Flyers back Tortorella’s message, jump Sabres for needed win originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
John Tortorella didn’t want the Flyers to overthink their loss to the Sabres two days ago.
His team outshot Buffalo 40-15 but lost by three goals.
“What we need to do is just stay with it,” he said Wednesday.
The head coach was proven right Friday as the Flyers got some payback on the Sabres with a 5-1 win at KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York.
Scott Laughton, Louie Belpedio, Travis Konecny, Garnet Hathaway and Bobby Brink all scored goals for the Flyers (5-5-1). Tortorella’s club badly needed a positive result after losing five of its last six games (1-4-1) despite being outscored only 25-20.
The four-goal margin of victory matched the Flyers’ biggest of the season. And they did it sans Carter Hart and Sean Couturier, who were both out with injuries.
Eight different Flyers recorded at least a point. Brink (one goal, one assist) and Joel Farabee (two assists) led the way.
The Sabres (5-6-0) put up five goals Wednesday in Philadelphia, with Tage Thompson doing damage (one goal, two assists). This time, the Flyers held Buffalo’s 6-foot-6 star forward scoreless.
• After scoring two goals on 40 shots against the Sabres two days ago, the Flyers put up three on nine shots in the first period Friday night.
Laughton and Belpedio gave Samuel Ersson a 2-0 lead just 1:31 minutes into the action.
Konecny cushioned the advantage on a breakaway with his ninth goal, tied for the most in the NHL.
In the second period, Ryan Poehling picked up his first point as a Flyer with a nice feed to Hathaway.
• Ersson had a confidence-boosting performance in net, stopping 21 of Buffalo’s 22 shots.
The 24-year-old had been hard himself for struggling in his three appearances prior to this start.
“I’ve listened to him talk to you guys, I think he self-evaluates very well,” Tortorella said Wednesday. “That’s a really important part of a player — their self-evaluation. I think he’s very strict with that, as far as how he feels about himself. I think that’ll get him through it.”
The Sabres didn’t crack him until the third period when Henri Jokiharju made it 4-1.
In the same building a little under 10 months ago, Ersson delivered his first career NHL shutout as the Flyers beat Buffalo, 4-0.
• Over the last two seasons, Konecny has 40 goals and 73 points in 71 games.
Impressive stuff and it makes you wonder what he could put up in a full 82-game season.
Last season, Konecny missed 22 games because of two separate injuries (right hand; upper body) but still scored a career-high 31 goals.
• Belpedio made his NHL debut at 21 years old.
On Friday night, the 27-year-old defenseman scored his first career NHL goal.
His story is one of perseverance. Despite playing all of last season in the AHL, he spent the majority of his offseason at the Flyers’ practice facility.
“It has been a long road,” Belpedio said last Thursday after being called up from the Phantoms. “My work ethic hasn’t changed and my mindset hasn’t changed.”
• Hathaway and Dylan Cozens dropped the gloves late in the third period. It was a lopsided fight, in favor of Hathaway.
• The Flyers are right back at it Saturday when they host the Kings (7:30 p.m. ET/NBCSP).
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