Travis Konecny’s 1st Career Hat-Trick Fuels Flyers Sweep Of Penguins

The Philadelphia Flyers, behind another 31-save performance by Carter Hart, beat the Pittsburgh 5-2 Friday night at the Wells Fargo Center.

After dominating the first five-minutes on Wednesday night & giving up the first goal, the roles were reversed tonight. It would be Pittsburgh who controlled the start of the game & the Flyers scoring first.

Travis Konecny would get his first of the season & night on the power-play. Claude Giroux would send a cross-ice feed to Jake Voracek. Who then sent it back cross-ice to Konecny for the tic-tac-toe goal.

Just 1:59 later, Travis Konecny would get his 2nd of the night. Konecny would deflect home a Nolan Patrick rebound after Patrick was alone in-front & almost beat Jarry to the far point. Patrick was setup beautifully by James van Riemsdyk from behind the net.

Penguins Tristan Jarry’s night would come to an end just 2:04 later. Ivan Provorov would give the Flyers a 3-0 lead on his twisted wrister from the left dot that went bar down to beat Jarry.

The Penguins would respond quickly thereafter. Just 29 seconds after the Penguins pulled Tristan Jarry, Pittsburgh would get a power-play & get on the board. Robert Hagg’s block went right to Sidney Crosby’s stick for the goal.

Just 32 seconds later, the Penguins would cut the lead to one. Jared McCann would shoot for a rebound & the rebound would go right to Brandon Tanev. Who had a wide open net  & would cut the lead to 3-2.

After only playing two shifts in the 1st period, Sean Couturier did not accompany the Flyers to the bench in the 2nd. Couturier would go on to miss the rest of the game.

Travis Konecny would get the hat-trick & give the Flyers a two-goal lead with 7:07 left in the 3rd. Konecny, just like his 2nd goal, would have the puck go in off his skate.

With the goalie pulled, Oskar Lindblom would get the empty netter for the Flyers. His 2nd in as many games.

Carter Hart was spectacular once again. Stopping 31-shots by the Penguins to earn his 2nd win of the season.

Loose Pucks…

– Sean Couturier exited the game during the 1st period and would not return the rest of the night. Couturier played just two-shift Friday night against the Penguins before leaving the game. The reason for Couturier’s exit is unknown. Head coach Alain Vigneault said Sean Couturier will get an MRI on his shoulder on Saturday and would have another update in a couple days.

– After having his goal changed to Oskar Lindblom post-game on Wednesday, Travis Konecny made sure he got his 1st tonight. Konecny would lead the Flyers to victory with his 1st career hat-trick. It was his 9th career multi-goal game.

– In his post-game press conference, head coach Alain Vigneault made sure to let everyone know the main reason the Flyers won tonight. Vigneault said “we’re not going to apologize for good goaltending” after Carter Harts 2nd consecutive win. Hart made 31-saves in both Flyers wins against the Penguins.

– With Sean Couturier only playing 45-seconds in tonight game, the Flyers depth was once again on display. This time at center as captain Claude Giroux took over for Couturier. Giroux struggled in the 1st period in the face-off dot after taking over, 3 of 7. But, Giroux finished the game 12 of 17. Giroux was 9 of 10 over the final two periods.

– With the win, the Flyers swept their opening series against the Penguins. After a 6-3 rout on Wednesday, the Flyers made it two for two in as many nights with the win tonight against the Penguins. It is the Flyers first 2-0-0 in consecutive seasons since 1997-98 and 1998-99 seasons.

Result : Flyers 5 – Penguins 2 , WIN

Record : 2 – 0 – 0

Next Game : 1/19 Buffalo Sabres, Philadelphia PA, 7:30pm

Photo Credit : Len Redkoles – Getty Images