The seconds were ticking down, and Travis Konecny thought he had just tipped in the game-winner.
Then the officials took an extra look. They deemed that Owen Tippett was a step ahead of the play and entered the offensive zone too early on that pivotal possession.
The Flyers were offside, the goal was taken back, and Wednesday night against superstar Connor McDavid and a struggling Edmonton Oilers team went into overtime at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Jack Roslovic scored the winner for the visitors a 1:19 into the extra frame, on a neutral-zone turnover and a quickly ensuing 2-on-0 that had goalie Dan Vladar caught in no-man’s land.
The Flyers lost, 2-1, still taking a point out of the contest, but dropping to 8-5-3 on the season.
Here’s how an up and down night played out…
Mich unleashed
Matvei Michkov has his legs again.
He was covering a lot of ice Wednesday night and getting after puck carriers, and you could tell just by his stride that he’s moving way more efficiently than he did at the start of the year – his knees are staying bent and he’s been laboring a lot less of late.
Michkov was moving well with the puck through the first period, and created a couple of decent looks for the Flyers’ energetic start, but then late into the second period, he broke through.
The Flyers went on their first power play of the night with a Jake Walman hook on Tippett.
Michkov’s unit got its setup established in the offensive zone, and after giving the puck to Cam York up by the point to take a scan, the defenseman fed it back to Michkov, who was given space along the wall by Edmonton’s penalty kill.
Michkov wheeled in around the top of the left faceoff circle, then rifled a shot to the right post just over Stuart Skinner’s glove for the power-play goal and a 1-1 tie.
Michkov had a slow start to the season, and by his own admission, an altered training regimen following his first year in the NHL and a struggle to focus out of the gate contributed to that.
But the 20-year-old has found a flow again.
Michkov now has a goal in each of his last three games and brought himself up to nine points through 16 games on the year.
The talented winger has star, face-of-the-franchise level potential, and the Flyers do believe he’ll reach it as a key part of their long-term future.
The hope now is that those early struggles and the prospect of a sophomore slump are falling behind him, and that he’ll start accelerating back toward his ceiling.
Because, for as much as the Flyers’ focus is still on tomorrow, a breakout from Michkov now can do a lot for a team that is playing much better today.
It just didn’t get them a win on Wednesday night.
Some jump through (most of) one
The Oilers came out wanting to play fast.
The Flyers were prepared to match.
Tippett made a clean zone entry and then a cut inside between Leon Draisaitl and Darnell Nurse to fire a shot that rang off the post; Matvei Michkov carried the puck up the ice and back into the zone, making his own move across to drop off a pass for Noah Juulsen to sneak in and take a healthy shot on; and even Cam York and Travis Sanheim jumped up from the defense to carry their own two-man rush to the Edmonton net, helped by a slick give-and-go pass from Travis Konecny through the neutral zone.
The Flyers had juice, were moving the puck pretty cleanly, and taking chances. That gave way to some good looks for McDavid and the Oilers, sure, but to the Flyers’ credit, they did well to keep their sticks in the way and on the puck…for a while, at least.
Energy did seem to taper off toward the end of the first, and that reflected in the 13-5 shot count in favor of Edmonton by the end of it.
So did McDavid wrapping around from behind the Philadelphia net to pick up a loose puck and set up Evan Bouchard with a clear shot in front while everyone in orange collapsed in.
Vladar, who was otherwise solid in goal through the opening period and for the whole game, couldn’t track that puck in time, allowing the Oilers to take a 1-0 lead.
The Flyers, meanwhile, would go into the intermission operating from behind, not irrecoverably so, but at a clear lack of shot volume and, as the period wore on, a noted struggle to generate effective scoring chances from inside.
It didn’t get much better in the second for a while. With about 7:30 left, they only had two shots all period that were relatively harmless, and were getting outshot 24-7 in total.
It wasn’t until the power play and Michkov’s ensuing goal a couple of minutes later that the Flyers finally started to break from it.
Back in the fray
Tyson Foerster returned from injury Wednesday night, and his line with Noah Cates and Bobby Brink was put back together.
And maybe to little surprise, they got back to being a key two-way line.
Cates as the center, especially, would play a major role in defending against McDavid, and past Edmonton’s first goal, he held up pretty well in doing so.
Toward the end of the second period in particular, Cates kept McDavid tied up against the boards while the Oilers’ superstar had the puck to suppress any last-second chances before the horn.
Cates did get tagged for a high stick on McDavid right off the draw to begin the third period, but just as important for the Flyers on Wednesday night was that their penalty kill held up and went a perfect 2-for-2 against the Oilers with a man-advantage.
Watch where you’re going
Vladar, once again, was stellar in net for the Flyers, cutting down angles with his big frame and keeping bounces and any chaos in front under control on the way to stopping 29 of 30 Edmonton shots through regulation.
He also got ran twice by the Oilers.
In the first period, Vladar reached out from the crease to cover a puck, and Curtis Lazar, charging in to try and pick it up, tripped over the goaltender and appeared to jam Vladar’s wrist in the process. Vladar got up, put his blocker back on, and stayed in.
Then in the third, Trent Frederic tried to chip at a pass to the inside, was short on space in front of the crease, and skated straight into Vladar, who was not happy after getting back up from the collision. None of his teammates were either.
A scrum broke out, Mattias Janmark, off to the side, drew Vladar’s ire and then a couple of jabs from Noah Juuslen.
Janmark got an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, Frederic got goaltender interference for the charge at the net, and Vladar a roughing minor after the pile-up.
The Flyers left it with a late power play. Nothing came of it.
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Nick Tricome
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