Matvei Michkov did not score on Monday, but the Philadelphia rookie had a hand in both goals as hosts the Flyers earned a 2-1 victory over the Nashville Predators.
Ryan Poehling and Jamie Drysdale got the goals for the Flyers (31-36-9, 71 points), who won their third straight. Michkov and Travis Konecny assisted on both.
Ivan Fedotov stopped 28 shots to earn his first win since March 1, ending a personal six-game losing streak.
Photo: Kyle Ross-Imagn Images
Zachary L’Heureux got the lone goal for Nashville. Michael McCarron and Brady Skjei got the assists for the Predators (27-39-8, 62 points), who have just four goals in their past three games — all losses.
Justus Annunen made 16 saves, but lost his fifth straight decision (0-4-1).
Michkov entered having scored twice in both of the Flyers’ previous two games. He did not score, but he settled for his third straight multipoint game and 18th of the season.
Photo: Kyle Ross-Imagn Images
The Calder Trophy candidate had his chances.
Filip Forsberg robbed Michkov of a likely goal midway through the first period when he flipped a rolling puck off the goal-line after a breakaway chance.
Michkov also had a shot ricochet off the crossbar in the second period.
Still, he helped the Flyers take the lead less than a minute later on Poehling’s goal with 11 minutes, 10 seconds left in the second period.
L’Heureux tied the game by putting in a rebound from the slot, but that lasted just 34 seconds. Drysdale got the winner after Michkov could not control a loose puck, which went to the crashing defenseman with 6:14 left in the second.
The Predators thought they would get a power play to start the third period as Drysdale was assessed a high-sticking penalty at the end of the second. However, it was overturned after officials determined the puck and not the blueliner’s stick hit Nashville’s Steven Stamkos in the head.
With 8:25 left, Nashville thought Stamkos tied the game, but officials said he interfered with Fedotov.
The Predators also had chances after pulling Annunen in the final two minutes, but the Flyers prevented them from getting to Fedotov.
Elsewhere, the Stars sank the Kraken 3-1, the Devils edged the Wild 3-2 in a shoot-out and the Flames pipped the Avalanche 3-2, also in a shoot-out.
Additional reporting by staff writer
The Rakuten Monkeys on Sunday downed the CTBC Brothers 2-1, handing the hosts their second consecutive loss in the best-of-seven CPBL Taiwan Series at the Taipei Dome. Monkeys’ ace starter Pedro Fernandez of the Dominican Republic dominated on the mound, cruising through six scoreless innings before giving up a run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh inning. He gave up only three hits and walked two batters in a 93-pitch outing, giving his Taoyuan-based team an edge. Offensively, the Monkeys’ leadoff batter Lin Li hit Brothers starter Brandon Leibrandt’s pitch over the center-field wall in the game’s first at-bat,
The tiny village club of Mjallby AIF on Monday won the top tier Swedish soccer league with a 2-0 away win at IFK Gothenburg, sealing the title with three rounds of matches remaining. Jacob Bergstrom and Tom Pettersson scored the goals in Mjallby’s 20th win in 27 league games. Mjallby has a population of fewer than 1,400 people and plays in an outdated 6,000-seat stadium with stands weathered by the winds of the Baltic Sea. “It’s a huge relief to experience this now, a relief with three games to go,” said Anders Torstensson, a former army officer and secondary-school teacher who coaches the
Jahmyr Gibbs was offered oxygen on the bench after a 78-yard run. He turned it down. Clearly, he was not out of breath. Gibbs on Monday scored on a long sprint in the second quarter, a five-yard spinning plunge in the third and accounted for a career-high 218 yards from the scrimmage to lead the Detroit Lions in a 24-9 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. “You felt like this was coming,” Detroit coach Dan Campbell said. “This has been building.” The Lions (5-2) bounced back from a loss as they have done flawlessly for nearly three years, extending their NFL-long streak of 51 games
Rafael Leao on Sunday shot AC Milan to the top of Serie A with a brace in a 2-1 win over ACF Fiorentina who were enraged by the “scandalous” awarding of the penalty that decided the game. Portugal winger Leao pushed Milan one point ahead of local rivals Inter, SSC Napoli and AS Roma with a coolly taken spot-kick, given for what looked like a soft foul on Santiago Gimenez by Fabiano Parisi, with four minutes remaining. That goal capped a fine first league start of the season for Leao and came after he drew the hosts level with a brilliantly struck
RSS