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| 4:00 PM PT5:00 PM MT6:00 PM CT7:00 PM ET0:00 GMT8:00 5:00 PM MST7:00 PM EST4:00 UAE (+1)19:00 ETNaN:� BRT, January 19, 2023 Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Attendance: 16,460 |
Back on track, Flyers set to face Blackhawks
Chicago Blackhawks at Philadelphia Flyers
- The Flyers have won their last 17 regular-season home games against the Blackhawks. It's the longest current home winning streak by one NHL team against another and third longest in Flyers history. The Flyers won 23 consecutive games versus the Penguins from 1980 to 1987 and 20 in a row against the Blues from 1972 to 1979.
- The Blackhawks have scored only three goals during their current six-game road losing streak (and no more than one goal in any of those games). Since 1936-37, the only other instance of an NHL team losing six consecutive road games in one season and scoring three or fewer goals while doing that was by the Maple Leafs in January 2015.
- Seth Jones' second goal of the game earned the Blackhawks a 4-3 overtime win against the Sabres on Tuesday. It was the third time in franchise history that a Chicago defenseman had a multiple-goal game that included an overtime goal. The others were by Doug Wilson on Feb. 25, 1985 (at Toronto) and Erik Gustafsson on Feb. 2, 2019 (at Minnesota).
- Philipp Kurashev recorded the first three-point game of his NHL career with one goal and two assists against Buffalo on Tuesday. All six of Kurashev's goals this season and 14 of his 18 points have come in home games.
- Philadelphia has won its last five games against Western Conference teams. It's the Flyers' longest winning streak in interconference games since they won five in a row in 2019-20. They have not a longer winning streak against Western teams since 2016-17 (eight games).
- Kevin Hayes completed the first hat trick of his NHL career with an empty-net goal in the Flyers' 5-2 home win against Anaheim on Tuesday. The only other hat trick by a Flyers player this season came in their previous home game, with Travis Konecny scoring three times in a 5-3 win versus Washington (Jan. 11). Konecny's third goal was also an empty-net goal.
The Philadelphia Flyers will look for their ninth victory in 11 games when they host the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday.
The Flyers dispatched the Anaheim Ducks 5-2 on Tuesday thanks in large part to the first career hat trick from Kevin Hayes.
In a season filled with highs and lows, Hayes was benched early on by head coach John Tortorella. The rebound has been impressive with Hayes coming back to earn his first All-Star Game nod in nine seasons.
"I think every guy in this room wants to win every night," Hayes said. "It's not a team or an organization that's expecting to lose, We've had some bad streaks obviously, but the guys in this room show up every night. Things have been going our way lately."
One night earlier, the Flyers were blanked 6-0 on the road by the Boston Bruins.
But the young Flyers have slowly started to mature under Tortorella and the positive results are showing. Backup goaltender Sam Ersson made 25 saves and improved to 5-0-0 in his brief career.
It's unclear if Ersson or Carter Hart will get the start against Chicago.
"I think you need to answer," Tortorella said of rallying after the loss in Boston. "Both teams played last night. We really spent a lot of our (pregame) meeting just talking about being simple and trying to play as fast as we can. I think in the back to backs, the team that starts the quickest I think has the biggest edge."
Rasmus Ristolainen scored his first goal since Jan. 22, 2022, and the first of his career shorthanded.
After a rough start this season, the Blackhawks will be searching for their fifth win in six games.
With 56 seconds remaining in regulation during Tuesday's game against the Buffalo Sabres, the Blackhawks' Seth Jones tied the game with a goal then scored at 2:24 of overtime for a 4-3 Chicago victory.
The Blackhawks have only 12 wins all season.
"It feels really good," Jones said. "You know, we didn't start the way we wanted to in this game, and after the second, we came in here and it was all positive talk and what we needed to do and tie it up and get back in the game. And we did that. It's always good when the (defensemen) get involved and help the forwards out putting the puck in the net.
"We haven't done it enough this year, so it's nice to kind of start getting that going for us in the second half," Jones added.
Blackhawks goaltender Petr Mrazek rebounded after a shaky start against the Seattle Kraken when he gave up four goals on five shots in 12 minutes and was pulled in an 8-5 loss. He stopped 30 shots against the Sabres.
"Yeah, last game was rough," Mrazek said. "We've moved on. The third period was big on our side, and we put the puck on the net and had the screen there, tips, and so those are the greasy goals that we need to score.
"We showed the character of the team and how we can play together. We knew we would talk about it after the second period, what to do in the third, go harder to the net because we didn't have many opportunities in the first two periods. But we showed that we can do it," he added.
--Field Level Media
Updated January 18, 2023
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