Gameday Preview: Flyers vs. Kings
Playing their third game in four nights, the Philadelphia Flyers (5-5-1) will host the Los Angeles Kings (6-2-2) at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday evening. Game time is 7:00 p.m. ET.
On Friday, the Flyers skated to an impressive 5-1 road win over the Buffalo Sabres to salvage a split of the home-and-home set between the teams. The Flyers actually outplayed the Sabres by a significant margin over both games but saw an eminently winnable game slip through the cracks on Wednesday. In the rematch, the Flyers took a 3-0 lead to intermission after a dominant first period and then counterpunched effectively as needed the rest of the way.
The Flyers received goals from five different players: Scott Laughton, Louie Belpedio, Travis Konecny, Garnet Hathaway and Bobby Brink. Samuel Ersson turned back 21 of 22 shots with most of the tough chances coming in segments of the second and third periods. For a period by period recap, highlights, stats and analysis, see the
Postgame 5 on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com.
The Flyers, as expected, did not hold a morning skate on Saturday. The decision on whether Ersson or Cal Petersen gets the start in goal against LA will be announced later in the day. Sean Couturier remains day-to-day with a lower-body injury. He will miss at least one more game but should hopefully be OK for the upcoming west coast road trip.
The Kings enter this game undefeated on the road, at 5-0-0. KA skated to a 3-2 win in Ottawa on Thursday. The team has been in Philadelphia since Friday. In the game against the Senators, Phillip Danault, Carl Grundström and Anze Kopitar scored for Los Angeles, while Adrian Kempe chipped in two assists. Veteran goaltender Cam Talbot made 24 saves to earn the win.
Starting lineups will be posted later today. Against the Sabres on Friday, these were the Flyers lines for Philadelphia:
74 Owen Tippett- 27 Noah Cates - 89 Cam Atkinson
86 Joel Farabee - 21 Scott Laughton - 10 Bobby Brink
11 Travis Konecny - 48 Morgan Frost - 71 Tyson Foerster
44 Nic Deslauriers- 25 Ryan Poehling- Garnet Hathaway
8 Cam York - 6 Travis Sanheim
24 Nick Seeler- 26 Sean Walker
5 Egor Zamula - 37 Louie Belpedio
33 Samuel Ersson
[40 Cal Petersen]
For a detailed game preview of the Flyers vs. Kings matchup, see today's
Five Things on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com.
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Tuomaala Stars in 5-4 OT Win
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms skated to a 5-4 overtime home win on Friday evening to defeat the Hartford Wolf Pack at the PPL Center. The victory ended a three-game winless stretch for Ian Laperriere's club.
Finnish rookie Samu Tuomaala led the way offensively for the Phantoms. After recording back-to-back primary assists on goals from the slot by Olle Lycksell (PPG, 8th) and JR Avon (5-on-5, 2nd), Tuomaala subsequently netted the winning goal at 1:09 of sudden death overtime.
Second-year pro Elliot Desnoyers got the Phantoms on the board after Hartford took a 1-0 lead into the second period. The Phantoms rallied from the 1-0 deficit to take a 3-1 lead in the second period. Lehigh Valley led 3-2 going into the third period.
Hartford pushed back in the third period to turn a 3-2 deficit into a 4-3 lead a Jake Leschyshyn power play goal and Ryder Korczyk even-strength marker in the first 4:17 of the period. At 6:46, Phantoms center Rhett Gardner (2nd goal of the season) scored on a deflection of Will Zmolek shot. The game remained 4-4 through regulation.
In overtime, Tuomaala drove to the net and received a tape-to-tape feed from Desnoyers to quickly re-direct into the back of the net to end the game. The goal was Tuomaala's second of the young season.
Friday's win came at a cost to the Phantoms. Goalie Felix Sandström, making his second start of a two-week conditioning assignment, had to leave the game at the end of the first period due to an upper-body injury. He stopped six of seven shots in his one period of action. Sandström had little to no chance of stopping a backdoor goal by Ben Harpur at 7:48 of the period.
Parker Gahagen entered the game in the second period and went the rest of the way for the Phantoms. Gahagen stopped 23 of 26 shots.
The Phantoms remained shorthanded on the blueline, with neither Emi Andrae (upper body) nor Ronnie Attard (illness) available to play. Additionally, Victor Mete was not yet back in the lineup after being sent back to the Phantoms by the Flyers on Thursday. In their absence, Reading/Phantoms defenseman Mason Millman stepped up to assist on the Desnoyers and Avon goals.
PHANTOMS LINEUP
28 Olle Lycksell - 9 Tanner Laczynski - 20 Cooper Marody
17 Garrett Wilson - 91 Elliot Desnoyers - 27 Samu Tuomaala
16 JR Avon - 22 Rhett Gardner - 19 Wade Allison
10 Evan Polei - 13 Brendan Furry - 15 Jordy Bellerive
37 Adam Ginning - 5 Ethan Samson
8 Mason Millman - 2 Helge Grans
4 Will Zmolek - 21 Darren Brady
32 Felix Sandström
31 Parker Gahagen
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