Tippett torpedo

Owen Tippett dashed down the ice in the dying seconds of the first but it amounted to nothing. In the opening minutes of period two, Tippett simply turned on the jets and beat both the Oilers defender and Stuart Skinner, roofing it high over him for a nifty game-tying tally. The Flyers winger was clocked at 36 clicks (kilometers per hour, about 22 miles per hour) coming down ice.

Michkov starts quick

Matvei Michkov wasted no time getting back on track after the two-week layoff. The forward followed up a bounce off the backboards and buried the shot high over Skinner to get the Flyers off on the right foot.

The lead was a good reward for a strong Flyers start, getting most of the chances, shots and offensive zone time the first six minutes of the game. They also didn’t give Connor McDavid much as Travis Sanheim delivered a clean but hard check along the boards to cut off the superstar’s chance.

In the second period, on an Edmonton icing, the Flyers won the faceoff and Michkov delivered a gorgeous no-look pass to Sean Couturier who scored for his 200th career goal. Could not have come at a better time both for the team and Couturier, who, with the two-week break, might have a little more gas down the stretch for a possible playoff push.

The newbies showed up

The new additions from Calgary — Jakob Pelletier and Andrei Kuzmenko — didn’t do a whole lot of anything to start, often reduced to cycling in their own end trying to simply clear the puck. Kuzmenko was down 2-7 in chances for five-on-five while Pelletier was 1-5 over the opening 20. The team seemed to wilt, but not completely implode, following the opening Oilers goal.

Kuzmenko had a decent chance on the Flyers power play (again on a pass from Michkov) initially. Then he hit paydirt, deflecting the puck on a pass from Travis Konecny to give the Flyers a 5-3 lead.

True lunacy given the Flyers posted four in the middle frame while it has been the team’s worst period in goal differential. The Oilers meanwhile had the league’s best goal differential in the second. Midway through the third, Scott Laughton fed Kuzmenko an almost gimme but Skinner held the fort.

Oh, more Michkov

With both teams looking rusty in most defensive zone coverage, there were a few costly turnovers by Edmonton in the second that bit them badly. With the score 3-3, Sean Couturier had a great takeaway in the neutral zone. The result was Michkov heading up ice with Tippett.

Michkov again with a great pass for the Tippett one-time. Boom. Philadelphia, on what was Michkov’s third point of the night (including two primary assists), had a 4-3 lead. He also had a breakaway late in the second that could’ve been his fourth point, but Skinner made the stop.

Limiting special teams

The Flyers did a good job staying out of the penalty box. Only a minor to Noah Cates with six minutes to go had them down a man. Keeping them to the outside, Philadelphia had a two-man breakaway with Laughton and Travis Konecny but, again, Skinner kept the Oilers with a puncher’s chance. The Flyers gave the Oilers next to nothing in the third, blocking shots and limiting Edmonton to just three shots in the third period.

RASMUScle

Rasmus Ristolainen showed some pop both up ice and knocking a few Oilers over. His best shift came in the third when he went up ice a la Tippett, crashing to the net. He didn’t score but went up ice and bowled over an opponent. Later, with the Oilers’ net empty as they tried to score two to tie, Ristolainen drove a shot down the ice into the empty net, putting a nice exclamation point on what was a rather surprising, perky Flyers effort after the long break.