Flyers win in the shootout to snap long and frustrating losing streak originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Owen Tippett scored a game-winning shootout tally Thursday night to give the Flyers a 4-3 decision over the Lightning at the Wells Fargo Center.
Finally, John Tortorella’s club could celebrate again.
The Flyers (28-31-8) picked up win No. 1 on this season-long seven-game homestand. They came in 0-5-0 and had been outscored 22-8.
Bobby Brink led the Flyers’ charge Thursday night with three points. The 23-year-old winger had two goals to make up for two penalties. Both were game-tying markers.
Ryan Poehling gave the Flyers just their second lead of the homestand when he made a nice move in close with just under a minute left in the middle stanza. Brink assisted the go-ahead 3-2 goal, but former Flyer Cam Atkinson erased the lead just 3:50 minutes into the third period.
The Flyers went to OT for the 19th time this season. They improved to 5-3 in the shootout. Matvei Michkov also netted one in the skills competition.
Olle Lycksell had the second multi-point game of his NHL career with two assists. The 25-year-old winger saw the door open for an audition when the Flyers traded away four forwards in the span of five weeks.
The Flyers are 2-0-0 against the Lightning (37-23-5), with both victories coming in the shootout. The clubs meet once more in four days at Amalie Arena.
On Thursday night, Tampa Bay was without Nikita Kucherov (illness), the NHL’s third-leading scorer (92 points).
• After the Flyers turned to Ivan Fedotov for consecutive starts, they went back to Samuel Ersson and he converted 17 saves on 20 shots.
The 25-year-old had surrendered 16 goals over his previous four starts.
Lightning backup Jonas Johansson stopped 26 of the Flyers’ 29 shots.
• Tortorella decided to bump Travis Konecny up to the first line with Noah Cates and Tyson Foerster.
As a result, Brink moved down to play with Poehling and Lycksell. And it ended up sparking Brink.
The Flyers got great production from that line and really needed it. They’ve been desperate for a jolt offensively. They had not scored three or more goals since Game 1 of the homestand.
• Rasmus Ristolainen was banged up and unavailable, so Egor Zamula drew into the lineup and played alongside Emil Andrae.
Garnet Hathaway remained out with an undisclosed injury he suffered from a blindsided hit he took at the end of February.
• Atkinson unleashed a big pump of the fist after he tied things up against his former team in the third period.
The veteran winger was back at the Wells Fargo Center as a visiting player for the first time since having the final year of his contract bought out by the Flyers last summer.
The veteran winger has nine points (four goals, five assists) in 38 games for Tampa Bay.
• The Flyers wrap up the homestand Saturday when they host the Hurricanes (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP).
Subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts:
Apple Podcasts | Youtube Music | Spotify | Stitcher | Simplecast | RSS | Watch on YouTube