Flyers Snap 5-Game Losing Streak With 4-2 Win Over Tampa Bay
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Travis Konecny, Michael Raffl, Sean Couturier and Radko Gudas scored in the second period to help the Philadelphia Flyers end a five-game losing streak with a 4-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.
Michal Neuvirth made 24 saves in his first game since Nov. 12 after missing 24 because of a left knee injury for Philadelphia, which had lost seven of eight since the end of a 10-game winning streak on Dec. 17.
Alex Killorn and Nikita Kucherov scored for the Lightning, who have allowed 16 goals during a three-game slide.
Jakub Voracek added two assists for Philadelphia.
The Flyers outscored Tampa Bay 4-1 in the second period.
Konecny tied the game at 1 just over a minute into the period by finishing a 2-on-1 break with a shot high over Andrei Vasilevskiy's glove side after a pass from Voracek.
It was the sixth goal of the season for the 19-year-old rookie, who was reunited with Voracek and Couturier. The line played together in 18 of the team's first 19 games and Konecny had four goals over that stretch.
The line change was part of a major shift by coach Dave Hakstol, who made wholesale changes to his top three lines.
Couturier made Hakstol's moves look good, giving Philadelphia a 2-1 lead 7½ minutes later by scoring on a rebound after Ivan Provorov's shot from the point.
The goal gave the Flyers a lead in a game for the first time since the third period of their loss at St. Louis on Dec. 28, a drought spanning 3 hours, 47 minutes and 49 seconds of ice time.
And it was a two-goal lead with 10:09 left in the period when Raffl blasted a slap shot from the high slot over Vasilevskiy's right pad.
Tampa Bay pulled within a goal when Killorn scored on a rebound from a sharp angle just after the Lightning's power play expired with 3:16 left in the period.
But the Lightning gave the goal back just 57 seconds later when Gudas converted his second goal of the season.
Brayden Schenn took the initial shot from the slot, and Gudas bounced on the rebound behind the goal and his wraparound try went off defenseman Anton Stralman and in for an unlikely goal.
Tampa Bay scored the lone goal in the first period when Kucherov converted a 2-on-1 break with 14:26 left.
Vasilevskiy, making his eighth straight start in place of the injured Ben Bishop, made 40 saves.
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