Philadelphia, PA – In their final tune-up before the regular season, the Philadelphia Flyers edged out the New Jersey Devils in a 4-3 shootout victory at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Saturday afternoon. With a roster largely composed of AHL players, the Devils put up a good fight, but ultimately fell short against a Flyers team looking to build momentum heading into the season opener.
The game was shifted to an earlier start time of 12:30 PM due to the Philadelphia Phillies' Major League Baseball playoff game.
The first period saw both teams trade goals. Kevin Rooney deflected a shot past Flyers goalie Dan Vladar to give the Devils a 1-0 lead at 16:09. However, the Flyers responded quickly when Travis Sanheim scored his third of the preseason, assisted by Jett Luchanko and Nikita Grebenkin, tying the game before the end of the period. Shots were even at 11-11 after the first 20 minutes.
New Jersey regained the lead early in the second period on a power play, with Lenni Hameenaho finishing off a tic-tac-toe passing play. The Flyers answered again, this time with a power-play goal of their own. Matvei Michkov set up Travis Konecny, who wired a wrist shot past Devils goaltender Jake Allen to tie the game at 2-2. Shots favored the Flyers 21-13 through two periods.
The third period saw chances for both teams, but the goaltenders held strong until a miscue by Vladar allowed Arseny Gritsyuk to feed Paul Cotter for an easy goal into the empty net, giving the Devils a 3-2 lead with nine minutes remaining. With their netminder pulled late in the game, Konecny scored his second of the night with less than two minutes remaining, tying the game and forcing overtime.
The overtime period featured multiple high-quality scoring chances for both sides, but neither team could find the back of the net, sending the game to a shootout. Trevor Zegras and Travis Konecny both scored in the shootout, while Vladar stopped both New Jersey shooters to secure the 4-3 victory for the Flyers.
Vladar finished the game with 22 saves on 25 shots. Allen made 33 saves on 36 shots for the Devils. Konecny, Sanheim, and Jamie Drysdale each recorded two points in the game.
The Flyers will begin their 2025-26 regular season on Thursday night.
