Flyers, Led by Joel Farabee, Defeat Wild, 4-3, In Overtime

The Philadelphia Flyers, led by Joel Farabee, Travis Konecny, and Owen Tippett, erased a two-goal deficit to come back and defeat the Minnesota Wild, 4-3, in overtime at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, MN on Friday night.

Farabee snapped a seven-game goal drought with his 13th of the year to tie the game at 1-1. Marcus Johansson opened the scoring for the Wild just 51 seconds into the game after his shot deflected off Jamie Drysdale’s stick and past Carter Hart. However, the referees missed a clear penalty on the play when Joel Eriksson Ek closed his hand on the puck and threw it down the ice for Johansson. As it turned out, the Flyers would decide their own fate later in the game.

Philadelphia fell into a two-goal deficit early in the second period as Ryan Hartman and Matt Boldy scored less than three minutes apart to put the Wild up 3-1. Hartman’s goal, in particular, was a fluke; his shot rolled up over Hart’s skate blade and into the net. If Hart had his skate placed inside or outside the net, the shot would have no chance of going in.

Flyers Get Much-Needed Confidence Boost

The Flyers looked a little shell-shocked after Boldy’s one-timer goal, but they kept skating and playing. Eventually, they created their own luck.

OWEN. TIPPETT!!!! WHAT A SHOT!!!! WE ARE TIED!!!!#LetsGoFlyers #MINvsPHI pic.twitter.com/1EjzfbDkl9

— Flyers Clips (@Flyers_Clips) January 13, 2024

Scott Laughton’s nifty feed off the rush found Tyson Foerster on the opposite side of him, and Foerster was able to punch at it and fire it past Marc-Andre Fleury to cut the two-goal deficit in half. The goal made for Laughton’s second point in seven games, and Foerster’s first goal since Dec. 4, or 16 games ago. Owen Tippett completed the Flyers’ comeback just over one minute later with a blistering shot from the left circle during a delayed penalty. He does not play in that spot on power plays, but he should. Tippett is much more threatening with that shot from the weak side.

With the game tied at 3-3 in overtime, Cam Atkinson dropped his shoulder and bulldozed his way to the front of the net, cutting from left to right. Fortunately for the Flyers, Mats Zuccarello hacked him down with his stick, which gave Philadelphia a 4-on-3 power play. The power play, which had scored in each of the last three games, did it for a fourth time for the win. Drysdale coughed the puck up to Eriksson Ek at the blueline but managed to race back and punch the puck out from behind to prevent a breakaway goal. At the other end, Egor Zamula’s shot was redirected down and past Fleury for the win by Farabee.

The Flyers are 2-0-0 in the Jamie Drysdale era.

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