PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Travis Konecny had a goal and an assist to help the Philadelphia Flyers snap a five-game losing streak with a 3-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night.
Scott Laughton and Garnet Hathaway also scored for Philadelphia. Samuel Ersson made 32 saves.
Erik Karlsson and Kevin Hayes had tallies for Pittsburgh, and Joel Blomqvist stopped 17 shots.
Penguins captain Sidney Crosby (upper body) missed his second straight contest after sitting out Friday’s 3-2 win over the Rangers. Pittsburgh also was without Evgeni Malkin (lower body) and Bryan Rust, who was placed on injured reserve on Saturday.
It was the final game for both teams before a two-week pause in the NHL season for the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament. Crosby is scheduled to be one of three Penguins to participate, along with Karlsson and Rickard Rakell. Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan is the head coach of the United States team, which will compete against Canada, Finland and Sweden.
Flyers coach John Tortorella will assist Sullivan, and Philadelphia’s Konecny, Travis Sanheim, Rasmus Ristolainen and Ersson are playing.
Takeaways
Penguins: The two-week break comes at a good time for the Penguins, with Crosby, Malkin and Rust sidelined by injuries.
Flyers: From his first shift, Andrei Kuzmenko, acquired from Calgary last month, gave the Flyers energy and skilled play. He had an assist in his first game with Philadelphia.
Key moment
Hayes pulled the Penguins within a goal with 14:18 left in the third. The tally originally was disallowed due to goaltender interference but overturned on video review after Sullivan challenged the call on the ice. As a result, the game was tight until the final whistle.
Key stat
229 — The number of consecutive games in which Crosby played before missing Friday’s contest.
Up next
Both teams return to action on Feb. 22 when the Penguins host the Capitals and the Flyers host the Oilers.
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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
The Associated Press
