It was a huge two points for the Blackhawks when they dominated the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday, March 30th for a 5-1 victory. Philipp Kurashev, Lukas Reichel, and Joey Anderson all had a goal and an assist in helping Chicago defeat the Flyers, handing them their fourth straight loss. Arvid Soderblom made a total of 30 saves for the Blackhawks, and Tyson Foerster scored the lone goal for Philadelphia.
Blackhawks lineup against the Flyers:
Donato – Bedard – Kurashev
Foligno – Johnson – Raddysh
Entwistle – Athanasiou – Reichel
Slaggert – Dickinson – Anderson
Vlasic – Jones
Korchinski – Megna
Kaiser – Tinordi
Soderblom
Mrazek
Flyers lineup against the Blackhawks:
Tippett – Frost – Konecny
Farabee – Laughton – Brink
Foerster – Poehling – Hathaway
Cates – Couturier – Gurianov
York – Sanheim
Seeler – Johnson
Zamula – Ginning
Ersson
Fedotov
Lukas Reichel started things off for the Blackhawks early into the first period at 17:59 to give them a 1-0 lead. After Samuel Ersson stopped Reichel’s wraparound attempt, he struck at the right post for his first goal in 27 games since the 19th of December. Later in the opening 20, Philipp Kurashev recorded his 16th goal of the season to put Chicago up 2-0 at 3:00 when he scored off a pass from Connor Bedard at the left circle.
Cutting the Blackhawks’ lead to 2-1 just 17 seconds into the middle, Tyson Foerster struck his 20th of the season on the rush from the high slot. Nick Foligno pushed the lead to 3-1 on the power play when he scored off a pass from Philipp Kurashev below the goal line after he held the puck in at Philadelphia’s blue line and then skated through the slot at 2:32 of the second period.
Making it a 4-1 lead for the Blackhawks in the third, Joey Anderson scored on a breakaway to record his fourth goal of the season. MacKenzie Entwistle struck a beauty for the 5-1 final off Joey Anderson’s centering pass on a 3-on-2 at 5:27. This had been Entwistle’s fifth goal of the season for the Blackhawks.
Lukas Reichel on scoring his first in 27 games and shots on net: “It feels good. It’s always good to score but after a long time, it feels better – I think we talked about it as a team in the first period, like playing simple, having shots on net, and just having good forecheck. I think that’s what we all try to do.”
Nick Foligno on the Blackhawks’ big 5-1 victory against the Flyers: “We seemed to have a good start and gave ourselves the best chance to win. So it’s not rocket science as they say and we got to find a way to just have that mindset every time we step on the ice. I was proud of the guys today, a lot of the guys played really well and stepped up.”
Notes:
– Lukas Reichel’s goal had been his first since being recalled earlier in March. He also recorded a primary assist later in the game to tally his first multi-point outing of the season.
– The goal on the power play by Nick Foligno in the second period marked his eighth power-play goal of the season. Previously, in seven seasons combined, Foligno tallied nine man-advantage goals.
– Philipp Kurashev finished off the month of March with a total of 17 points in 14 games.
– Connor Bedard recorded his 36th assist of his career and has 21 goals to have a total of 57 points in 60 games. This is the most by a player through his 60 NHL games since Elias Pettersson had 59 points (27 goals, 32 assists).
– Making a return to the lineup after being a scratch the past three games – Jarred Tinordi assisted Lukas Reichel’s opening goal to mark his ninth helper of the season.
– Tyson Foerster is the first Philadelphia Flyers rookie to record 20 goals in a season since Matt Read scored 24 in the 2011-12 season.
– Sean Couturier played in his 790th NHL career game, tying Brian Propp for the fourth in team history.
– After missing 11 games due to a lower-body injury, Nick Seeler had two hits and one blocked shot in 19:15.
