The Philadelphia Flyers and Buffalo Sabres meet for the first time this season in Philadelphia after experiencing similar starts to the season.
The Flyers opened their campaign 1-5-1 while the Sabres started 1-4-1. But they’ve both turned things around and are playing their best hockey of the season recently. Philadelphia is 3-0-1 in its last four games and Buffalo is 4-1-0 in its last five.
Both sides used a third-period comeback to win in overtime in their most recent games.
Philadelphia trailed the Ottawa Senators 4-2 with under 10 minutes to play Thursday before Anthony Richard and Bobby Brink found the net to force overtime. Matvei Michkov played the hero in OT, helping Philadelphia win a game after struggling early on.
“It’s the National Hockey League at its best,” Flyers coach John Tortorella said. “You play as bad as we did and then come out a winner. I just … I have no idea.”
Michkov became the youngest player in Flyers history to score an overtime goal. It’s the second straight clutch performance from the 19-year-old Russian, who was a healthy scratch in each of the previous two games.
Travis Sanheim contributed a goal and two assists for Philadelphia, which knows it must play better in Saturday’s opener of a five-game homestand.
“It’s obviously not our best,” Sanheim said of the win over Ottawa. “I think any time you can get two points out of not playing a good hockey game, you’ll take it and move on. We’ll get ready for a homestand that we’ve got to be good at. It’s learning lessons, areas we need to be better at.”
Ivan Fedotov recorded the win for the Flyers, but the team will likely turn back to Samuel Ersson in net against a Buffalo team that enters with plenty of momentum.
The Sabres were down a goal against the St. Louis Blues with less than eight minutes to play Thursday when Alex Tuch’s equalizer sent the game to overtime. Rasmus Dahlin’s deciding goal sent the fans home happy.
Buffalo earned their first overtime win of the season despite playing without leading goal scorer Tage Thompson and starting goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. Both missed the contest and are considered day-to-day with undisclosed injuries.
“Good response,” Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. “Again, you’ve got to be able to overcome tough moments.”
Ruff was particularly pleased with the way Ryan McLeod (one goal, one assist) raised his game with Thompson, whose 11 goals are tied for sixth in the NHL entering Friday, out of the lineup.
“I thought he stepped up the way we needed,” Ruff said. “It was the next man’s opportunity, and he took advantage of it.”
The Sabres will hope for more of that in Saturday’s matchup against a team following a similar path in the opening months of the season.
“It was not pretty today, but we found a way,” Dahlin said after beating St. Louis. “That’s what good teams do. I think it was a really mature game by us. So, I’m really happy about the effort by everybody.”
