Travis Konecny scores in return, as Flyers snap three-game skid with a 6-3 win vs. Utah
Konecny, who missed 10 games with a lower-body injury, got on the board, as the Flyers scored more than four goals for the first time this season.
After a disastrous October, where the Flyers lost 12 of 15 games, the calendar flipped to November on Sunday.
With it came not just the return of veteran wingers Owen Tippett and Travis Konecny, but a motivated Flyers squad.
The Orange and Black held off the charging Utah Mammoth for a 6-3 win at Xfinity Mobile Arena, giving them three victories in nine games in South Philly. They scored more than four goals for the first time this year, helping to snap a three-game losing streak.
Matvei Michkov gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead just under 13 minutes into the first period on a broken play.
His linemates, Noah Cates and Porter Martone, forechecked the Utah defense deep in their end, forcing Nate Schmidt to play an ill-advised pass up the boards right to Michkov.
» READ MORE: Travis Konecny and Owen Tippett back in Flyers’ lineup vs. Utah Mammoth
Schmidt released Martone and went to Michkov near the top of the right circle, giving the Russian winger space to get the puck to Martone near the goal line. Cates, who had originally pressured Andrew Peeke in the left corner, charged to the net — creating that all-important triangle between the three forwards — where Martone’s centering pass, after deflecting off Michael Carcone’s stick, hit him in the torso.
The puck then went off Michkov body, dropped to the ice, and Michkov took a beat before burying it past the stretched Karel Vejmelka.
With his 10th goal of the season, Michkov is now tied for sixth in the NHL.
Michkov hit double digits in Game 16. He did not hit that mark until his 45th game last season and his 25th as a rookie. In the last 20 years, the only other Flyers to hit double digits in 16 games or fewer are Simon Gagné (14 games in 2008-09), Jeff Carter (15 in 2008-09), Travis Konecny (16 in 2023-24), and Sean Couturier (16 in 2017-18).
The Flyers’ lead didn’t last long as Dmitri Simashev tied it up 95 seconds later. Simashev, taken one spot before Michkov in the 2023 NHL draft, scored on a weird play as Vincent Trocheck dumped the puck in from the air. It spiked the ice and bounced away from Flyers defenseman Cam York, who tried to get his stick on it as Simashev knocked it in.
But less than six minutes into the middle frame, the Flyers found themselves back in the lead — and this time by two.
The line of Denver Barkey, Tyson Foerster, and Owen Tippett, who missed the past six games with an upper-body injury, got the puck deep in the Mammoth zone. They controlled play and allowed for a full five-man change while keeping Utah pinned, as forwards Trevor Zegras, Christian Dvorak, and Travis Konecny, who missed the past 10 games with a lower-body injury, took over.
They had some nice passing, including Zegras threading the needle to Jamie Drysdale at the point. The defenseman sent it over to Dvorak in the left circle, and he zinged it off the crossbar, but Drysdale kept the puck in and sent it down the boards to Konecny.
Konecny, who has led the Flyers in scoring for six of the past seven seasons, tried to center it to Dvorak but the puck went off the stick of Utah defenseman Artem Duda and in. The goal was Konecny’s first of the season.
Less than five minutes later, it was 3-1.
Dvorak got the puck to Zegras, going one-on-one with Duda; however, when he tried to pull the puck back, Duda, a teammate of Michkov’s at the 2021 IIHF U18 World Championship, knocked it into the right corner. Zegras fell awkwardly when he chased the puck, and while he was down along the boards, Konecny hit Duda into the forward’s head and neck.
As Zegras stayed down, the Flyers worked the puck to the point and across before Cates scored from the top of the left circle. Cates’ second goal of the season may have hit the stick of Simashev on the way, sending it past Vejmelka up high.
After the goal, his teammates realized that Zegras was hurt and went to check on him. Although Zegras went down the tunnel after the goal, he did return just as quickly.
In the third period, the Flyers kept rolling and less than six minutes into the final frame, they scored two more.
The line of Dvorak, Konecny, and Zegras forechecked and kept the puck deep with Travis Sanheim pinching in and getting it to his buddy, Konecny. Not skipping a beat, Konecny sent it quickly to Dvorak in the slot for his third of the season.
Then, Oliver Bonk, skating on the second pair with York, sent a slap shot from the right point past Vejmelka for his first of the season.
With four minutes to go, Mikhail Sergachev sent a blistering shot from the point past Dan Vladař on a Utah power play, and Logan Cooley cut the Flyers’ lead to two on a rebound from the right post to draw the Mammoth within two with under three minutes to play.
But Cole Knuble buried his first career empty-netter with 94 seconds to go to stop the comeback attempt and seal the Flyers’ fourth win of the season.
Breakaways
Simon Benoit, who had been a healthy scratch for the past three games, re-entered the lineup on the third pair with Nick Seeler. He dropped the gloves with Lawson Crouse in the third period, drawing an extra rough on the Mammoth forward.
Up next
The Flyers welcome back Bobby Brink to Xfinity Mobile Arena for the first time since he was traded in March when the Minnesota Wild come to South Philly on Tuesday (7 p.m., NBCSP).
