Following the Philadelphia Flyers’ 4-3 shootout win over the New York Islanders at Xfinity Mobile Arena Saturday afternoon, forward Trevor Zegras rightfully stood squarely in the spotlight after logging a pair of goals, an assist, and a shootout tally.
But goaltender Sam Ersson deserved some recognition as well, and Zegras wasted no time giving his goalie his flowers after the game.
“I mean, he made a couple crazy one-timer saves in overtime, and then obviously he finished it off in the shootout,” Zegras told Scott Hartnell on the bench after the game.
“We got two amazing goalies, and that was an awesome win for Erss.”
An awesome win indeed — and Ersson’s first of the season.
Ersson, after an atrocious 2024-25 campaign, entered the season battling with newcomer Dan Vladar for the starting role. But just a week into the season, it appeared he’d already been usurped by Vladar on the goalie depth chart. Vladar stood out in his first pair of starts with the Flyers, then proceeded to earn the starting nod in each of the club’s last three outings.
Well, Ersson finally got an opportunity to swing momentum back into his favor against the Islanders, and he made it count. He turned aside 23 of 26 Islanders shots on goal, and while his .885 save percentage may not jump off the page, his timely stops certainly did.
His biggest save of the day — one of the saves Zegras referred to — came just over a minute into overtime. Jonathan Drouin scooped up a loose puck near the Flyers blue line, skated past Cam York, and slid the rubber through the low slot to Bo Horvat for a dangerous one-timer opportunity. The whistle should have been blown the moment Drouin touched the puck due to a too-many-men penalty, but the officials opted to let play continue.
Good thing they did, because it gave Ersson an opportunity to pull off a highway robbery with his glove.
Funny enough, Ersson also robbed Drouin on a similar play near the midway point of the third period.
Horvat, after getting away with a holding penalty on Owen Tippett in the neutral zone, set up Drouin with a perfect centering feed off his backhand, only for Ersson to make a lunging blocker save on Drouin to keep the score knotted up at three goals apiece.
It’s safe to say Horvat and Drouin will be seeing Ersson in their nightmares for a while.
And if that wasn’t enough, Ersson sealed the win for the Flyers with a massive stop on Islanders winger Anthony Duclair in the third round of the shootout, improving his all-time shootout record to 9-3.
It’s unclear if Ersson’s performance will influence how Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet will approach choosing his starting goalie in the coming days. Still, there’s no doubt that Tocchet came away quite impressed with the 26-year-old Swede’s resilience since giving up starts to Vladar over the last week.
“I’m just a big fan of when guys, whether they’re not playing or things don’t go their way, his attitude was unreal all week. Practicing hard, he’s with [goaltending coach Kim Dillabaugh], and never complained,” Tocchet told the media after the game. “You’ve gotta give him credit. That was a hell of a save on Duclair at the end, so give him a lot of credit. Great attitude.”
With three games under his belt this season, Ersson has logged a 3.50 goals against average and a .861 save percentage — not exactly inspiring in comparison to Vladar’s stellar .932 save percentage and 1.81 GAA through five outings.
But even if Ersson may need to get comfortable in the backseat while Vladar takes the wheel, he’s taking it all in stride.
“I mean, he’s been playing unbelievable, obviously, so I think that’s what you want. You want to play the hottest guy, right? I think that’s the best thing for the team, and for me too. I think that kind of pushes me to try to get better every day,” Ersson told the media after the game.
“Obviously, I love competition, so it’s good.”