Flyers Now With 3 Straight Wins With A Big One Against The Sabres

The Philadelphia Flyers traveled up to Upstate New York to face off against the Buffalo Sabres. And now after losing 9 straight to start the season, the Flyers are in the win column for 3 straight games now with a final score of 3-1 in Buffalo. 

The star of the night though is the youngster in his 2nd career NHL game Cole Knuble who put up 2 goals tonight with his 2nd giving the Flyers the extra cushion they needed to get the job done. Knuble has shown in his first 2 games with the Flyers that he absolutely belongs in the lineup and is making a great case for him to stay up on the main roster even when some of the bigger names come back from injury.

The Flyers though could have been in deep trouble tonight if it wasn’t for the play of goalie Dan Vladar. Vladar showed up huge tonight and looked like the Vladar Flyers fans got used to seeing last year and they needed it with the amount of grade A scoring chances the Sabres got in this game. I think it was good for Vladar to have a good showing on national tv as well since the first game of the year was on national tv and he gave up 7 goals. This now showed the rest of the country what Vladar and the Flyers know that when he is hot he is one of the best goalies in the league. 

Game Breakdown

1st Period

Flyers had a slow start to the 1st period even taking a minor penalty early on. The Sabres seemed to have all of the momentum especially after the power play dominating the shot chart and the pace of play. Then Cole Knuble strikes for the Flyers netting his first career NHL goal. Right out in front of the net finishing the rebound opportunity right in the gritty area where he likes to play his game. Then late in the period Trevor Zegras bats the rebound out of mid air on the power play to now make it a 2-0 game. Matvei Michkov got an assist on the Zegras goal increasing his season point total to 8. Dan Vladar was the star of the period though making several miraculous saves to keep a 0 on the board for the Sabres.

2nd Period

Not a great period but also not a bad one for the Flyers also. The Flyers had an amazing opportunity on a 5 on 3 after a blown call by the referees where Matvei Michkov took a high stick to the face but it was actually Trevor Zegras’ stick instead of the man they called it on Owen Power. The Buffalo Sabres scored the lone goal of the period thanks to a tip in goal from Jason Zucker in the last minute of the period. Buffalo gained some momentum after killing off the almost full 2 minute 5 on 3, especially from the crowd who let the refs hear it after the questionable call.

3rd Period

Cole Knuble is able to strike again for the Flyers for his 2nd of the night and for his 2nd career goal. Knuble with a real heads up play able to out wait Luukkonen and bank it off his skate from behind the net to give the Flyers the 3-1 lead. And after that the Flyers were able to hold onto that 2 goal cushion thanks to incredible saves late by Dan Vladar. This was in my opinion Vladar's best game of the season and the Flyers needed it from him with the amount of high grade scoring chances the Sabres were able to generate.

Box Score

1st

PHI: Cole Knuble Goal (1), assists: Oliver Bonk (3), Denver Barkey (4) 14:49

PHI: Trevor Zegras Goal (3), assists: Matvei Michkov (2), Jamie Drysdale (1) 19:17

2nd

BUF: Jason Zucker Goal (1), assists: Jack Quinn (5), Noah Ostlund (5) 19:25

3rd

PHI: Cole Knuble Goal (2), assists: Oliver Bonk (4) 3:03

By the Numbers

Shots

PHI: 26

BUF: 28

Saves

PHI: 27
BUF: 23

Faceoffs

PHI: 44%
BUF: 56%

Stars of the Game

1st

Cole Knuble: 2 Goals

2nd

Dan Vladar: 27 saves on 28 shots faced

3rd

Oliver Bonk: 2 Assists

Next Game

The Flyers are back at home on Saturday at 1 PM to face off against the Anaheim Ducks.

Alex Berardis is a Flyers insider for 97.3 ESPN Follow him on social media @PhillyLix