The Philadelphia Flyers earned their first victory of the 2024-25 NHL season with a 3-2 shootout win over the Vancouver Canucks on Friday night (and Saturday morning on the East Coast). Morgan Frost scored the deciding goal in the shootout allowing Philly to celebrate Matvei Michkov and Jett Luchanko’s first NHL game with the best possible outcome – a win.
Sam Ersson made 24 saves including some crucial stops early in the game when the Flyers struggled to find their skating legs during the first moments. With the win, the Philadelphia Flyers are 8-0-2 over their last 10 season-opening contests.
1st Period
As the Flyers took the ice in their inaugural game, the team’s first-round draft selection from 2024 made history of his own. Jett Luchanko skated onto the ice in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada becoming the youngest Flyers player ever at 18 years and 51 days old on Friday night.
Sam Ersson provided a reliable presence in the net early on as Philadelphia back-to-back penalties early in the opening frame. A little more than halfway into the first period, a bad defensive zone turnover led to a Nils Hoglander goal to give the Canucks a 1-0 lead.
However, unlike last season, the Flyers would score on their first power-play opportunity over their own in 2024. A pretty passing play between Bobby Brink, Joel Farabee, and Tyson Foerster landed the frozen black rubber disc in the back of the Vancouver net to tie the game at 1-1.
2nd Period
The Vancouver Cancuks scored the only goal of the second period when Teddy Blueger found his way unmarked to the side of Flyers goalie Sam Ersson. Canucks forward Derek Forbort also saw his buddy near the post slipping a pass over to the Blueger to deposit safely into the net for a 2-1 advantage for Vancouver.
3rd Period
The Flyers entered the third period down a goal, but it did not take very long for them to tie the game up in the final regulation period. Center Ryan Poehling tossed a pass across the zone to Cam York who fired a laser off the right post before ricocheting out of the net. Play continued for a few moments before game action was stopped by officials to award Philly the game-tying 2-2 tally.
Philadelphia was forced to kill off a pair of third-period man-advantage opportunities in the third period. One of the better penalty-killing units in the NHL last season, the Flyers finished 5-5 on the game on the PK against a dangerous offense attack unit for the Canucks.
Flyers win in a shootout
Neither the Philadelphia Flyers nor the Vancouver Canucks threatened much in the 5-minute 3-on-3 extra session. In the shootout session, the Canucks struck first on a Jake Debrusk wrist shot on the third (and final guaranteed) shot for Vancouver. Travis Konecny, the Flyers’ leading scorer from last season, tied the shootout at 1-1 by Canucks goalie Kevin Lankinen.
The Flyers and Canucks traded saves before Morgan Frost buried the game-winner on a deliberate, slow-moving shootout attempt before ripping a wrist shot past Lankinen for a 2-1 win in the shootout and a 3-2 win in the NHL record books.
Matvei Michkov & Jett Luchanko
Matvei Michkov skated a total of 18:32 minutes of ice time in his first NHL game. The 19-year-0ld forward had 4 shots on goal, including one in the 3rd period which Michkov attempted to pull an NHL-25 style videogame move with a shot-from-between-his-legs. It took some time for the young rookie to settle into the game, but he started to look more comfortable in the third period.
Jett Luchanko received 14:36 of ice time in his debut at the NHL level. Luchanko finished -1 as the rookie was on the ice during Vancouver’s second-period goal. Jett flashed NHL-level speed in his first real comparison against NHL competition. The Flyers have 8 NHL games remaining in his evaluation period before needing to decide on starting the 18-year-old’s rookie contract.
During post-game interviews, Morgan Frost said “(the rookies) looked as calm as ever for guys making their debuts”. Frost continued, “Even over the last couple of days, they’ve been pretty stoic. I don’t know what they were really feeling inside, but they weren’t showing much. They are both big parts of the team, and I thought they played well tonight.”
Game #2 is Saturday Night
The Philadelphia Flyers (1-0) travel for a game at the Scotiabank Saddledome tomorrow night against the Calgary Flames (1-0). It’s the home opener for Calgary and marks the first NHL game in the city since the death of longtime Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau this summer. “Johnny Hockey” played in 602 games for Calgary over 9 NHL seasons.
The Flames announced last month they will repurpose some items left in the memorial for Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau, including creating hockey stick benches in the brother’s memory. Game time is scheduled for 10 pm EST tonight in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
One final note from Friday night, Flyers defenseman Nick Seeler was placed on injured reserve prior to the game and was not available for John Tortorella’s season-opening lineup with a day-to-day knee injury. Since the injury is retroactive to October 1st, there should be no waiting period if Seeler can play in any of the remaining 3 games of this West Coast road swing.
Mandatory Credit: Bob Frid-Imagn Images
