FINAL (OT) | Round 2 – Game 2 | Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Series Tied 1-1

Flyers Lineup

Claude Giroux – Sean Couturier – Jakub Voracek

Joel Farabee – Kevin Hayes – Travis Konecny

James van Riemsdyk – Derek Grant – Nicolas Aube-Kubel

Michael Raffl – Nate Thompson – Tyler Pitlick

Ivan Provorov – Matt Niskanen

Travis Sanheim – Philippe Myers

Robert Hagg – Justin Braun

Carter Hart – Brian Elliott

Andy Welinski, Andy Andreoff, Morgan Frost, Egor Zamula, Mark Friedman, Connor Bunnaman, Alex Lyon, Kirill Ustimenko, Oskar Lindblom, Shayne Gostisbehere, Scott Laughton

None

Game Report

Everyone from head coach Alain Vigneault to captain Claude Giroux admitted that the first game in this series against the New York Islanders was nowhere near good enough. If the Philadelphia Flyers were going to gain any traction moving forward, they would need their big names to step up, finally, and get things going.

And that’s what they showed right out of the gates in this second game. Although the Islanders went right back to keeping the Flyers hemmed into their own zone for the opening couple of minutes, Carter Hart made one or two key saves, and Philadelphia didn’t allow the New York puck control to continue.

Kevin Hayes opened the scoring with a sharp bar-down goal on Semyon Varlamov, then proceeded to do it again after Philippe Myers set up a good three-on-two rush for the Flyers. Hayes managed to skate the bouncing puck around a defender and found the back of the net, short side, again.

From that point, you could see the Philly bench breathe a bit more, while Giroux and Sean Couturier began to look more like the regular season versions of themselves. Couturier stick-handled around Nick Leddy, patiently took the puck across the net, and put it into the Islanders net for a 3-0 Flyers lead. Before the first intermission, Varlamov found himself on the bench and Thomas Greiss taking his spot between the pipes.

The second period allowed Philadelphia to maintain their lead, but the Islanders did manage to cut into it. The Flyers have had decent work while on the penalty kill in the return to play, but with Voracek in the box for delay of game, Mathew Barzal fired a centering shot to Anders Lee who was waiting on the doorstep to deflect the puck past Hart.

After that goal, Philly seemed to deflate a bit and revert to chasing the play, while the Islanders picked up some much-needed momentum. With just 36 seconds left in the middle frame, Couturier found himself on the receiving end of a slashing penalty and Philadelphia went down a man once again.

With the Islanders’ pressure not relenting one bit in the third period, the Flyers could not find their footing again. They looked on their heels for the bulk of the third, allowing goals by Anthony Beauvillier and Jean-Gabriel Pageau to tie things and force overtime.

But the Flyers would not let adversity get the best of them this time. Not long into the overtime period, Couturier set up Myers for a blast from the point that made its way through traffic and past Greiss for the game-winner.

Not much time for the orange and black to celebrate tying the series, however, as they take on the Islanders in game three tomorrow night.

Plus / Minus

▲  Kevin Hayes, Philippe Myers, Sean Couturier

▼  James van Riemsdyk, Derek Grant