Hayes-led Flyers with another good response, beat up on Ducks for 8-2-0 stretch originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
On the heels of being dominated in Boston, the Flyers came back home and took it to the lowly Ducks for a 5-2 win Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center.
With an empty-netter, Kevin Hayes punctuated a hat trick. Rasmus Ristolainen and Morgan Frost also provided goals.
Samuel Ersson was in net and beat Anaheim for the second time this month.
Hayes put the Flyers in complete control with his second goal 2:30 minutes into the third period.
Along with Hayes, Ristolainen (one goal, one assist), Travis Konecny (two assists), Scott Laughton (two assists) and Wade Allison (two assists) put up multi-point performances.
The Flyers (19-19-7) improved to 8-2-0 since the NHL-mandated holiday break. They haven’t lost consecutive games during that stretch.
Both of the defeats were blowouts in the first game of a back-to-back set. Each time, the Flyers have responded well the next night to restore some order.
For an organization that recently went through separate losing streaks of 13 games (0-10-3), 10 games (0-8-2) and 10 games (0-7-3) in a little over a span of a year, seeing these responses to a couple of ugly defeats is a positive.
“I think that’s part of the growth we’ve had with the team,” Flyers head coach John Tortorella said. “I hope it continues. I don’t know if it is, I don’t know what’s going to happen here the next 30-plus [games].
“But these are the things we’re asking as we grow as a team. I think when you start thinking you’re a good team and you’re growing, losing two in a row is unacceptable. You need to find a way to win that next one so you don’t get into those streaks.”
The Flyers took a 6-0 beatdown Monday from the NHL-best Bruins. They were able to get back up again.
“I think you can talk yourself into being tired,” Tortorella said pregame. “Everybody talks about back-to-backs, schedule — with back-to-backs for me, I think if you get involved right away, I think your second wind kicks in, I think you feel better. We don’t do much thinking. It’s another game and a game that I want to see our team rebound after our game against Boston.”
The Flyers swept the Ducks (12-28-5) in their two-game regular-season series by a combined score of 9-3.
Anaheim owns the NHL’s worst goal differential at minus-85.
• The Flyers turned the page the way Tortorella had hoped.
He said there was “absolutely nothing” the Flyers could take…