The Philadelphia Flyers welcomed the New Jersey Devils to the season and home opener at Wells Fargo Center for a division matchup. While the expectations for this Flyers team are low, the Flyers have something to prove this season.
The first period showed the team's strengths early on as this team will be a hard-hitting team that will not get pushed around. The Flyers racked up a total of 13 hits in the period. It also showed that they must work on discipline, as they totaled four penalties in the first period.
However, one promising note that showed from this team is their ability to shake off a goal, as they scored just 23 seconds after Holtz scored his first NHL goal for the Devils. Wade Allison scored for the orange and black to tie the game up at one apiece. This would be Wade Allison's fifth career NHL goal.
Owen Tippet would not return to the game as he suffered an injury in the first period. Coach Tortorella said, "No. I don't know what happened to him, so I have not talked to the trainers. I have no information for you". The Flyers disclosed the injury as an upper-body injury.
The Flyers took control of the second period as the young guns from the Flyers, Travis Konecny and Morgan Frost, tallied two beautiful goals. TK's goal came on a rifled shot fired past Blackwood's glove side and into the net. Frost's goal was a stunning tic-tac-toe goal from JVR and Laczynski to give the Flyers a 3-1 lead going into the third period.
Carter Hart rallied the team in the second period by making big saves; Coach Tortorella states, "He gave us an opportunity; he made key saves at key times." Hart had a big hand in keeping the lead the way it was for the Flyers in the second period.
The third period has always been a point of emphasis for the Flyers, as we have seen a ton of collapses for the Flyers in previous seasons. But TK had something to say about it as he got the Flyers' 4th goal of the night with a beauty of a shot by Blackwood to make it a 4-1 game. The Devils would quickly respond, making it 4-2, but that's all the damage the Devils would as Frost picked up an empty net goal to give the Flyers a 5-2 victory.
Some game notes from the competition. Morgan Frost scored two goals for his first multi-goal game, his third career multi-point contest. His first goal of the game also marked his first career game-winning goal.
Ivan Provorov tallied two assists, a plus-4 rating, and ten blocked shots tonight. The ten blocked shots tie the franchise record for most in a game by a defenseman for the third time: Andrew MacDonald (3/11/16); Provorov (11/2/17 & 10/13/22).
The Flyers will welcome the Vancouver Canucks for the second game of the season at Wells Fargo Center Saturday at 4 p.m. eastern standard time.