The Buffalo Sabres (16-13-7) made the trek to the Wells Fargo Center to take on the host Philadelphia Flyers (19-11-5).
The Flyers began the night with an impressive 11-2-4 home record and Buffalo had the dynamic Jack Eichel who was riding a 17 game scoring streak.
Eichel was a late scratch and Buffalo seemed to go into panic mode.
The Sabres were only able to launch five shots on Carter Hart while the Flyboys were all over Sabre netminder, Carter Hutton.
Luck was not in the Buffalo corner and Mikael Vorobyev lit the lamp when Buffalo’s Conor Sherry inadvertently put the puck in his own net to give Philly the early lead,1-0.
A minute and a half later, the wheels came off for Buffalo when James Van Riemsdyk converted a Matt Niskanen to Kevin Hayes set up to double the lead.
Buffalo challenged the call and were denied putting the Flyers on the power play.
Hayes set up Niskanen and Philadelphia converted for only the second time in 21 power plays to close the first at 3-0.
The three lamp lighters marked the seventh time that Philadelphia scored three goals in one stanza and the first time in the opening stanza.
Philadelphia was in another gear and knocked back three more markers in the middle stanza thanks to Ivan Provorov notching his 5th man-advantage goal followed by Tyler Pitlick who made his return from an injury.
James Van Riemsdyk added his 6th goal in the last 10 games and Philly’s third power-play goal to end the middle stanza with Philadelphia flying, 6-0.
Victor Olafsson broke the shutout with a Buffalo man-advantage tally to spoil the Carter Hart whitewash.
Blue Lines: Shots on Goal favored the home team, 29-17.
The power play witnessed Buffalo going 1 for 2 and the Flyers 3 of 5.
Faceoffs went the way of Philly, 61 to 39% with Mikael Vorobyev going 7 of 9 and Kevin Hayes and Claude Giroux each posting 6 of 7.
By: Kevin Neibauer
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Kevin has followed and promoted the game of lacrosse since May 19, 1974.
The same day the Philadelphia Flyers won the Cup, the Philadelphia Wings were introduced to Neibauer and Philadelphia.
Kevin has covered many sports, including baseball, football, basketball, and.. lacrosse. A former licensed football referee and baseball umpire, Kevin brings a unique insight to his game coverage.
A published writer in JustHockey Magazine, Kevin covered the American Hockey League as well as a monthly story on a pugilist where Kevin used the pen name, The Rink Rat. Neibauer turned his attentions to lacrosse for a few years and does his part, whether podcasting or writing to grow the game. Kevin branched out to his roots and currently provides insight for all Philadelphia teams for Edge of Philly as well as his full-time duties with LaxPhilly.