Ersson, Flyers pick up consecutive wins for first time this season originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The Flyers had another grind-it-out win Thursday night with a 2-1 decision over the Blues at the Wells Fargo Center.
Bobby Brink scored the game-winning goal with 3:01 minutes left in the third period. Samuel Ersson delivered the goods in net on Halloween. He made an excellent save on a redirection with 20.2 seconds remaining.
“You know he’s going to show up for every game, he’s going to make some huge saves for us and keep us in every game,” Nick Seeler said. “That’s a goalie you want to play in front of.”
Noah Cates followed up Ersson’s save with a big blocked shot 10 seconds later to help seal the win.
Garnet Hathaway netted the game-opening goal in the first period after Ryan Poehling made an electric play up ice.
The Flyers (4-6-1) won consecutive games for the first time this season. After giving up four or more goals in seven of their first nine games, the Flyers have yielded only one over these two straight wins. They were able to build on the 2-0 blanking of the Bruins from Tuesday night.
“It’s something I’d like to see happen for us, to play two or three in a row,” head coach John Tortorella said at morning skate. “Then it starts being instinctive, how we play. I think we showed more of our identity against Boston, what our standard of play is and the style of play, minus still some struggling offensively. But you need to put two or three in a row, so that’s the concentration, that’s what our meeting was about this morning.”
Following a six-game losing streak, the Flyers have won three of their last four games to stabilize a bit.
“We know what made us successful last year and it was kind of playing the way we did these last two,” Brink said. “I think we’re getting back to it and it has led to a couple of wins here.”
Tortorella’s club sees the Blues (5-6-0) again in a month when it visits St. Louis at the end of November.
“We’re just trying to play within our structure,” Tortorella said, “and hopefully our offense will start to come.”
• Coming off a 25-save shutout over the Bruins, Ersson denied 20 of 21 shots against the Blues.
“You can kind of sense it, when we’re blocking shots, when we’re doing the small things right, you can kind of feel it on the bench and on the ice that we’re rolling,” the 25-year-old said. “I think that gives us confidence and we know that we’re a very good team when we play like this.”
St. Louis finally cracked Ersson midway through the third period when Nathan Walker buried a rebound.
Aleksei Kolosov backed up Ersson for the second straight game. At morning skate, Tortorella confirmed that the Flyers are rolling with the 22-year-old right now as their No. 2. Ivan Fedotov, the third goalie on the club’s roster, has been a healthy scratch the last three games after giving up 14 goals over three starts.
“Ivan had some games, we weren’t happy with his game,” the head coach said. “We’re going to look at Kolosov. To me, that’s how I feel about it. I’m not sure where it all goes as the grand plan, as we keep on going here, because we also have to think about Feds, too, to get him some time.”
St. Louis netminder Jordan Binnington stopped 19 of the Flyers’ 21 shots.
• Poehling put the Flyers’ offense on his back midway through the first period when he went coast to coast, dangling through the Blues with a slew of moves to set up Hathaway’s goal.
Highlight-reel stuff from the 25-year-old center.
“Coach always tells me to trust my legs and making plays, I think that’s the biggest thing,” Poehling said. “Just skating through the zone and creating space for myself and then just beating guys up the ice. Hath made a great play, too, recognizing that he could beat his guy up the ice.”
• Seeler used his left hand to block a shot in the first period. His effort was applauded by fans as he got back up to his feet and skated off in pain. The defenseman was animated when he arrived to the bench.
How was the hand postgame?
“Sore,” Seeler said with a smile.
The Flyers have fought it offensively, but they’ve defended like a Tortorella team the last two games.
“When our structure’s good, we’re usually playing pretty well,” Seeler said. “That’s the way we have to play to succeed in this league. We’re not going to out-skill most teams; we have to outwork them.”
• Matvei Michkov went scoreless for a third straight game. He looked tired Thursday night and not like his usual, puck-hunting self. Just seemed off.
The 19-year-old rookie still has nine points (four goals, five assists) through 11 games.
“He’s a great kid, he wants to do so well,” Tortorella said. “But it’s a lot, it’s a lot for him.”
• The Flyers practice Friday in Voorhees, New Jersey before hosting the Bruins on Saturday (1 p.m. ET/NBCSP).
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