Led by another stellar performance in net from Samuel Ersson, the Philadelphia Flyers posted back-to-back wins for the first time in the 2024-25 season. Their 2-1 win over the St. Louis Blues is their third win in four games after starting 1-5-1. The Blues, who started their season 5-3-0, lost their third straight game in regulation.

After allowing a combined 13 goals in losses to the Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators, the Blues tightened their defense but couldn’t get past Ersson, who nearly pitched his second straight shutout after shutting out the Boston Bruins in a 2-0 win. on Tuesday. before the Blues tied the game midway through the third. The Flyers, who took a 1-0 lead at 11:12 of the game on Garnet Hathaway’s first goal of the season, responded late in the third when Bobby Brink finished a magnificent give-and-take with Joel Farabee, who remained the winner of the game.

Game summary

The Flyers started off a little sloppy, with a difficult first shot from the top line causing a sharp reduction in Matvei Michkov’s ice time. The rookie turned a puck into the wall and played just 2:53 in the first period, the lowest total of all Flyers forwards, as Owen Tippett and Joel Farabee got some looks on the top line in Michkov’s place.

Philadelphia broke through with a magnificent effort to Ryan Pohling. The speedy center gained the blue line with a burst and split Scott Perunovich and Matthew Kessel before slipping a backdoor pass for Garnet Hathaway to charge. Nick Seeler, who earned a standing ovation from the crowd late in the period for a painful shot block to survive a dangerous d-zone sequence, received the secondary assist.

St. Louis threatened early in the second period, hitting the crossbar twice and taking a penalty within the first three minutes of the frame. Although the Blues were unable to capitalize, they tightly controlled the game for most of the period before the Flyers began to settle in. Travis Konecny ​​in particular found himself with a couple of dangerous chances, but Sam Ersson and Jordan Binnington continued to make saves. stop-stop, with the score remaining 1-0 after 40 minutes.

The Flyers played well early in the third period, but conceded the tie midway through. An angled shot from Philip Broberg hit Nathan Walker fresh off the bench, who fired the puck into an empty net for his first goal of the season and first of the night for the Blues. It broke a scoreless streak of nearly 120 minutes for Ersson, dating back to the third period of Saturday’s game against the Minnesota Wild. Broberg’s assist was his ninth point in 11 games this season, moving him into a tie for the league’s top 10 scoring defensemen.

But with just over three minutes left, Jordan Kyrou opened the door with an unforced turnover just outside the Blues’ zone. Philadelphia’s third line of Scott Laughton, Farabee and Brink turned into a slick counterattack, with Brink burying a Farabee pass to restore the Flyers’ lead with 3:01 left. A tight defensive effort by John Tortorella’s club led the Flyers across the finish line. Ersson’s 21st and final save may have been his best, as he stoned Brayden Schenn on a dangerous deflection with just 20 seconds left.

Philadelphia ends a four-of-five home streak Saturday afternoon with a rematch against Boston after its aforementioned 2-0 win at TD Garden on Tuesday. The Blues have completed their four-game road trip and will return home to host their former coach, Craig Berube, and the Toronto Maple Leafs. It will be Berube’s first time in St. Louis since the Blues fired him last December after he led the team to its first Stanley Cup in 2019. The Blues’ only win on their trip came in Toronto last Thursday for a 5-1 final.