Flyers win 3rd straight as Michkov, Konecny put up multi-point games originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The Flyers matched their season-best winning streak of three games with a 2-1 decision Monday night over the Predators at the Wells Fargo Center.
Ryan Poehling and Jamie Drysdale provided the Flyers’ markers. Poehling has seven goals in the last 10 games.
Matvei Michkov and Travis Konecny had two assists apiece. Konecny is one helper away from 50.
“They’re certainly looking for one another,” Brad Shaw said. “I think they are feeding off one another’s success.”
Ivan Fedotov did the job in net.
“Great win for us,” Fedotov said. “Everybody played well, stayed with the structure.”
The Flyers (31-36-9) are 3-0-0 under Shaw. They’ve scored 15 goals over his three games as interim head coach.
It’s the fifth time the Flyers have won three straight this season. They haven’t won more than three straight since Feb. 6-12 of last season, when they won four in a row.
The Flyers swept the two-game regular-season series from the Predators (27-39-8). They picked up a 3-2 overtime win in Nashville, Tennessee on the eve of Thanksgiving. Two of the Flyers’ three goal scorers that night were not in the lineup for the rematch because of trades.
• Michkov’s surge continued.
The 20-year-old rookie played an excellent two-man game with Konecny to set up Poehling’s game-opening goal in the second period.
“Those are two guys that have so much offensive skill and you saw them showcase it there,” Poehling said. “For me, it was weird, it came off a backcheck, I was just trying to get in an open spot and T.K. made a great play.”
Thirty-four seconds after the Predators tied it up, Michkov and Konecny assisted Drysdale’s go-ahead goal.
Over the last 21 games, Michkov has put up 24 points (10 goals, 14 assists). He’s on a six-game point streak in which he has recorded 11 points (four goals, seven assists). He’s two points away from 60 on the season and leads all NHL rookies with 24 goals.
“It’s the end of a season and there’s a long, long break,” Michkov said through translator Slava Kuznetsov, a Flyers consultant. “I’m trying to get every single moment, seize every single moment on the ice.”
• Fedotov converted 28 saves on 29 shots to pick up his first win since March 1.
The 28-year-old made some big stops in the third period.
“I thought he battled,” Shaw said. “Coming off a couple of tough ones for him, I thought he worked to see the puck.”
Poehling had a big blocked shot with 21 seconds left in the game as the Flyers had a gritty finish to nail down the one-goal lead.
“I think that just shows the group we have here,” Konecny said. “No matter what we’re facing as far as the standings and where we’re at, guys just can’t help themselves. They want to win games and that’s why we love this group.”
Nashville backup Justus Annunen stopped 16 of the Flyers’ 18 shots.
• The Flyers’ top defensive pair of Travis Sanheim and Nick Seeler was real solid for a second straight game.
Seeler was great defensively in the final minutes.
“I think there’s a chemistry that has to be built with a pair,” Shaw said. “I like how hard they compete. Seels, there’s never a question on how hard he works. Sanny, I thought for a guy who has played a ton of minutes the last month, I thought he was fantastic tonight. I thought it was one of the better games I’ve seen him play in the month of March and that’s not an easy thing to do with what we’ve asked from him and everything he has done this year already.”
• Garnet Hathaway returned from an upper-body injury to notch his 600th career NHL game.
The 33-year-old winger had missed almost all of March after taking a blindsided hit at the end of February. More on Hathaway and Rasmus Ristolainen’s status here.
• Karsen Dorwart, who the Flyers signed out of Michigan State, is expected to join the team for practice Wednesday. Shaw said the 22-year-old center will probably be in the lineup for the Flyers’ next game Saturday.
The 6-foot-1, 195-pounder will wear No. 23 when he makes his NHL debut.
“We need depth at center,” Shaw said after morning skate, “and hopefully he can be one of those solutions for us.”
The club has six games left.
“Hopefully he can get in the majority of them and get his feet wet,” Shaw said. “Then when training camp comes around, he has got a way better idea of what this league is all about.”
• The Flyers now have four days before their next game Saturday when they visit the Canadiens (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP).
They’re scheduled to practice Wednesday and Friday at 11 a.m. ET in Voorhees, New Jersey.
