Knights Slay Flyers, 5-4

The Philadelphia Flyers (21-12-5) continued their holiday road trip and made a stop in Sin City, to face the Las Vegas Golden Knights (12-15-6) in a spirited Thursday night affair.

A wildly entertaining first period featured 6 goals (4 by Vegas), a combined 30 shots and 30 hits.

The story of the period had to be Vegas defenseman, Jon Merrill, who had played every shift of 343 NHL games on defense..

The Knights were short of offense and Merrill answered the call.

In a SportsCenter Top 10 goal, Merrill was on both knees, corralled a Nicolas Roy rebound and went from forehand to backhanded to beat Carter Hart.

The power play or lack thereof continues to haunt the Flyers.

Team Philly had a golden … pardon the pun… opportunity to get the game knotted up.

Vegas was called for a penalty with just 2:46 left to give the Flyguys a :5 on 4.

Philly kept working and was rewarded with another whistle that gave them a 5 on 3 with 1:26 to the goal.

Coach Alain Vigneault opted to pull netminder Carter Hart, but Vegas put it in another gear and closed the door to hold on for the 5-4 victory.

Las Vegas also got goals from Shea Theodore, Cody Glass and a pair from Max Pacioretty. Marc Andre Fleury was outstanding the nets and turned aside 34 shots with one being on a penalty shot.

Conversely, Carter Hart stopped 28 shots in his first start against the Knights. Sean Couturier lit the lamp twice and Claude Giroux and Travis Konecny each added a single marker.

By: Kevin Neibauer

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Kevin Neibauer

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.