Tippett Put Up First NHL Hat Trick on Sabres

Owen Tippett put up his first career NHL hat trick in the Flyers’ third win in a month. Philly made short work on the Buffalo Sabres at the Wells Fargo Center, 5-2, on St. Patrick’s day. John Tortorella’s team needed a morale-boosting win, improving to 1-1-0 on its season-long seven-game homestand. The Flyers are 2-0-0 against the Sabres (33-29-6) this season and have outscored them to a whopping 9-2. The clubs meet again for a final time a little over two weeks back at the Wells Fargo Center.

Score Fest for Philly

With the victory, the Flyers (25-32-11) matched their win and point totals from last season’s long and dreadful 2021-2022 season (25-46-11) campaign. Philly still has 14 games to play this season.

It was a night of positives for an organization that sorely needed it. Tippet handled three of the five goals on the night. Joel Farabee and James van Riemsdyk each landed their 10th goal of the season. The marker for Farabee snapped his slump of 26 straight games without a goal.

Ten different Flyers registered a point in the contest. Kevin Hayes and Tony DeAngelo added two assists apiece. Tyson Foerster recorded his first career NHL point with a helper.

Owen Tippett | First Career NHL Hat Trick

Tippett entered this season without a multi-goal game in his NHL career. He has three multi-goal games this season and 21 markers overall on the season. Tippett was arguably the Flyers’ biggest positive in 2022-23. He came to the Flyers last March from the Panthers in the Claude Giroux trade and is looking like a legit piece to the future. On Friday night, Tippett scored one on the power play and two at even strength. The 24-year-old winger made the hats rain down after scoring on a filthy breakaway move in the third period.

A hatty for our red head on St. Paddy's. ☘️#BUFvsPHI | @ConstellationEG pic.twitter.com/8qwc0QqxBv
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) March 18, 2023

The Flyers are rebuilding and purely focused on development for next season. But some victories don’t hurt in the process. They had lost 16 of their previous 20 games (4-12-4), a stretch in which they scored just 2.05 goals per game. So while this win didn’t help their NHL draft lottery odds, it’s good for the confidence of a team trying to build something.

Between the Pipes

Carter Hart got plenty of run support and finished with 36 saves in his return from suffering from the flu. The second goal he allowed came with 0.4 seconds left in the action, and the Sabres on a power play. Both of Victor Olofsson’s goals for Buffalo were on the man advantage. The Sabres came in scoring 3.66 goals per game, third-most in the NHL. But they also came in, allowing 3.61.

The Flyers have held Buffalo star Tage Thompson scoreless in two meetings. The 6-foot-6 winger has 42 goals and 45 assists in 68 games this season. Craig Anderson, the Sabres’ 41-year-old veteran netminder, stopped 17 of the Flyers’ 22 shots.

The Flyers are right back at it Saturday when they host the Metropolitan Division-leading Hurricanes at 5 p.m. Here is a not-so-fun fact for Flyers fact. Tortorella’s club is 2-10-0 in the second game of back-to-back sets.

Al Zaffiri

Al is one of the two co-creators of Edge of Philly Sports. Al started radio and podcasting in 2012 and covering sports in 2015. A lifelong Philly sports fan since watching the Eagles, Phillies, Sixers, and Flyers with his grandfathers at age 7. Al always looks at the other side of the hot topics and gives his different outlook on those topics. Web and Graphic Design.