Ersson’s efforts, late goals lead Flyers to Halloween win over Blues – The Hockey Writers – Philadelphia Flyers

Led by another stellar performance in net from Samuel Ersson, the Philadelphia Flyers recorded back-to-back wins for the first time in the 2024-2025 season. Their 2-1 win over the St. Louis Blues is their third win in four games after a 1-5-1 start. The Blues, who started their season 5-3-0, lost their third straight regular-season game.

After allowing 13 combined goals in losses to the Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators, the Blues tightened things up defensively but couldn’t break through on Ersson, who nearly pitched his second straight shutout after blanking the Boston Bruins on Tuesday in a 2-0 win. before the Blues tied the game midway through the third. The Flyers, who took a 1-0 lead at 11:12 into the game on Garnet Hathaway’s first goal of the season, responded in the final minutes of the third when Bobby Brink finished off a beautiful give-and-go with Joel Farabee, that stand ended as the game winner.

Summary of the game

The Flyers started off a bit sloppily, with a difficult first shot from the top line leading to a sharp reduction in Matvei Michkov’s ice time. The rookie turned a puck over on the wall and played just 2:53 in the first period, the lowest total of any Flyers forward, as Owen Tippett and Joel Farabee got some looks on the top line in place of Michkov.

Philadelphia broke through with a brilliant effort from Ryan Poehling. The speedy center reached the blue line with a burst, splitting Scott Perunovich and Matthew Kessel before slipping a backdoor pass for Garnet Hathaway to ram home. Nick Seeler, who earned an ovation from the crowd late in the period for a painful shot block to survive a dangerous d-zone sequence, picked up the secondary assist.

St. Louis threatened early in the second period, hitting the crossbar twice and scoring a penalty within the first three minutes. Although the Blues failed to capitalize, they controlled the game heavily for most of the period before the Flyers began to settle down. Travis Konecny ​​in particular had a few dangerous chances, but Sam Ersson and Jordan Binnington continued to make saves. for-save, where the score remains 1-0 after 40 minutes.

The Flyers played well out of the gate in the third period, but gave up the tying goal midway through. A corner shot from Philip Broberg fell to Nathan Walker, fresh off the bench, who fired the puck into an empty net for his first goal of the season and the first of the night for the Blues. It snapped a nearly 120-minute shutout streak for Ersson, dating back to the third period of Saturday’s game against the Minnesota Wild. Broberg’s assist was his ninth point in 11 games this season, putting him level among the league’s 10 highest-scoring defenders.

But with just over three minutes left, Jordan Kyrou opened the door with an unforced turnover just outside the Blues zone. Philadelphia’s third line of Scott Laughton, Farabee and Brink turned into a slick counterattack, with Brink burying a Farabee feed to restore the Flyers’ lead with 3:01 remaining. A defensive effort from John Tortorella’s club got the Flyers over the finish line. Ersson’s 21st and final save was perhaps his best, as he stoned Brayden Schenn on a dangerous deflection with just 20 seconds to play.

Philadelphia concludes a run of four of five home games Saturday afternoon with a rematch against Boston after the aforementioned 2-0 win at TD Garden on Tuesday. The Blues have completed their four-game road trip and return home to host their former coach, Craig Berube, and the Toronto Maple Leafs. It will be Berube’s first time in St. Louis since the Blues fired him last December after he led the team to its first Stanley Cup in 2019. The Blues’ only win on their trip came last Thursday in Toronto with a 5-1 final.