Flyers knock off Devils to cap three-game road trip

Jackie Spiegel, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Jan 18, 2025

Published in Hockey

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NEWARK, N.J. — It wasn’t the most exciting game but sometimes, like goals, they don’t ask how wins happen they ask how many.

On a day when the teams were blocking pucks left and right — they combined for 32 on net — the Flyers beat the New Jersey Devils, 3-1, Saturday. Travis Konecny scored an empty-netter with 3 seconds remaining.

The Flyers have won two straight, four of their past five, and are riding a six-game point streak.

Glory Days

The Flyers power play has certainly had its struggles, but on Saturday it gave them a lead.

After a long sustained pressure by the Devils that saw them have six shot attempts — five of which were blocked by Flyers, including two by Jamie Drysdale with one stinging him — Owen Tippett got sprung on a breakaway. The flying forward did not get a shot on goal but did draw a penalty, taking a slash from Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler before he crashed into goalie Jake Allen.

On the ensuing power play, Bobby Brink buried the centering pass from Noah Cates. The Flyers were able to keep the play alive with Tyson Foerster and Cates going two on the puck with Brenden Dillon trying to play it in the left corner. Cates was able to snag it and send the pass next to the left post.

Prove It All Night

This season, Ersson is 12-7-2 with a 2.87 goals-against average and .888 save percentage but since the NHL’s holiday break, he is 5-1-0. He has the league’s ninth-best GAA (1.77), 10th-best save percentage (.931), and is one of 16 goalies with at least a shutout.

But 2 minutes, 17 seconds into the game, with a ton of traffic in front of him, he allowed a shot from Dougie Hamilton to get through. The goal came 40 seconds after Matvei Michkov got his stick on a wide-open chance by Paul Cotter.

The goal came on the Devils’ first shot of the game — and Ersson didn’t see many after. Through two periods, New Jersey was credited with seven; the Flyers had 11. Natural Stat Trick had the advantage in shot attempts through 40 to the Flyers with 42 and the Devils had 33. At five-on-five it was 40 to 25.

Ersson did allow a goal less than 5 minutes into the third period but Jesper Bratt, the goal scorer, was offside on his give-and-go with Ondřej Palát. The play was overturned on a coach’s challenge, giving John Tortorella and his staff an impressive 4-1 record.

The Swedish netminder finished with 13 saves on 14 shots.

Born to Run

It’s been a year since Michkov scored an even-strength goal — technically. The matinee against the Devils was the Flyers’ ninth game of 2025, and the Russian rookie entered the afternoon with one goal on the power play. Since he scored two goals against the Boston Bruins on Dec. 7, Michkov has potted two goals in 19 games, the last at five-on-five was on Dec. 29 against the Los Angeles Kings.

But there was no way he was missing on this chance against Jake Allen. Sean Couturier, who has been his center now for five games, intercepted a Luke Hughes pass intended for Brett Pesce just inside the Flyers blueline. The captain sent the puck up to Michkov, who was streaking between the defensemen and he buried the puck.

“He’s exciting to play with,” Couturier told NBCSP during the second intermission. “It’s a great opportunity to create some stuff offensively. He can make a lot of plays out of nothing.”

Breakaways

Olle Lycksell entered the lineup with Ryan Poehling out with an upper-body injury. ... Cates played in his 200th NHL game.

Up next

The Flyers practice on Monday before a Tuesday night matchup on Pride Night at the Wells Fargo Center with the Detroit Red Wings. The Orange and Black are 1-1-0 against the team from Motor City, with a 4-1 win at home.