Scott Laughton and Louie Belpedio scored within the first 91 seconds as the visiting Philadelphia Flyers pulled away early and beat the Buffalo Sabres 5-1 on Friday.
The result snapped the Flyers’ three-game losing streak, which included a 5-2 setback to the Sabres in Philadelphia on Wednesday. Buffalo had won two in a row before Friday.
Bobby Brink had a goal and an assist, and Travis Konecny and Garnet Hathaway also scored for Philadelphia. Joel Farabee added two assists.
Flyers goaltender Samuel Ersson stopped 21 of 22 shots for his first win of the season. With regular starting goalie Carter Hart day-to-day due to a mid-body injury, Ersson likely will get the bulk of the playing time until Hart recovers.
Brink assisted on Laughton’s goal and added an insurance tally of his own midway through the third period. It was Brink’s third multi-point effort in his past five games.
Henri Jokiharju converted a shot from the slot at 2:23 of the third period for the Sabres’ only goal. Buffalo goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 14 of 19 shots.
Just 1:03 into the game, a nice passing play set up Laughton for a wrist shot from the circle that beat Luukkonen. Twenty-eight seconds later, Belpedio pounced on a loose puck and converted to continue the Flyers’ dream start.
It was the first goal of the season for both Laughton and Belpedio, and also the first NHL goal of Belpedio’s career. The defenseman was playing in his ninth NHL game over parts of four seasons.
Konecny extended Philadelphia’s lead to 3-0 by scoring on a breakaway at 14:57 of the first period. Konecny has nine goals on the season, giving him a share of the NHL lead.
The Sabres tried to rebound from that nightmarish opening period by outshooting the Flyers by a 12-6 margin in the second frame. However, that pressure didn’t result in any Buffalo goals, as Hathaway scored the period’s only goal at the 14:35 mark.
Buffalo defenseman Mattias Samuelsson didn’t play after the first period due to a lower-body injury.
–Field Level Media
