Flyers Lineup

Isaac Ratcliffe – Morgan Frost – Joel Farabee

Maxim Sushko – German Rubtsov – Pascal Laberge

Max Golod – Mikhail Vorobyev – David Kase

Matthew Strome – Mika Cyr – Egor Serdyuk

Egor Zamula – Philippe Myers

Mason Millman – Robert Michel

Wyatte Wylie – Sean Comrie

Josh Couturier

Felix Sandstrom – Kirill Ustimenko

Connor Bunnaman, Gerry Fitzgerald, Ben McCartney, Carsen Twarynski, David Drake

Mark Friedman (abdominal surgery)

Game Report

After the coaching staff put the Flyers’ rookies through their paces for a few days of practice in Voorhees, NJ, Wednesday night gave the young players a chance to shine for fans, coaches, and management at the 2019 Philadelphia Flyers Rookie Game.

Held at the PPL Center in Allentown, home of the AHL affiliate Lehigh Valley Phantoms, the Rookie Game once again pitted the Flyers against the New York Islanders. With a lower bowl full of fans, as well as mascots MeLVin and Gritty in attendance, it was the makings of an exciting evening for players and fans alike.

Perhaps it was the foggy air in the arena due to the high humidity from the 95-degree day outside the rink, or maybe it was just a case of nerves, but the energy level in this game was a bit lackluster throughout the night. There were flashes of competitiveness, but a lot of play felt sluggish.

Philadelphia netminder Felix Sandstrom had to be sharp early on as the Islanders spent more time in their offensive zone. Mikhail Vorobyev showed that he was ready to step up as well, battling double coverage along the boards in the corner.

Despite getting heavily outshot for most of the opening period, the Flyers were able to turn things around before the first intermission when German Rubtsov made no mistake on a perfect pass from Philippe Myers and sent a one-timer sailing past Linus Soderstrom from the circle.

Just about 30 seconds later, Sean Comrie gave Philadelphia a two-goal lead when Morgan Frost passed him the puck and Comrie flicked a quick wrister into the net.

It didn’t take long for these two teams to turn up the tension, with both sides taking two penalties in the first period. As the game progressed, the penalties would continue to pile up, particularly for the Flyers, and power play units started taking full advantage of their opportunities.

For Philly, Rubtsov came up big once again early in the second period when he deflected the puck past Soderstrom on the man advantage. But the Islanders weren’t sitting back easily, and they finally got a goal on the board with a power play goal of their own by Felix Bibeau.

Around the midway point in the game, both teams switched out goaltenders: Kirill Ustimenko came in for the Flyers and Jakub Skarek for the Islanders. Moments later Ustimenko saw his first shot of the game, which unfortunately made its way directly past him and into the net. New York had pulled to within one goal of the Flyers’ lead, but not for long. David Kase restored Philadelphia’s two-goal advantage before the teams went off for the second intermission.

The Islanders turned up the intensity to open the third period, tallying two goals in the first four minutes to tie the game at 4-4. That’s where the scoring stopped, sending the teams to a three-on-three overtime period.

Plenty of scoring opportunities presented themselves to the Flyers in OT, but they couldn’t get the puck into their opponent’s net. Quite a few pucks found the post or the crossbar, but both goaltenders stood tall to force a shootout. None of Frost, Rubtsov, or Joel Farabee were able to score in the shootout, so a goal by 2018 first-rounder Oliver Wahlstrom was all it took to hand the victory to the Islanders.

After the game our AHL Report team had the chance to speak with head coach Scott Gordon, as well as Frost, Farabee, Sandstrom, and Rubtsov. Listen to the full audio of those interviews in the player below.

Plus / Minus

▲  Felix Sandstrom, Philippe Myers, Mikhail Vorobyev, German Rubtsov, Joel Farabee

▼  Pascal Laberge, Egor Serdyuk