Pair of Konecny, JVR trump Kings
PHILADELPHIA >> Travis Konecny scored a pair of goals and James van Riemsdyk added a goal and two assists to lead the Flyers to a 4-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night at Wells Fargo Center.
Joel Farabee also scored and Brian Elliott made 34 saves for the Flyers, who improved to 16-4-4 at home.
Elliott is playing in place of No. 1 netminder Carter Hart, recovering from a right lower abdominal strain. Hart missed his third game and expects to be out for two to three weeks.
Dustin Brown scored for Los Angeles, which enters a much-needed 10-day break after losing its fourth in a row and seventh in eight games. The Kings are in the cellar in the Western Conference and tied for the third-fewest points in the league with 41. They ended a five-game road trip 1-3-1.
The Flyers went ahead 3-0 with a pair of secondperiod tallies.
Konecny notched his second of the game and 17th of the season early in the period when he fired a hard wrist shot from the front of the crease past Jack Campbell’s glove side. Van Riemsdyk put a perfect pass on Konecny’s stick from behind the net.
Farabee recorded his fifth of the season, getting some good fortune when Matt Niskanen’s slap shot from the point deflected off his skate and past Campbell for a power-play goal with 7:52 left in the period.
The teams traded goals in the third period, with van Riemsdyk scoring on a deflection with 11:41 remaining. Three minutes earlier, Brown put the Kings on the board by going high over Elliott’s blocker side after beating Niskanen down the wing.
Brown, who has spent his entire career with the
Kings, now has scored against every team in the NHL.
Konecny put the Flyers on the board 3:48 into the contest when he finished a 2-on-1 with a one-timer from the slot after being set up nicely by van Riemsdyk.
“He makes these nifty (passes) all the time and whenever we score is the only time we talk about them,” Konecny said of JVR. “He’s got great vision and he sees the ice. He sees things other guys don’t, so you’ve just got to get open.”
The Kings dropped to 0-19-1 when trailing after the first period, remaining the only team in the NHL not to have come back from a first-period deficit.
The Flyers played their seventh game in 12 days. They host the Penguins on Tuesday.
NOTES >> Flyers defenseman Justin Braun (lower body) returned after missing six straight contests . ... Los Angeles center Blake Lizotte (lower body) sat for the fifth consecutive game. ... The teams split the twogame season series. Los Angeles won at home 5-3 on Dec. 31. Elliott was pulled after the first period in that contest after allowing four goals on 15 shots . ... Claude Giroux had a pair of assists in the game.