Flyers snap road winless streak with 5-2 win over St. Louis Blues

ST. LOUIS -- After 13 straight road losses, the Flyers finally came out on top with a 5-2 win over the St. Louis Blues, the No. 2 team in the Central Division on Thursday.

The newest Flyers helped jump-start the team in their second of five consecutive road games. Hayden Hodgson, who made his NHL debut, started the game and assisted on the first goal, scored by Travis Konecny. Owen Tippett, playing in his third game with the Flyers, had a strong performance and assisted on the second goal from Patrick Brown.

The Flyers, who were 11-1-5 when leading after the first period, finished the first with a 2-0 lead.

Early in the second, a penalty and a miscue led to Vladimir Tarasenko’s power-play goal to cut the lead to 2-1. Konecny followed with his second goal before the Blues’ Alexei Toropchenko scored after goalie Martin Jones gave away the puck.

The Flyers held a 9-1-3 record in the 13 games they led after three periods.

During the third, it looked like the Flyers would add a second regulation loss to that record after getting stuck in their defensive zone on numerous occasions.

“It’s great for us to play in a game like that where you can tell that we’re still a little bit nervous playing with the lead at different times,” interim coach Mike Yeo said. “You can tell we’re trying to do the right thing, but the nerves kind of catch up to you sometimes.”

But Kevin Hayes started a rush down the ice, got a shot on St. Louis goalie Jordan Binnington and Hodgson knocked in the rebound for a 4-2 lead.

Joel Farabee added an empty netter with less than three minutes remaining to secure the Flyers’ first road win of 2022.

The Flyers dominated the first period, helped by a number of players who notched firsts of their own. Along with Hodgson’s first goal and assist in his NHL debut, Kevin Connauton recorded his first point with the Flyers by assisting on Konecny’s first goal.

With the exception of a dismal power play that quickly turned into a four-on-four when Tippett was called for a penalty one minute in, the Flyers controlled the pace. They outshot the Blues, 9-4, and had more takeaways and less giveaways.

The Flyers added to their lead when Tippett set up a shot for Cam York, and Brown scored on the rebound. The secondary assist was Tippett’s first point as a Flyer.

Hodgson then added his second point with his first NHL goal in the third period.

“It’s surreal,” Hodgson said, then joked that he kind of “blacked out” for a few seconds after the goal.

Yeo joked that Hodgson’s debut was “pretty good,” then said he couldn’t have drawn it up any better. He was pleased with a lot of what he saw from the young players tonight and said that their contributions will be an important part in what they’re trying to build.

After receiving the puck at center ice, Konecny rushed toward the goal on his weak side before slinging the puck over Binnington’s far-side shoulder to open the scoring. The goal, Konecny’s first in seven games, was vintage Konecny.

Over the past few months, Konecny has been one of the Flyers’ most consistent players. He’s had 16 points in 18 games. However, only three of those points came from goals. And Konecny is known as a goal scorer.

Thursday night, Konecny found a way to tap into his old goal-scoring ways while maintaining his new play-making skills. He scored twice while also buzzing all over the ice, stealing pucks and helping the Flyers control the puck in the offensive zone.

“I’ve just been working really hard with Yeosy and the staff and just try to be put in different situations,” Konecny said. “I’m just trying to work on a bunch of different things and become more of a complete player than just one-dimensional.”

However, lighting the lamp was “nice.” It came as the result of Konecny building his shot-first mentality back up. Now, Yeo wants him to do that even more.

“He’s got such a great shot and when he’s attacking with speed like that, his feet are moving, that’s not an easy play for the goaltender,” Yeo said. “So obviously great to have him scoring goals.”

The Flyers changed things up on both special teams, but the changes in personnel did not lead to changes in the results.

The Flyers power play continued to struggle. The first one began with difficulties getting the puck to the net and ended early when Tippett was called for hooking. When the Flyers earned a 4-on-3 advantage, they couldn’t take advantage. The power play finished the night 0 for 4.

The penalty-kill units also looked different, with Morgan Frost and Konecny getting time. They killed two of the Blues’ three power plays.

The Flyers head to Denver to play the Colorado Avalanche, the No. 1 team in the Central Division, at 9 p.m. on Friday.