You’ll never believe it, but Thursday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena, the Philadelphia Flyers had yet another game go to overtime. They’ve struggled in overtime as of late, but thanks to a clutch play from their No. 1 defenseman, the Flyers pulled off a 3-2 victory over the St. Louis Blues in dramatic fashion.

The Basics

First period: 5:31 — Justin Faulk (Oskar Sundqvist, Nathan Walker), 12:08 — Faulk (Jake Neighbours, Jordan Kyrou)
Second period: 17:57 — Rodrigo Abols (Owen Tippett, Trevor Zegras)
Third period: 11:49 — Tyson Foerster (Emil Andrae, Travis Konecny)
Overtime: 3:51 — Travis Sanheim (Konecny, Sean Couturier)
SOG: 29 (STL), 28 (PHI)

Takeaways

Sanheim comes up clutch

Despite being spectacular in the shootout all season, the Flyers’ luck hasn’t exactly been optimal during the 3-on-3 period.

Thanks to Travis Sanheim, though, the tables turned Thursday night.

With a little over a minute remaining in overtime, Travis Konecny sprung Sanheim for a 2-on-0 rush alongside Sean Couturier. But instead of sliding the puck over to his captain, Sanheim buried the game-winning goal with a wrister that beat Blues netminder Joel Hofer over the glove.

The game-winner marked Sanheim’s first goal in over a month, but the modest scoring numbers are not indicative of his overall impact. Sanheim is playing some of the best hockey of his career, and it’s sort of poetic that he was the one to seal the deal against the team he was nearly traded to back in 2023.

How ’bout them Abols?

The Flyers haven’t gotten much offense out of their fourth liners to start the season, but one of their depth forwards finally broke through for a goal against St. Louis.

Rodrigo Abols netted his first of the year to cut the St. Louis lead in half late in the middle frame. Trevor Zegras got the play started with some magnificent work along the boards. He then nudged the puck to Owen Tippett behind the net, who fed Abols with a nifty between-the-legs pass to earn the primary helper.

The Flyers are used to seeing Zegras and Tippett generate offense. Abols, however, has largely been quiet since beating out Jett Luchanko for the fourth-line center role, so it’s good to see him getting involved in some fashion.

Abols didn’t just look dangerous on that one shift, either — he put together arguably his best performance of the season, as did his regular linemates on the fourth line. The trio of Abols, Nic Deslauriers, and Garnet Hathaway was far and away the Flyers’ most efficient line of the night from a 5-on-5 play-driving perspective, logging a downright fantastic Corsi For percentage of 86.67 in 8:15 of 5-on-5 ice time.

Not too shabby.

Another early hole

The Flyers just can’t seem to get out of their own way early in games. In what has become an all too familiar trend, the Flyers fell into another early hole Thursday night, allowing a pair of Blues goals within the game’s first 20 minutes. Blues defenseman Justin Faulk scored both markers for St. Louis, first beating Dan Vladar with a blast from the point, then burying a one-timer off a nice feed from Jake Neighbours.

The Flyers have managed to earn a first-period lead just one time out of their last eight games, which came when they scored three goals in the first period against the Montreal Canadiens on November 4. Sure, the old “It’s not how you start, but how you finish” adage exists for a reason, but the Flyers haven’t been finishing either.

At this point, something has to give. If the Flyers want any chance at being a competitive hockey team, they cannot continue fighting from behind.

Vladar bounces back

A big reason why the Flyers found themselves in the early hole was largely due to a pair of suboptimal goals allowed by goaltender Dan Vladar. Vladar was surprised by Faulk’s quick point shot on the Blues’ first goal, and he was visibly frustrated with himself after Faulk’s one-timer that made it 2-0. But after Faulk’s second marker, Vladar was perfect, turning aside all 24 Blues shots on goal for the remainder of the game.

Vladar wasn’t just bouncing back from a rough first period, though — he was also coming off his worst performance of the season. He allowed a season-high five goals against the Dallas Stars on Saturday, and while he certainly wasn’t the primary reason why the Flyers were routed in Dallas, there’s no question that he wasn’t at the top of his game that night.

Save for a few minutes early on, Vladar was as good as we’ve seen him for the majority of the game Thursday night, and he was a major reason why the Flyers ended up earning a pair of points — especially taking into account his highway robbery on Jordan Kyrou in overtime.

The Flyers certainly appear to have found a reliable goalie, folks.

Statistics courtesy of Natural Stat Trick and NHL.com.