After connecting on two rare shorthanded breakaway goals in one game on Monday night, maybe Travis Konecny should head for the casino.<\/p>\n
For sure, the cards fell in Konecny\u2019s favor as those two scores were enough for a Flyers\u2019 2-1 win over the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, ending Philadelphia\u2019s six-game (0-5-1) winless streak.<\/p>\n
Conversely, the Knights\u2019 seven-game winning streak came to a close.<\/p>\n
The Flyers\u2019 Owen Tippett took a bad delay of game penalty with 1:33 to play but Philadelphia hung on despite Vegas\u2019 six-on-four manpower advantage with their goalie removed.<\/p>\n
On the winning goal, Konecny took advantage of a Jack Eichel giveaway and converted a breakaway against Vegas netminder Adin Hill at 7:22 of the third period.<\/p>\n
Playing better defense and getting better goaltending from Sam Ersson led to this badly needed win. It was the Swede\u2019s first win since Dec. 23.<\/p>\n
In addition, the Flyers killed all but one of the Golden Knights\u2019 seven power plays.<\/p>\n
![\"Flyers](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/TMC-L-Ersson-1.jpg\")
Flyers goalie Samuel Ersson #33 blocks a backhand shot by Vegas\u2019 Reilly Smith with the top of his stick as Travis Sanheim defends in the second period of their game at T-Mobile Arena on January 19, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Flyers defeated the Golden Knights 2-1. (Photo by Ethan Miller\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
How big was this win for this team?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was big,\u201d Konecny confirmed in a post-game televised interview. \u201cStarting off the road trip with this. Coming in and playing a veteran team that plays well at home. I thought we did a great job, our penalty kill was awesome.\u201dErsson played probably his best game of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m super-happy for \u2018Ers\u2019,\u201d Konecny said. \u201cHe\u2019s been grinding away and he deserved that one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ersson might have been struggling but he never lost confidence in his ability.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaven\u2019t been playing well enough, obviously,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was huge. The guys played great. The PK did a great job all night. It was a tough task. They\u2019re a very good power play team. Great way to get back in the win column. In the tough times, you\u2019ve got to trust your game even more. Not overthinking it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coach Rick Tocchet acknowledged the performances of Konecny and Ersson, along with the penalty kill, were the keys to this important win.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of our players, a gutsy effort,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cIt (the PK) is a confidence builder. He (Konecny) is a great guy to coach. He knows when he screws up, he puts it on himself. He battles out of it. Even in our meetings he\u2019s trying to calm guys down.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for Ersson, he couldn\u2019t have picked a better time to have a five-star effort.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will say, even with the tough stretch he\u2019s had, he\u2019s not feeling sorry for himself,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cHe\u2019s doing what he needs to do in practice. That\u2019s all you can ask of a guy. Things don\u2019t go your way, don\u2019t come in and pout. He doesn\u2019t have that attitude. It\u2019s almost like a closer\u2019s mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the second straight game, Konecny opened the scoring, on this occasion with a timely shorthanded goal.Konecny picked up a good read on a defenseman\u2019s pass attempt at the blue line. The Flyer stepped in, raced down the ice and sent a shot past Hill at 3:46.<\/p>\n
The Flyers held onto that edge into the final minute of the second period. Then Noah Cates took a bad penalty below the goal line at the Vegas end of the rink.<\/p>\n
On the ensuing power play, Tomas Hertl tipped in Eichel\u2019s shot with 31.2 seconds left on the clock for a 1-1 tie.Despite that breakdown, Sean Couturier remained optimistic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re winning more battles,\u201d Couturier said at the second intermission. \u201cWe\u2019re moving our feet, we\u2019re skating pretty well. I think we\u2019re doing a lot of little things right. Unfortunately we gave up that goal but we just have to keep playing that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Couturier said the Flyers didn\u2019t want to play too cautiously in the third period.<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially against a good team like this, experienced,\u201d Couturier said. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to sit back and give them control. Just bring more pucks to the net and capitalize on our chances.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vladar goes on IR<\/p>\n
Goaltender Dan Vladar was placed on injured reserve, retroactive to Jan. 14.<\/p>\n
Vladar has been able to work out and skate, so that\u2019s one positive development.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a good day,\u201d coach Rick Tocchet said. \u201cThat\u2019s good. We\u2019ll see over the next couple days how it reacts.\u201dBobby Brink was activated to play on Monday night. Also, the Flyers put Lane Pederson in the lineup after he was called up from Lehigh Valley on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Pederson makes Flyers debut<\/p>\n
Lane Pederson, just called up from the Phantoms on Sunday, made his Flyers debut. With Lehigh Valley, Pederson leads the roster in goals, 13; assists, 15; and points, 28.<\/p>\n
Pederson centered the fourth line which included Carl Grundstrom and Garnet Hathaway.<\/p>\n
Pre-game strategy<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to be careful,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cThe last 10 days have been tough. Before that we were OK. But you have to stop the slide. We just have to put in a smart effort to give ourselves a chance. You can\u2019t blow by piles, you can\u2019t give up two-on-ones.<\/p>\n
Too many penalties<\/p>\n
Tocchet has been harping on the Flyers\u2019 penchant for taking penalties, particularly ones which aren\u2019t crucial to play outside the Flyers\u2019 defensive zone.As of Monday morning, the Flyers were averaging 10.8 penalty minutes per game, which ranks fourth in the NHL.<\/p>\n
Short shots<\/p>\n
The road trip continues with a stop at Utah on Wednesday night. .\u00a0 .Defenseman Hunter McDonald, just called up from Lehigh Valley, and Nic Deslauriers were the Flyers scratches.<\/p>\n
www.flyingfishhockey.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After connecting on two rare shorthanded breakaway goals in one game on Monday night, maybe Travis Konecny should…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5112],"tags":[1468,5,4,1467,56,5205,43,5095],"class_list":{"0":"post-417911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-flyers","8":"tag-flyers","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","13":"tag-philadelphiaflyers","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115927739034568605","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}