Hayes-led Flyers with another good response, beat up on Ducks for 8-2-0 stretch originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
On the heels of being dominated in Boston, the Flyers came back home and took it to the lowly Ducks for a 5-2 win Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center.
With an empty-netter, Kevin Hayes punctuated a hat trick. Rasmus Ristolainen and Morgan Frost also provided goals.
Samuel Ersson was in net and beat Anaheim for the second time this month.
Hayes put the Flyers in complete control with his second goal 2:30 minutes into the third period.
Along with Hayes, Ristolainen (one goal, one assist), Travis Konecny (two assists), Scott Laughton (two assists) and Wade Allison (two assists) put up multi-point performances.
The Flyers (19-19-7) improved to 8-2-0 since the NHL-mandated holiday break. They haven’t lost consecutive games during that stretch.
Both of the defeats were blowouts in the first game of a back-to-back set. Each time, the Flyers have responded well the next night to restore some order.
For an organization that recently went through separate losing streaks of 13 games (0-10-3), 10 games (0-8-2) and 10 games (0-7-3) in a little over a span of a year, seeing these responses to a couple of ugly defeats is a positive.
“I think that’s part of the growth we’ve had with the team,” Flyers head coach John Tortorella said. “I hope it continues. I don’t know if it is, I don’t know what’s going to happen here the next 30-plus [games].
“But these are the things we’re asking as we grow as a team. I think when you start thinking you’re a good team and you’re growing, losing two in a row is unacceptable. You need to find a way to win that next one so you don’t get into those streaks.”
The Flyers took a 6-0 beatdown Monday from the NHL-best Bruins. They were able to get back up again.
“I think you can talk yourself into being tired,” Tortorella said pregame. “Everybody talks about back-to-backs, schedule — with back-to-backs for me, I think if you get involved right away, I think your second wind kicks in, I think you feel better. We don’t do much thinking. It’s another game and a game that I want to see our team rebound after our game against Boston.”
The Flyers swept the Ducks (12-28-5) in their two-game regular-season series by a combined score of 9-3.
Anaheim owns the NHL’s worst goal differential at minus-85.
• The Flyers turned the page the way Tortorella had hoped.
He said there was “absolutely nothing” the Flyers could take away from the lopsided loss in Boston.
“They’re pros, it’s been a good room all year long,” Tortorella said a few hours before puck drop. “There’s no sense of thinking about that game. It’s just looking forward and getting ready for this one.
“When you suffer a loss like we just went through, guys want to play. Just try to get back into how we were playing.”
The Flyers needed to do that against an inferior team and they did.
“I think every guy in this room wants to win every night,” Hayes said. “It’s not a team or an organization that’s expecting to lose. We’ve had some bad streaks obviously, but the guys in this room show up every night. … Things have been going our way lately.”
• Ristolainen made his presence felt with a game-changing sequence of events during the second period.
The bruising defenseman laid out Max Jones with a clean hit along the side boards.
A little over a minute later, he potted a shorthanded goal on a nice backhanded shot to give the Flyers a 2-1 lead. It was Ristolainen’s first goal of the season.
“I love [being on the] penalty kill,” Ristolainen said. “I love when we have a lead, end of the game, playing 5-on-6 or whatever it is, I just take a lot of pride in that. Tonight it worked pretty well.”
The Flyers lead the NHL with nine shorthanded markers. Good work by assistant coach Brad Shaw, who is in charge of the penalty kill.
• With under a minute left in the second period, Frost provided a big goal to cushion the Flyers’ lead to 3-1.
He did it in highlight-reel fashion. In close, the skilled 23-year-old center maneuvered the puck through his legs and lifted it top shelf.
• Ersson, who beat Anaheim earlier this month with a 28-save effort, denied 25 shots this time.
The second goal he allowed was a power play marker with a minute-plus left in the third period.
The 23-year-old has been really good for the Flyers, pushing his record to 5-0-0.
Former Flyers prospect Anthony Stolarz was in net for the Ducks. The 2012 second-round draft pick stopped 34 of the Flyers’ 38 shots.
• Hayes lost the puck on a 5-on-3 power play during the first period, which led to an unsuccessful Anaheim breakaway.
The next trip down, with the man advantage at 5-on-4 and fans pleading for the Flyers to shoot, Hayes ripped one into the back of the net.
• Ivan Provorov was unexpectedly not on the ice for warmups. However, the 26-year-old defenseman did play.
His omission from warmups was perplexing given Provorov seldom misses a game and has a regimented pregame routine. Tortorella also said at his 5 p.m. ET pregame media availability that there would be no lineup changes from Monday’s game.
Provorov has missed only three games in his seven-year NHL career. He voiced his frustration when those three games came in a row last season because of the NHL’s COVID protocol. It ended Provorov’s ironman streak at 403 games, a run dating back to the start of his career as a 19-year-old rookie.
Provorov played 22:45 minutes Tuesday night and finished as a plus-1.
There was no official word from the team on why Provorov missed warmups.
Update: Provorov chooses to not warm up because of Flyers’ Pride Night jersey
• After a day off Wednesday, the Flyers are back in game action Thursday when they host the Blackhawks (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP).
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