The Philadelphia Flyers will not have to attend lengthy to attempt to precise revenge on Morgan Rielly and the Toronto Maple Leafs.
After shedding to Toronto within the finale of their six-game street journey, Philadelphia hosts the Maple Leafs on Tuesday.
The Flyers spent almost two weeks away from house, touring to the West Coast earlier than stopping in Toronto on the way in which again. They ended up going 2-3-1 on the trek, with the lone time beyond regulation loss coming in Sunday’s 3-2 defeat to the Maple Leafs.
Rielly scored the decisive tally on Sunday, taking a feed from Auston Matthews and beating Ivan Fedotov halfway by time beyond regulation.
“It feels good,” stated Rielly, who had not scored since Nov. 5. “I believed we performed properly inside the construction and it was an in depth recreation. Clearly we have been in a number of these just lately, which I feel is sweet, so to get the outcomes is sweet.”
Certainly, the Maple Leafs have performed 4 consecutive video games determined by two targets or fewer and have gained all 4. Matthew Knies and Oliver Ekman-Larsson additionally scored on Sunday, whereas Matthews registered two assists and Dennis Hildeby made 30 saves.
“I believed it was a gutsy win,” Toronto coach Craig Berube stated. “I believed that Philly is difficult to play towards. They’re fast, they’re quick, they play arduous and so they had legs, so it was a tough recreation for us.”
Tyson Foerster and Scott Laughton scored for the Flyers, whereas Rasmus Ristolainen registered a pair of assists.
Fedotov made 22 saves for Philadelphia, which continues to play with out beginning netminder Samuel Ersson (lower-body damage). In his absence, Flyers coach John Tortorella usually toggles between Fedotov and Aleksei Kolosov.
“Apart from the primary interval in pockets once we turned the puck over just a little bit, I believed it was certainly one of our higher video games taking part in ahead, checking time and area,” Tortorella stated. “I believed it was certainly one of our higher video games.”
To disclaim the Maple Leafs a fifth straight win, Philadelphia should punch again in a sequence just lately dominated by Toronto, which has gained 9 of the final 10 conferences.
In fact, that will not be straightforward towards a gifted Maple Leafs staff that sits on the prime of the Atlantic Division with 54 factors. The Flyers hope to at some point develop the kind of top-end expertise that Toronto at the moment has within the type of Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares.
All 4 of these gamers are averaging at the very least a degree a recreation for the Maple Leafs. The Flyers solely have one such participant in Travis Konecny (43 factors in 40 video games), though even Konecny has been restricted to 2 targets and no assists over the past 5 contests.
“One other good one towards a extremely expert staff,” Laughton stated of Tuesday’s conflict with Toronto. “We shut down the center of the ice for essentially the most half within the impartial zone and restricted their possibilities. They get the final one there, however we get them once more (in Philadelphia) and can attempt to do the identical factor and get another than them.”
–Subject Degree Media
