Flyers rally late to beat Senators, 4-3, in overtime

In his first game back from a shoulder injury, winger Joel Farabee picked up his scoring right where he left off.

Over the course of three games before he was injured against the New York Rangers on Dec. 1, Farabee established a three-game point streak (two goals, one assist). A collision into the boards kept Farabee out of the lineup for 2 1/2 weeks, but he returned with a bang against the Ottawa Senators.

Late in the third period, with the Senators up, 3-2, Farabee evened the score when he tried to make a cross-ice pass low in the offensive zone. The puck deflected off the leg of defenseman Thomas Chabot and into the goal.

“I was actually trying to go to Sanny [Travis Sanheim], cross-ice, he was coming down,” Farabee said. “Got a little lucky, but when you’re doing the right things, bounces like that definitely help. And I thought a great battle by the guys with that adversity going down, six minutes left. I think getting those types of wins definitely builds confidence and you definitely feel good after that.”

Sanheim, Farabee’s original target, got another scoring chance when the game went to overtime, tied at 3. Winger Cam Atkinson teed up Sanheim, who drove to the net for the goal to give the Flyers a 4-3 overtime victory.

Overall, the Flyers struggled after relinquishing their 2-0 first-period lead, allowing Ottawa to tie the score in the second. But interim head coach Mike Yeo said it’s all part of the learning process.

“Bad things are going to happen in a game,” Yeo said. “You can’t feel sorry for yourself. You can’t get down. You have to have that attack mindset, get right back out there, get right to your game. And I think it will become easier for our group to do that when you continue to develop confidence in what we’re trying to do.”

Against the Montréal Canadiens on Thursday, the Flyers put together an abysmal first-period performance. The Canadiens put 19 shots on goal to the Flyers’ 8, and Philadelphia was only down, 1-0, after the first period because of goalie Carter Hart’s stellar performance. However, the Flyers left their first-period woes across the northern border with their energy on Saturday night, leading the Senators, 2-0, after the first period.

Winger Oskar Lindblom led the charge with a dazzling effort in the first period, first with an assist on Claude Giroux’s goal to put the Flyers up, 1-0. A backhanded pass from Lindblom behind the net set Giroux up for a one-timer from the slot. Roughly three minutes later, Lindblom decided he wanted a goal of his own. Moments after hopping off the bench, Lindblom fired a slap shot from above the right faceoff circle toward Senators goalie Anton Forsberg to give the Flyers a 2-0 lead. Defenseman Thomas Chabot caught a piece of the shot, deflecting it into the goal. Lindblom also lent goalie Martin Jones a hand, clearing a puck from the crease that landed behind Jones late in the first period.

Now, after not scoring his first goal of the season until Dec. 6 against the Colorado Avalanche, Lindblom has four points in the last three games (two goals, two assists).

“I felt good before, too, but I couldn’t really get the puck in,” Lindblom said. “So it’s a lot of luck and also a lot of work behind it.”

In his 15th season with the Flyers, Giroux continues to cement his legacy as one of the best to ever don the Orange and Black as he moves up franchise leaderboards. Last week against the Vegas Golden Knights, Giroux set a record in franchise power-play points (334) with an assist on Sean Couturier’s third-period goal.

On Saturday night, Giroux jumped up a rung on another all-time list. With his first-period goal, Giroux moved into a tie with Bill Barber for second place in all-time franchise scoring with 883 career regular-season points. Giroux is on the cusp of yet another milestone — he’s one assist away from 600.

While Giroux stands in second place on the franchise list in assists, he’s got his work cut out for him in his contract year if he’d like to catch Bobby Clarke (852). Regardless, even to be mentioned in the same sentence as Barber and Clarke, Giroux said, is an honor.

“They’ve done so much for this franchise,” Giroux said. “I have a lot of respect for both of them. Hopefully, we keep going here.”

Early in the second period, defenseman Ivan Provorov drew a hooking penalty against winger Drake Batherson, earning the Flyers their first man-advantage of the night. Since Yeo took over following the firings of Alain Vigneault and assistant coach Michel Therrien, the Flyers have made improvements on the power play — in their last six games, they rank 18th in the league on the power play with a conversion rate of 77.3%. However, their first five-on-four opportunity on Saturday night was marked by disaster.

First, when winger Austin Watson cleared the puck from the Flyers’ zone early in the two-minute minor, winger Nick Paul beat defenseman Keith Yandle to the puck behind the Flyers’ net. That led to a Paul backhandeder on Jones, who denied it wide. Roughly 15 seconds later, moments after the Flyers entered their offensive zone to try again, Yandle and winger Travis Konecny lost the puck at the blue line. Yandle skated back to the neutral zone to recover the puck, but winger Alex Formenton stripped him to spring a breakaway. Formenton snuck the puck through Jones’ five-hole to tie the game at 2.

The Flyers continue their two-game homestand when they take on the Washington Capitals for the second time this season, on Tuesday at 7 p.m. (NBCSP; WPEN-FM, 97.5).