Travis Konecny had two goals, while coach Alain Vigneault won his debut with Philadelphia as the Flyers won their season-opening 4-3 over the Chicago Blackhawks in the Czech Republic on Friday.
Oskar Lindblom and Michael Raffl also scored for the Flyers in front of a sellout crowd of 17,463 at Prague’s O2 Arena as part of the NHL’s Global Series. Carter Hart stopped 28 shots.
It was the first regular-season game outside of North America in Philadelphia’s 52-year history.
Photo: AFP
Patrick Kane had a goal and two assists for Chicago, who opened the 2009-2010 season in Finland. Alex Nylander and Alex DeBrincat also scored.
The Blackhawks are hoping to return to the playoffs after a two-year absence, but defensemen Dennis Gilbert and Slater Koekkoek each made a costly mistake.
Konecny turned Gilbert’s turnover into a 1-0 lead for Philadelphia 6 minutes, 24 seconds into the first period, beating Corey Crawford on his glove side.
Lindblom was credited with a power-play goal 6 minutes, 28 seconds into the second when his shot bounced off the crossbar and was deflected by Koekkoek into the net. Konecny then converted a backhander with 1 minute, 56 seconds remaining in the period, giving the Flyers a 3-1 lead.
The Blackhawks pulled within one when DeBrincat one-timed a pass from Kane past Hart with 13 seconds left in the second. Raffl responded for Philadelphia in the third, skating around the net and sliding a backhand between Crawford’s pads for a 4-2 lead before Kane scored with 2 minutes, 7 seconds remaining.
Crawford finished with 34 saves.
The NHL returned to Europe for the third straight year as part of its efforts to grow the fan base in countries like the Czech Republic, Sweden, Finland and others. It is to return to Europe next month when the Tampa Bay Lightning face the Sabres in the Swedish capital of Stockholm.
In the US, Tomas Nosek had two goals and an assist and Marc-Andre Fleury finished with 34 saves as the visiting Vegas Golden Knights completed a convincing sweep of their season-opening series against against the San Jose Sharks with a 5-1 victory.
Elsewhere, the Washington Capitals beat the New York Islanders 2-1, the Winnipeg Jets defeated the New Jersey Devils 5-4 and the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-1.
Additional reporting by staff writer and Reuters
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