Flyers rally in 3rd period to beat Coyotes, win 4th straight

Flyers rally in 3rd period to beat Coyotes, win 4th straight originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Flyers picked up their fourth third-period comeback with a 5-3 win Monday night over the Coyotes at the Wells Fargo Center.

Scott Laughton scored the game-winner on a wraparound with 9:39 minutes left in the third period. He was excellent all night and played through some bruises.

“The intangible Laughts brings to us, it’s so important as far as the locker room is concerned,” head coach John Tortorella said. “And he gets rewarded. Keeps on playing. He’s a guy that has some minutes, doesn’t have minutes — he just keeps on staying about him and scores a really big goal. Kills a couple of big penalties for us. He’s an important guy that way.”

A little over four minutes before Laughton gave the Flyers the lead, Jamie Drysdale tied it at 3-3 by making a great play with his skating ability.

“He’s a special player,” Travis Konecny said. “The things he can do with his feet and the puck and create space for himself … and he’s still young. He’s going to grow and only get better.”

Konecny, Morgan Frost and Owen Tippett (empty-netter) also scored for the Flyers (29-19-6), who have won four straight after going into the extended break on a season-worst five-game skid.

Tortorella’s club went 3-0-0 on its three-game homestand. The Flyers entered the homestand 11-12-2 at the Wells Fargo Center. They really needed to start playing better at home and did so here.

The Flyers swept their two-game regular-season series with the Coyotes (23-24-4). They beat Arizona, 4-1, at Mullett Arena in December.

• The Flyers were not perfect Monday night but found a way.

“Torts came in between the second and third and just said, ‘I’ve got a good feeling about this one,'” Drysdale said. “I think it just motivates the group to go out and play to win.”

Tortorella said the Flyers know their identity. It’s a matter of showing it consistently.

“It’s the only question that I’ll have the rest of the year, is can we do it again?” Tortorella said at morning skate. “Are we going to be perfect? No, but we know how we have to play. I think that teaching’s done as far as the identity of our team and how we have to play. Can we continue to do it? Can we have our readiness mentally to do it again?

“We’ll have some bumps, we’re going to have some bumps. How do we get out of it and get back to consistently playing the right way? That’s what the story is for the 20-plus games left in the season.”

• Early in the second period, Frost showed a burst of speed to split the Coyotes’ coverage and draw a hooking penalty.

It resulted in a penalty shot and Frost scoring on a nice move to tie the game at 1-1.

“The thing I like about his game is he’s attacking the middle of the ice with the puck more,” Tortorella said at morning skate. “He used to be on the outside a lot. I think he’s taking people on, bringing pucks to the middle of the ice. You bring pucks to the middle of the ice, a lot of different things can happen.”

About a minute and a half later, Frost drew another penalty. But the Flyers’ power play opportunity was wiped out when Travis Sanheim was whistled for high sticking off the faceoff, putting the action at 4-on-4.

Back at 5-on-5 two minutes later, Arizona regained its lead at 2-1 thanks to Matias Maccelli.

Konecny answered at 4-on-4 off a feed from Laughton two minutes after the Coyotes’ goal.

But once again Arizona countered, this time with Alex Kerfoot on a mini breakaway for a 3-2 lead at second intermission.

“I don’t think it was a perfect game by any stretch of the imagination, the first two periods,” Frost said. “But I think we still had a really good feeling in the room coming into the third. I think we kind of talked about it, it just felt like one of those games that we knew we were going to come back and win. Good feeling going into the third. Even though there were still a couple of breakdowns, I thought we played pretty well in the third.”

• Samuel Ersson made 20 saves on 23 shots.

He made a sharp glove stop on Jason Zucker with over five and a half minutes to go to help seal the win.

In the second period, Maccelli’s goal came on a shot from below the goal line that went off Ersson’s back. On Kerfoot‘s goal, the Coyotes’ forward got behind the Flyers, who were not sharp in the neutral zone.

Coming out of the long break, Ersson has won all three of his starts while stopping 68 of 73 shots.

The 24-year-old went 0-4-0 with a 4.59 goals-against average and an .819 save percentage in the club’s final four games before the break.

Arizona netminder Karel Vejmelka converted 29 saves on 33 shots.

• Eight Flyers recorded a point. Konecny led the way with his goal and two assists.

• Tyson Foerster (lower body) and Rasmus Ristolainen (upper body) were both out with what the team called “minor” injuries. The Flyers hope to have the winger and defenseman back for Saturday’s 2024 Stadium Series.

Ristolainen participated at morning skate Monday. Foerster, though, was absent after taking a puck to his right foot late in the Flyers’ 3-2 win last Saturday over the Kraken.

Tortorella went with 11 forwards and seven defensemen against the Coyotes.

In the first period, Laughton had a scare when he blocked a shot on the penalty kill. He went into the tunnel briefly but was able to come back to test things out during a stoppage.

He was OK and then went on to have a two-point night.

“Get some ice on it and you find a way at this time of the year to get through it,” Laughton said. “It’s something that needs to happen at this time of the year. [Joel Farabee] has a big block at the end of the game, guys are sacrificing their body. That’s just part of the job.”

• Jakub Voracek was in attendance as the Flyers featured him on the Jumbotron during the second period.

The former Flyer has been sidelined long term after suffering a concussion in November 2022 while with the Blue Jackets. In March last season, Voracek was part of a trade that sent him to Arizona. He has remained on injured reserve with the Coyotes.

“Just a great human being and a guy that really cares about his teammates and would do anything for you,” Laughton said in December 2022. “For sure one of the best teammates I’ve had and a lifelong friend that I’ll have.”

• The Flyers are scheduled to practice Wednesday at 11 a.m. ET in Voorhees, New Jersey before heading to Toronto for a matchup Thursday with the Maple Leafs (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP).

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