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Takeaways: Tippett’s hat trick leads Flyers to huge 7-3 statement road victory over Colorado

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The Flyers took five of six points on a three-game road trip, defeating the best team in the National Hockey League on the road by a score of 7-3. The statement game — which featured an Owen Tippett hat trick and a 32-save performance from Sam Ersson — may not solidify the Flyers playoff chances, but it will prove the team is far from done.

The basics

First period: 15:02 – Owen Tippett (Denver Barkey, Cam York), 18:57 – Denver Barkey (Matvei Michkov, Owen Tippett) (PPG)
Second period: 7:17 – Parker Kelly (Zakhar Bardakov, Jack Ahcan), 10:29 – Victor Olofsson (Nathan MacKinnon, Martin Necas), 11:01 – Bobby Brink (Unassisted), 12:12 – Cale Makar (Nathan MacKinnon, Martin Necas)
Third period: 0:56 – Owen Tippett (Sean Couturier), 2:00 – Matvei Michkov (Emil Andrae, Garnet Hathaway), 10:24 – Owen Tippett (Unassisted) (SHG), 16:52 – Matvei Michkov (Travis Konecny) (ENG)
SOG: 20 (PHI) – 35 (COL)

Some takeaways

Third time’s a charm for Sam

Sam Ersson was getting his third consecutive start on this road trip. And while he deserved to have two victories in Utah and Vegas, that didn’t end up being the case. Ersson was put to the test right off the bat on an Avalanche power play when he made two key stops early. He kept Philadelphia in the game in the opening period with a career-high 17 stops in the opening 20 minutes. There were a lot of strong stops, though none topped the glove save he made roughly eight minutes in as Colorado kept coming with the Flyers looking lost as they were being outshot 9-1. Ersson was showing some mental toughness, keeping the Flyers in it until they woke up. The period had to be huge for the Swedish goaltender’s confidence, as it seemed conceivable that Ersson hadn’t made 17 saves combined in the final two months of last season.

While there was speculation Dan Vladar might be taken off injured reserve and get the start, Ersson was stellar. The goalie allowed three goals in the second, but none of them could be blamed squarely on the netminder. In the third, Ersson was terrific on Colorado’s second power play of the period. With Denver Barkey in the box, the goaltender stood tall with some excellent saves in the first minute of the Avalanche power play. Ersson also ensured the Flyers were in great shape, maintaining their three-goal lead down the stretch with a lovely stop on Cale Makar.

Tippett rips it…thrice

Owen Tippett continues to play quite well. And after a rather dominating first period by Colorado, it was the Flyers who opened the scoring with a great snipe against Colorado’s Mackenzie Blackwood. It was the sixteenth of the year for Tippett who has shown a better skill set in his tool box in recent weeks.

The Flyers didn’t have much momentum after the goal. They did get their first power play when MacKinnon took a penalty in the offensive zone. It wasn’t a smart play, and Philadelphia capitalized on the power play. Yes, you read that correctly. Philadelphia set up a great play when Matvei Michkov fed Barkey in front, beating Blackwood on the blocker side to take a rather surprising 2-0 lead. The goal was the third power play goal for Philadelphia of late, certainly a small bright spot but one that might be extremely handy down the stretch.

Early in the third, after blowing two different leads, Philadelphia took the lead. Owen Tippett buried a shot by Blackwood which was a lovely snipe on his glove side.

The dagger in Colorado’s hopes was delivered courtesy of Tippett with a short-handed goal. Tippett went full bore up the ice and beat Blackwood through the pads for a huge 6-3 lead with less than 10 minutes to go.

Tippett’s second career hat trick and a four-point night could not have come at a better time.

Undisciplined to start

Flyers winger Travis Konecny wasted no time doing something dumb. This time it was on Philadelphia’s opening shift and taking a hooking penalty. While Colorado has a great team, their power play for some reason just isn’t clicking. But why give Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar any more of an advantage than needed? The Flyers had a chance to clear but Christian Dvorak failed. A few good Ersson saves atoned for Konecny’s error.

Minutes later, Noah Cates took an interference penalty which might have looked questionable but was called. Philadelphia keeps playing with fire, yet on this second penalty kill they were again effective. Konecny nearly redeemed himself later in the first when he was able to redirect the puck to Dvorak who was at the back door. Unfortunately the shot hit the iron and not the twine. If there was any saving grace it was that the Flyers appeared to wake up from their early stupor.

The Flyers kept their noses clean for much of the rest of the game up until the third period. A dangerous trip by Emil Andrae on Zakhar Bardakov put Colorado again on the power play but Philadelphia had the majority of the great chances.

Barkey bites

Philadelphia had a strong close to the first period, with Denver Barkey being clutch with an assist and a power play goal. Barkey continues to impress on the line with Owen Tippett and Sean Couturier, being one of the most impressive play-driving trios in the league. Besides, with a name like Denver, it would be apt he gets on the scoreboard in Colorado. Perhaps his best shift was early in the second on the power play. Although Michkov and Noah Cates were causing a bit of havoc in front, it was Barkey and Tippett who were creating something out of nothing with some great stickhandling and passing between them.

Barkey hasn’t been up for a lot of games, yet the synergy he’s developed with both Tippett and Couturier is exciting. He can create offense for Tippett and himself while also being quite responsible on the other side of the puck, assisting a veteran like Couturier. Couturier was the beneficiary of a great pass from Barkey behind the net. But Couturier made just an awful pass out front which Colorado grabbed, went up ice, and tied things up. Ersson had no chance on the goal.

However, the Flyers answered that game-tying goal in a huge way. Bobby Brink was on an odd-man rush but didn’t initially score. Seconds later he did, giving the Flyers a quick response and a 3-2 lead.

Through 40 minutes, Brink was the only Flyers skater north of 50 percent in terms of Corsi For percentage at 57.14. On the other side of the metrics coin, nine Flyers skaters were under 30 percent by the same statistic. It was a rather damning indication just how well Colorado was playing. And how fortunate the team was being in a tied game through 40 minutes.

The only flaw in Barkey’s game on this night was taking a penalty midway through the third but the Flyers killed it off relatively well.

Turnover costly

The Flyers looked to have tightened up defensively in the middle period, which was necessary against the best team in the league and with the long change staring them in the face. Philadelphia looked far calmer and collected in the second. But a bad Christian Dvorak turnover resulted in Colorado’s opening goal courtesy of Parker Kelly. Kelly, a fourth-line center, managed to lift the puck over a sprawling Ersson to cut the deficit in half.

In the initial moments after the goal, Philadelphia began to move backwards in their own zone, forming a barricade around Ersson. It didn’t seem logical they could survive a shooting gallery for 31 minutes. The Avs nearly tied it halfway through the game, but flubbed on an excellent chance.

A bit of Michkov magic

Philadelphia added an insurance goal soon after Tippet’s second when Matvei Michkov perfectly deflected a shot over Blackwood for a 5-3 lead.

The goal made it a two-point game for Michkov, and his first multi-point game since Dec. 30 when Philadelphia doubled the Canucks 6-3 and he earned a pair of assists. The Flyers ended their scoring for the night when Travis Konecny fed Michkov with a pass for his second goal of the night, this one an empty-netter. A huge three-point night on what was a night of huge positives. So much so Rick Tocchet was left grinning on the bench!

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