Flyers best St. Louis Blues, 5-1, as backup goalie Felix Sandström earns his first NHL win

For the last 11 games, starting goaltender Carter Hart had stolen the show and outright stolen games for a Flyers team that struggled to get out of their own zone and reduce their opponents’ chances against.

But with Hart out because of an illness on Tuesday night against the St. Louis Blues at the Wells Fargo Center, the Flyers pounced on the opportunity to prove they’re capable of winning without him, too. They squashed the lowly Blues, 5-1, marking just the third time this season the Flyers have scored more than three goals in a win.

“In the past couple of games, I think it’s probably been out of all the games of the first dozen, probably two of our games where we’ve played as a team and haven’t depended on just one or two guys, especially our goaltender,” coach John Tortorella said. “So maybe we’re taking steps in the right direction.”

Yes, backup goalie Felix Sandström was more than solid in his start, denying 27 of 28 shots on goal. He finally earned his first NHL win in his nine career starts. But the Flyers skaters stepped up on both sides of the puck to ease the burden on their goalie, especially in the first two periods. They scored three unanswered goals in the second period thanks to the efforts of Wade Allison, Travis Konecny, and Noah Cates.

» READ MORE: Flyers snap losing skid with 2-1 win over Senators and former captain Claude Giroux

But even when Blues center Ryan O’Reilly scored 5½ into the third period to pull his team within two, the Flyers responded roughly a minute and a half later when winger Lukáš Sedlák cleaned up a rebound from a Nick Seeler shot from the blue line. Owen Tippett cemented the Flyers’ lead further with a goal that deflected off Blues goalie Thomas Greiss into the back of the net within the final minute of play.

On Monday, Tortorella offered a critique of Allison’s play, acknowledging that he makes too many risky, lateral, “east-west” plays instead of moving the puck “north” up the ice. However, he also mentioned that Allison has responded well to the criticism, and in their last two games, Tortorella has promoted Allison to the second line alongside center Scott Laughton and left winger Joel Farabee.

You can’t get much further north than the back of the opponent’s net, and that’s exactly what Allison did with the puck when he played in the blue paint. Halfway through the second period, the Flyers’ second line lost an offensive-zone draw, but defenseman Ivan Provorov managed to keep the puck in the zone. He dropped the puck off for Farabee, who hit Provorov in motion with the puck while the defenseman drove toward the net. Allison camped out at the crease and deflected the puck off of his pants past Greiss to put the Flyers up, 1-0.

After Saturday night’s game, Tortorella said the Flyers aren’t going to be a team like their opponent in the Ottawa Senators, who use their speed to create scoring chances off the rush. Instead, the Flyers were going to have to grind to get their goals this season. However, against the struggling Blues, the Flyers were able to dominate offensively in ways they haven’t all season.

Late in the second period, the Flyers generated a two-man rush between Tippett and Konecny. Tippett entered the zone with speed up the middle, dropping a pass off for Konecny at the top of the left face-off circle. Konecny skated toward the high slot and ripped a wrist shot past Greiss to extend the Flyers’ lead to two goals.

“Tip’s a great player,” Konecny said. “He makes so many good plays with a lot of speed, which is really hard to do. He’s always playing at a high pace. And I honestly don’t even know how ... he handles the puck really, really well and makes it easy for Kevin and I just to get open and find ice.”

Tortorella held defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen out of the lineup on Saturday as a healthy scratch, displeased with the 28-year-old defenseman’s start to the season. Ristolainen re-entered the lineup Tuesday with a chip on his shoulder and a determination to prove to his coach that he’s capable of killing plays in the defensive zone.

» READ MORE: Flyers defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen to get ‘another crack at it’ against the Blues

Ristolainen came up big for the Flyers in the first period. The Flyers won the puck possession game through the first 20 minutes, leading the Blues, 29-19, in shot attempts. However, with six minutes remaining in the period, Ristolainen blocked two shots to prevent the Blues from getting the shot through on Sandström.

“Felt great,” Ristolainen joked of his blocks. “Gets the blood going.”

In the second period, Ristolainen helped get the puck out of the Flyers’ zone, putting his team on the attack and leading to the Konecny goal.

Tortorella and the Flyers hit the road to face off against his former team, the Columbus Blue Jackets, at 7 p.m. Thursday. (NBC Sports Philadelphia).