The Philadelphia Flyers will strive to extend their win streak to four games when they continue their three-game road trip against the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday in Denver.
The Flyers are coming off a 4-1 victory at the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday night and improved to 9-3-1 in their past 13 games. Philadelphia is 8-4-1 on the road this season.
“I think right now our goaltending is playing really well, so that obviously helps,” Flyers center Sean Couturier said. “I think the way we play, we back-check hard, we try to get better at reloading hard, and we want to play a fast, offensive game, but we got to know how to reload also, and I think we’ve worked on that lately and it’s paying off.”
Travis Konecny scored twice in the win over the Coyotes and has four points over his last two games. The 26-year-old has a team-leading 14 goals and 21 points in 26 games this season.
“He’s got a great engine,” Philadelphia coach John Tortorella said. “I don’t like some of the things (he does defensively), but I need to let him be who he is. Because that’s why he’s such a great player.”
Konecny also has three of the Flyers’ seven short-handed goals this season, which lead the league.
“He is intense, aggressive, fast, explosive,” Couturier said. “So when he sees a loose puck, he’s most likely winning that race, and it’s fun to play with a guy like that. He’s going to win you a lot of races.”
Couturier, who centers a line with Konecny and Tyson Foerster, has points in four straight (one goal and three assists).
Goaltender Carter Hart is 8-6-1 with a 2.45 goals-against average and a .916 save percentage in 16 games this season.
The Avalanche enter Saturday’s contest having lost four of five following a 4-2 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on home ice on Thursday.
Colorado center Nathan MacKinnon, who has a team-leading 36 points in 26 games this season, had a goal and an assist against the Jets to extend his point streak to 10 games. MacKinnon has four goals and 12 assists during the streak. He also has points in 12 straight home games (seven goals, 16 assists).
“He’s obviously been crucial,” said Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar, who was named the NHL’s second star for November. “His play’s just been elevated to a completely new level, and he does that every year. Doesn’t shock me.”
Makar led the league with 21 assists and ranked second in points (25) in 14 games in November.
The Avalanche are 9-3-0 on home ice this season but are 5-3-2 over their past 10 games overall.
“We’re kind of hit-and-miss throughout our lineup here for the last little bit. It’s costing us,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said.
In 22 games this season, Colorado netminder Alexandar Georgiev is 14-7-1 with a 2.87 GAA and a .902 save percentage.
–Field Level Media
