Elliott stops 40, Konecny scores as Flyers beat Sabres
The Flyers won another game thanks largely to veteran goaltender Brian Elliott, and they lost a couple more players Tuesday night.
Elliott was unsolvable in a 3-0 triumph over the Buffalo Sabres, giving the Flyers a split in the two-game series and a 3-1 record heading into a two-game road trip to Boston. It was the 41st career shutout for the 35-yearold Elliott.
“That’s the benefit of having two solid goalies,” said Travis Konecny, who tallied what proved to the game-winning goal with 2:09 left in the second period. “We knew that the effort wasn’t there yesterday for the team and we know that “Moose” competes when he’s in there, and he’s going to give us a chance. He did exactly what we thought and it kept us in the game.
“Moose just stood on his head tonight and kind of kept us in there and gave us the chances to capitalize later in the game.”
Konecny gathered in a cross-ice pass from Oskar Lindblom, deked right and backhanded a shot under sprawling Sabres goalie Carter Hutton to break the scoreless tie.
It was the Flyers’ first lead of the two-game series with the Sabres, who had shut them out in four of the previous five periods. It also was the fourth goal in four games for Konecny, who was tied for the league lead with three goals entering the evening.
“I had talked to our goalie coach and he gave me a few tips on what this guy was doing yesterday and some things that might help me out if I got a one-on-one with him,” Konecny said of Hutton. The Sabres netminder didn’t come out for the third period, having been shaken up in a second-period collision with Ivan Provorov.
With 6:17 left, Jake Voracek one-timed a pass from Kevin Hayes past Johansson to ice it. Hayes provided an empty netter with 1:39 left.
The bad news for the Flyers is playing on without the services of forward Morgan Frost, who exited in the first period and defenseman Phil Myers, shaken up in the second period. Head coach Alain Vigneault said both were slated for MRIs on Wednesday. The Flyers already are without center Sean Couturier (rib cartilage) for two weeks.
“We’ll know more tomorrow,” Vigneault said. “As far as Brian, there’s no doubt that he was a big part of tonight’s win. He made some big saves at the right time and at the end of the day I thought the guys in front of him, this was in my estimation our best compete. We weren’t perfect out there and they obviously had some good looks. But as far as us competing and working hard and trying to play the right way, this was our best game so far this year. Now we have to continue to get better.”
Vigneault was happy with the Flyers’ hustle, particularly keeping pucks in the zone on the forecheck.
James van Riemsdyk brought energy, although it didn’t show up on the stat sheet.
“JVR showed the way,” Vigneault said. “He was intense. He was physical. He did a lot of things that I notice and my coaching staff noticed. Overall this was a game that we had to bounce back from our performance (Monday). I thought our group showed some good character and we found a way to win against a good team.”