Flyers kick off Western road trip with 4-1 win over Vancouver Canucks

VANCOUVER — After four days off for the NHL’s holiday break, it took some time for the Flyers to find their legs. But when they did, they were flying.

One of the NHL’s best road teams, the Orange and Black moved to 11-4-3 away from the friendly confines of Wells Fargo Center thanks to a 4-1 win against the Vancouver Canucks.

But the win came with a price. Sam Ersson, who had allowed just one goal on 19 shots, had to leave 2 minutes and 36 seconds into the third period due to dehydration. Carter Hart came in and made eight saves in relief.

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Travis Konecny was also missing from the bench in the third period. Flyers coach John Tortorella said postgame that Konecny left due to illness.

Egor Zamula kickstarted the goal-scoring party with a power play goal. Sitting on the point on a reconfigured second power-play unit, the Flyers’ “Big Z” was given the direction to shoot the puck — and he did just that. His second goal of the season made its way through several players, including Cam Atkinson and Joel Farabee.

Just 81 seconds later, the Flyers doubled things up off the rush. Konecny carried the puck down the ice and, although his pass to Owen Tippett was just ahead of the speedy winger, Tippett swiped it over to Sean Walker who was streaking down the right wing. The defenseman was not picked up until late and buried the puck from the right circle for his fourth of the season.

Farabee may have taken two bad penalties, one each in the first two periods, but he made up for them with a goal 45 seconds after Walker to give the Flyers a much-needed insurance goal. After Bobby Brink stood up to Canucks defenseman Nikita Zadorov — a guy who has about nine inches of height on Brink — in the neutral zone and forced a turnover, Farabee got the puck and made a nifty move before finishing with a tuck around the stretched out right pad of Casey DeSmith.

The Canucks cut into the 3-0 lead just 25 seconds into the third period after the puck was knocked away from Konecny in the Canucks zone and Dakota Joshua drove around Travis Sanheim before finding the trailing Teddy Blueger. Konecny played one more shift after and did not play again in the game.

Garnet Hathaway buried his own rebound shorthanded to keep the Flyers power kill rolling after Ryan Poehling outraced the equally speedy Quinn Hughes.

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Noah Cates skated with the team at the morning skate. He’s missed 13 games after sustaining a broken foot against the New York Islanders on Nov. 25. ... Sean Couturier skated in his 753rd career game and tied Chris Therien for the fifth-most games played in Flyers history.

It’s a short trip down to Seattle for the Flyers’ next game on Friday night against the Kraken (10 p.m., NBCSP+).