PHILADELPHIA – The NHL opened its 2020-21 with an early start in Philadelphia and the Flyers took advantage of a slower Pittsburgh Penguins squad in 6-3 win.
Mark Jankowski put the Penguins up at 5:12 of the first period off a scramble in the crease for the 1-0 lead.
Before the period was over, the Flyers replied with two power play goals for a 2-1 lead at the end of the first.
James Van Riemsdyk knotted the game at 1-1, and Nolan Patrick put the Flyers up 2-1.
“Just to have those guys in the room, their personalities, what they bring to our team, it definitely got our team up for this game,” Hayes said of Lindblom and Patrick. “[Oskar] battled thorough a lot last year, everyone knows his story. He worked really hard to get into shape. Those two guys are elite players in this league, and tonight they showed it.”
Patrick’s goal came with eight seconds left in the opening frame.
Carter Hart stopped 31 of 34 shots on goal for the win.
Game Highlights available here
Coming out of the first intermission, the Pens tied the game on Sidney Crosby ‘s goal early in the middle frame for a 2-2 score. The goal was unassisted.
After back forth play for most of the second period, Joel Farabee restored the Flyers’ lead with a goal with 66 seconds left in the period.
“I feel a lot more comfortable this year,” Farabee said. “I think we had some great additions to our team this year. I feel like we have four really good lines, all our [defensemen] are really strong. I think as a team we’re just feeling really good. I just happened to get a little lucky tonight with some bounces.”
Farabee had three assists for four points on the night.
The Pens opened the third period much they had in the first two periods, with an early goal. This time the strike came from Brandon Tanev who knotted the game up at 3-3.
“I thought there was a lot to like about our game tonight,” Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan said. “We had periods where we carried the play. The types of breakdowns that we had resulted in some high-quality scoring chances. We’ve got to do a better job of minimizing those catastrophic-type scenarios.”
The problem for the Pens was they could not hold serve and the Flyers ended the game with three unanswered goals.
Michael Raffl restored the lead with the eventual game-winner and Travis Konecny extended the lead to 5-3.
“It’s been pretty fun watching ‘Patty,'” Konecny said. “He’s in a really, really good spot right now. It’s just good to see him having fun again. … He’s working hard and he deserves to get rewarded there.”
Kevin Hayes added a goal at 12:34 of the third period for the final strike of the night and the 6-3 win.
Tristan Jarry took the loss on 19 saves,
“I think it’s just how the puck goes and the bounces,” Tanev said. “They weren’t going our way. I thought we played a great game. I thought we had a lot of great chances. We had some momentum at times. I think there was a couple breakdowns in our game, but I think as the group grows and we get better day by day, we try to eliminate those things from our game.”
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