No Hart again, but Flyers finish Cali trip with character win originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The Flyers picked up one of their most impressive wins of the season by knocking off the Kings, 4-2, Saturday night at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
Morgan Frost had a breakout performance with two goals. Owen Tippett and Cam Atkinson netted the Flyers’ other markers.
In a surprise start, Cal Petersen beat his old club with 35 saves.
After losing Tuesday to the previously winless Sharks, the Flyers came back to win the final two games of their three-game California road swing. They did so by a combined score of 10-5.
The Flyers (7-7-1) have won consecutive games for the first time since Oct. 17-19, the third and fourth games of the season.
The Kings (8-3-3) entered with just two regulation losses and those were to the Bruins and Avalanche.
John Tortorella’s club split its two-game regular-season series with Los Angeles. The Flyers were shut out by the Kings, 5-0, a week ago in Philadelphia.
• Give the Flyers credit, they showed character in bouncing back from the 2-1 loss to San Jose, a team that was off to a historically bad start at 0-10-1. The Flyers became a punching bag for a few days, but they responded well to it.
This win over Los Angeles was meritorious for many reasons.
The Kings came in riding an eight-game point streak (6-0-2). They were home Thursday and didn’t play Friday.
The Flyers, on the other hand, didn’t have Carter Hart and were playing on the second night of a back-to-back set.
After beating the Ducks, 6-3, the Flyers got out to a 3-0 lead Saturday night and never really came in danger of losing it.
They played ahead in both games, protected leads and grabbed wins against two teams that took it to them in Philly.
• Hart, originally announced as the Flyers’ starter, ended up not playing for a second straight game because of an illness. The 25-year-old netminder has missed the last five games.
Hart has been cleared to return from his mid-body injury, which kept him out for three games.
As a result of Hart’s absence, Petersen faced his former team for the second time in eight days. The 29-year-old came to the Flyers from Los Angeles in the three-team Ivan Provorov trade this offseason. He opened the season with AHL affiliate Lehigh Valley.
“It has been a challenging part of my career, but I think ultimately it’s going to make me a better goaltender, a better person and hopefully a better NHLer,” he said a week ago after losing to the…