Flyers’ Matvei Michkov caps comeback with overtime winner against the Chicago Blackhawks

Heading into the third period, the Flyers were singing the blues.

They were playing well but couldn’t find the back of the net and the Chicago Blackhawks were playing like they had a full tank of gas, carrying a two-goal lead over the hometown team. But then the Flyers got the band back together and refound their game, scoring a pair of goals in less than three minutes in the third period to tie things up at 2 with goals by Sean Couturier and Noah Cates.

And then in overtime, the Flyers got a power play and, of course, Matvei Michkov finished things off.

Skating four-on-three, Travis Konecny got the puck down by the left post and sent a “heck of a pass,” as described by coach John Tortorella, across the crease and past the stick of Blackhawks defenseman Alec Martinez to Michkov at the right post. Michkov buried it past the glove of former Flyers goalie Petr Mrázek to give the Flyers a comeback 3-2 win. The win was the first of Flyers goalie Aleksei Kolosov’s NHL career.

The goal, at 1 minute, 6 seconds into OT, was Michkov’s second overtime winner this season; he also clinched the Flyers’ comeback win against the Ottawa Senators on Nov. 14.

“In the NHL, there’s not many moments you’re going to get. When you get the moment, you have to be cold-blooded and finish it,” he said through a team translator.

Cates has been doing everything right — except scoring goals. He finally got one Saturday afternoon, tying the game at 2 midway through the third period.

“I went down to him after [and] I said, ‘You deserved that one,’ because he’s done a lot,” Tortorella said. “He’s probably one of our better players defensively, and stick on puck, he’s made some really big plays with his stick. I’ve bounced him all over the place and I’m happy he scored.”

Bobby Brink started the sequence using his speed to cut through the neutral zone and around the goal. He eventually got the puck back on the boards and sent a chip pass over to Cates above the circles. The center turned and scored through a screen set by Cam York, who was playing his first game in a month.

“For sure,” said Cates, when asked if it felt good to score his first of the season. “Just try to play consistently the right way every day and it hasn’t been going in for me up until today. It doesn’t change anything, but having some confidence and see one go in is nice.”

Couturier looked like he was on a mission from God when it came to crashing the net. Down 2-0 he had a chance to bury one right atop the blue paint but somehow couldn’t finish. Earlier in the period, while on a power play — and after Michkov made a nifty move to enter the Blackhawks zone and set him up — he was stopped by Mrázek.

Couturier was doing a lot right offensively, except for scoring. And then he did it on the fourth of his five shots in the game.

The Flyers captain got them on the board as he planted himself in front of the net and redirected a pass from Rasmus Ristolainen. Couturier was all alone for his fourth goal of the season and his first since notching a hat trick against the Minnesota Wild on Oct. 26.

After a game against the Carolina Hurricanes in which they were dominated, especially in the third period when coach John Tortorella said his club was “spanked,” the Flyers were owning the ice Saturday.

According to Natural Stat Trick, across the first two periods the ice was tilted their way with 40 shot attempts to the Blackhawks’ 27 at five-on-five. The only problem was two of those Chicago shots got past Kolosov.

» READ MORE: Matvei Michkov and Connor Bedard set to face off for first time since 2021 U18 World Championship

The Flyers’ chances weren’t low-danger, either. If you figure in special teams, the Flyers had 45 shot attempts, and 11 of those came from high-danger areas.

“There wasn’t a lot of panic, that’s all we talked about, was just trying to take a deep breath and keep playing,” Tortorella said. “Because I thought we were getting chances. We had a bunch of almost chances again, too.

“We just struggle completing the play. I thought their goalie played really well the first half of the game. “Sometimes you’ve got to be aware and not just look at the score and say, ‘Oh, [expletive].’ I thought our team was playing OK and we just needed to keep on playing.”

Mrázek robbed Scott Laughton on a two-on-none with Konecny during a Flyers penalty kill in the first period. Konecny had a pull-and-shoot chance later in the opening frame that went wide before Laughton made a slick move but was stopped again. Ristolainen, who had a strong game and played almost 23 minutes, had a point shot that Mrázek saved before he again stopped Laughton on the rebound through traffic.

Laughton had another chance in the second period with a quick turn-around shot as Garnet Hathaway was being cross-checked in the slot and drawing a penalty. It was a big response from Laughton, who was benched for most of the second period on Wednesday; he finished the day with 11 shot attempts, including eight shots on goal.

“When you’re outshooting them, getting chances, not really scoring, I think it was a good learning lesson,” Couturier said. “We kind of got frustrated at times but we stuck together and stuck to the same style of play. We came back, showed some character in the third, and capitalized on our chances, and found a way to get the two points.”

They scored twice on 12 shots in the third period and finished with 37 shots on goal.

The Flyers’ defense got a boost on Saturday as York returned after missing 13 games with an upper-body injury and Emil Andrae slotted back in after being out for a pair with a mid-body injury. York was back with his defensive partner Travis Sanheim, and Andrae skated alongside Ristolainen for most of the game.

“There were some struggles there, you could see the rust on them,” Tortorella said about the returning defensemen.

Andrae did bring his legs in the first period. Michkov got a stretch pass and skated down the right side before going between his legs and getting a backhand attempt on net. The Flyers defenseman used his motor to join the play and tried to go through the legs across the crease before losing his handle on the puck.

In the second period, Andrae put a shot on goal from the point with 2:05 left that Mrázek couldn’t control. Brink scooped it up and fed Tyson Foerster in the left faceoff circle for a one-timer on an empty net — except veteran defenseman Martinez got his stick in the way to block the surefire goal. Through two periods, Andrae had five shot attempts, including two shots on goal, in 24 minutes, 5 seconds of ice time.

Skating in his first game since Oct. 23, York was on the ice for all four regulation goals; unfortunately, two of those were for the Blackhawks.

On the first goal, the Flyers had a four-on-two but did not convert after Konecny’s pass hit the skates of Owen Tippett. Chicago went the other way, trapping Konecny, Tippett, and York. Patrick Maroon fed the puck through two Flyers — Sanheim and Couturier — right to Lukas Reichel for the slam-dunk goal. From the blue line in, it was an eerily similar play to Jack Roslovic’s goal in the loss to the Hurricanes.

On the second goal, Reichel got past the defense again on a chip pass from Maroon. He went in one-on-one with Kolosov and couldn’t score but the Blackhawks kept it going in the Flyers’ end. Maroon got the puck back and drew three Flyers to him — York, Sanheim, and Couturier — and still scored on a backhander.

Forward Morgan Frost returned to the lineup after being a healthy scratch for four of the past five games. In 13:59, he had two shot attempts and blocked three shots.

“I think over the last couple of days its, honestly, been kind of re-energizing mentally for me. I feel like I’m in a really good spot mentally and I was really excited to play today,” he said.

Forward Anthony Richard was loaned to Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League to make space for York to return. He had six points in seven games.

“By no means is it with his play, we’ve got roster situations ... I hated seeing him go down,” Tortorella said. “Danny [Brière, the Flyers general manager] and I talked to him before the game, had a very honest conversation with him. Who knows what happens here as we go through but ... he did some really good things for us. It [stinks] sending him down.”

Egor Zamula and Erik Johnson were healthy scratch.es ... Michkov and the Blackhawks’ Connor Bedard spoke after the game in the hallway outside the Flyers locker room along with the team translator. It was the first time the two were facing off since Bedard’s Canadian squad topped Michkov’s Russian team in the gold-medal game of the 2021 U18 World Championship.

“Today was really good to see him on the ice,” said Michkov, who was the MVP of that tournament. “It was a long time [since] we played against each other. I hope it’s only the beginning. I think he will try to get it back.”

The Flyers host the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday (7 p.m., NBCSP).