Owen Tippett scored two goals to highlight the Philadelphia Flyers’ 6-3 win over the visiting Edmonton Oilers on Saturday.
Matvei Michkov and Sean Couturier each chipped in a goal and two assists for Philadelphia, while Rasmus Ristolainen notched a goal and an assist. Leon Draisaitl and John Klingberg both contributed a goal and an assist for Edmonton.
Both teams were playing their first game in more than two weeks due to the NHL’s break for the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament. Connor McDavid, who scored the decisive overtime goal for Canada in Thursday’s 4 Nations title game, went scoreless and was minus-3 in this one.
Michkov opened the scoring just over two minutes into the contest. He missed the net on a 2-on-2 rush, but the rebound caromed back in front of the cage, and the Russian rookie roofed the puck over Stuart Skinner.
Edmonton responded with two goals — Klingberg’s first goal with the Oilers on a juicy rebound from goalie Samuel Ersson, and then Draisaitl’s 41st of the season after he was left wide open in front of the net.
Tippett tied it up with a splendid individual effort early in the second. He chipped the puck ahead to himself in the neutral zone, skated in on Skinner and chipped a backhander under the crossbar.
The Flyers then went ahead 3-2 about 5 1/2 minutes later on Couturier’s 200th career goal. The tally was set up by a brilliant feed from Michkov following a turnover by Edmonton.
Mattias Ekholm tied it less than two minutes later, but Michkov set up another Philadelphia goal shortly thereafter. He and Tippett got a half-step on the Oilers’ defense, and Michkov got the puck across to Tippett, setting up his 16th of the season.
Andrei Kuzmenko’s first goal with the Flyers — a power-play tally — made it 5-3 with about 4 1/2 minutes to go in the second. He took a slap pass from Travis Konecny and redirected it past Skinner.
Ristolainen’s 200-foot empty-netter sealed it with about three minutes left in the third.
–Field Level Media
