, the Flyers have made improvements on the power play — in their last six games, the Flyers rank 18th league-wide on the power play with a conversion rate of 77.3 percent. However, their first five-on-four opportunity on Saturday night was marked by disaster.
First, when winger Austin Watson cleared the puck from the Flyers’ zone early in the two-minute minor, winger Nick Paul beat defenseman Keith Yandle to the puck behind the Flyers’ net. That led to a Paul backhanded-shot on goalie Martin Jones, who denied it wide. Roughly 15 seconds later, moments after the Flyers entered their offensive zone to try again, Yandle and winger Travis Konecny lost the puck at the blue line. Yandle skated back to the neutral zone to recover the puck, but winger Alex Formenton stripped him to spring a breakaway. Formenton snuck the puck through Jones’ five-hole to tie the game at two.
What’s next
The Flyers continue their two-game homestand when they take on the Washington Capitals for the second time this season on Tuesday at 7 p.m. (ESPN+/Hulu).
