PHILADELPHIA, Frank Vatrano hit for a power play goal, shorthanded goal and even strength marker in a 7-4 win for the Anaheim Ducks over the Flyers on Saturday afternoon.
“Goal-scoring is a funny thing,” said Vatrano. “Sometimes they’ll go in, sometimes they don’t. You’re going to have ups and downs with goal-scoring. For them to go in early, it’s always good and you just roll with that. I’ve just got to keep taking it one game at a time.”
The Ducks built a 4-0 lead into the second period, and held off the Flyers for the win.
Ryan Strome scored 58 seconds into the opening frame for a 1-0 lead to Anaheim.
Lukas Dostal made 27 saves in the Anaheim win.
Vatrano then hit for the even strength goal in the first for a 2-0 lead.
“He’s a great skater, he’s got elite speed,” Ducks coach Greg Cronin said of Vatrano. “Then the next thing they say is his shot. The reliability part, the defensive side of it, that was one of the question marks about him, but we’ve had him really invested on the defensive side of the puck. He kills penalties, he’s been responsible defensively.
“It’s just like a human thing, there’s a value system players have to follow to be reliable in their roles. And I talked to him about: ‘Don’t worry about the skating and the scoring, that’ll come. I want you to really be focused on playing defense away from the puck.'”
He added his power play strike in the middle frame for a 3-0 advantage to the Ducks.
“I thought we had a good start,” Flyers coach John Tortorella said. “I thought their goalie made two or three good saves. We give them a free one when we fan on a pass, and they score on the power play and we’re chasing. I thought we were coming [and then down], coming [and then down]. We were just really disjointed as far as sustaining our energy.”
Adam Henrique then added a marker midway through the second period.
The Flyers put a two-goal rally together with strikes by Cam Atkinson and Travis Konecny to trim the deficit to 4-2 at 12:35.
“They jumped on us there right away,” Konecny said. “It’s upsetting because we had talked about it, and we gave them the momentum right away. I thought we gained it back, and then I turn that one over there at the start of the third on the [penalty kill] and gives it right back to them, and they score two quick ones and we’re out of it.”
Trevor Zegras scored with less than three minutes gone in the third to push the Ducks back in front, 5-2.
Anaheim extended the lead to 6-2 on a marker from Brett Leason at 3:14 of the third.
Konecny made it 6-3 at 9:51, but Vatrano hit for his hat trick at 11:12 for a 7-3 lead.
Joel Farabee scored for the Flyers with three minutes left in the game for the 7-4 final.
Samuel Ersson made 17 saves in the loss.
 
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