Brian Elliott blanks Sabres, 3-0, as Flyers gut out win despite losing Phil Myers and Morgan Frost to injuries

The Flyers, rebounding from a one-sided defeat the previous night, continued a remarkable, underpublicized streak Tuesday night.

And they did it with a shortened bench because of injuries to defenseman Phil Myers and center Morgan Frost.

They got outstanding goaltending from Brian Elliott and goals from Travis Konecny, Jake Voracek, and Kevin Hayes (empty-netter) as they outlasted the much-improved Buffalo Sabres, 3-0, at the Wells Fargo Center.

The Flyers (3-1), who dropped a 6-1 decision to Buffalo on Monday, have not lost consecutive home games in regulation since 2019 (March 31 and April 6). That’s a span of (gulp) nearly 22 months.

Elliott, 35, made 40 saves and notched his 41st career shutout.

Monday’s embarrassing loss “was not what we wanted as a team,” said Elliott, who relieved Carter Hart in that defeat, “and I thought the response was very good tonight.”

”The effort was definitely better tonight, and we didn’t panic; we just waited for our opportunities,” Konecny said. “And Moose stood on his head.”

There was a negative: The Flyers, who lost star center Sean Couturier (rib injury) in Game 2, continued to keep trainer Jim McCrossin busy. Myers missed the last two periods with an undisclosed injury after absorbing a hit from Jake McCabe, and Frost was injured late in the second period and did not return. Both will have MRIs Wednesday, coach Alain Vigneault said.

Konecny took an off-the-sideboards pass from Oskar Lindblom in full stride, went on a breakaway and cleverly slid a backhander through the legs of goalie Carter Hutton to give the Flyers a 1-0 lead with 2:09 left in the second period.

Voracek made it 2-0 by converting a Hayes pass with 6:17 remaining in the third.

Vigneault said the Flyers had their best “compete level” of the young season. “Overall, this was a game where we had to bounce back from last night, and I thought our group showed great character,” he said. “There’s no doubt we needed a great pushback and we got it.”

Frost, who had replaced the injured Couturier, was hit by defenseman Jake McCabe behind the net in the second period and went to the locker room. Frost appeared to be holding his left arm when he was knocked to the ice. Myers was also in the locker room, nursing an injury suffered in the opening period.

That left the Flyers with a thin bench when Konecny (six hits) scored his fourth goal of the young season.

Buffalo had a power play midway through the second, but Elliott made key stops on Rasmus Ristolainen, Jack Eichel, Taylor Hall, and Rasmus Dahlin.

Elliott and a five-on-three penalty kill enabled the Flyers to keep the game scoreless in the opening 20 minutes. The goalie’s two best first-period saves were on Jeff Skinner, stopping him from point-blank range with 5:37 left in the stanza, and then denying him on the rebound.

» READ MORE: Flyers’ Alain Vigneault: Two-game series this season will cause a ‘lot of passion and emotion’

Earlier in the first, Buffalo had a five-on-three for 59 seconds. The Sabres managed just one shot, and the Flyers got three clears during that span as Scott Laughton, Ivan Provorov, and Justin Braun did a lot of the heavy work.

Vigneault changed three of his four lines and all three defensive pairings before Myers’ injury. The biggest defensive change had Travis Sanheim joining Provorov (five blocks, three hits in 27:02) on the top pairing.

As for the line changes, Hayes (two points, five shots) centered Joel Farabee and Voracek; Nolan Patrick centered Lindblom and Konecny; and Frost centered James van Riemsdyk and Claude Giroux before his injury.

Hutton, a former Flyers farmhand, made his best save of the night with 17:27 left in the second, robbing van Riemsdyk as he tried to jam home a rebound and appeared to have a lot of net. That kept the game scoreless.

Hutton did not come out to start the third, perhaps feeling the effects of a collision with Provorov earlier in the game. He was replaced by Jonas Johansson, who had been on the taxi squad a few days ago.

Elliott had the most saves he had ever recorded in a shutout. His 40 saves were the most by a Flyer in a shutout since Steve Mason had 46 stops in a 1-0 shootout loss against the Islanders in 2014.

“He made some huge saves to keep it 0-0 and kept us in the game,” Giroux said. “He’s probably the reason we won tonight.”

After playing 31:24 in relief of Hart on Monday, Elliott made his first start of the season. His career numbers against Buffalo entering Tuesday: a 13-2-2 record with a 1.89 GAA and .937 save percentage.

The domination continued.

“I think we took a step forward,” said Lindblom, whose team was outshot, 40-30, “but there are a lot of things we can be better at.”