PHILADELPHIA — Connor Bedard had an assist to increase his rookie-leading points total, Philipp Kurashev, Joey Anderson and Lukas Reichel each had a goal and an assist and the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 5-1 on Saturday night.
Nick Foligno and MacKenzie Entwistle also scored for the rebuilding Hawks, who entered with the second-fewest points in the NHL. The Hawks improved to 22-47-5 overall and 7-29-1 on the road. Arvid Soderblom made 30 saves.
“The focus was the start tonight; it was fast,” Hawks coach Luke Richardson said. “We engaged physically and played a real spirited game.”
Tyson Foerster scored for the Flyers, and Samuel Ersson made 19 saves.
This season was expected to be another rebuilding campaign in the second year under coach John Tortorella, but the Flyers are a surprising playoff contender. They last made the postseason in 2020. The Flyers started Saturday holding the final playoff spot in the Metropolitan Division but are now behind the Washington Capitals. Despite both teams having 82 points, the Flyers have played two more games.
Tortorella was shaking his head early and often behind the bench as the Flyers came out slowly against the lowly Hawks, who already have been eliminated from the playoff race.
“We sucked tonight,” Tortorella said. “We didn’t execute. We didn’t make one play.”
Reichel’s wraparound just 2:01 into the contest put the Hawks up 1-0, and Kurashev finished a 3-on-2 with a wrister past Ersson glove side after a pretty cross-ice pass from Bedard.
Bedard improved his team-leading points total to 57 with his 36th assist. The Hawks selected the 18-year-old star No. 1 in last spring’s draft.
After Flyers assistant captain Scott Laughton dropped the gloves with Ryan Donato at the end of the first period in an apparent attempt to spark his team, the Flyers pulled within 2-1 just 17 seconds into the second period on Foerster’s 20th of the season.
But the Flyers couldn’t find the equalizer, and the Hawks took a two-goal lead with 2:32 remaining in the second on Foligno’s power-play tally on a one-timer from the slot. Anderson and Entwistle padded the advantage with goals in the third.
“Our guys did a good job of not really letting them get too much momentum,” Richardson said.
The Flyers were hurt by their own performance on the man-advantage, going 0-for-3. They entered converting at an NHL-worst 13.2% on the power play.
“One thing I know about this group is we’re going to keep fighting until the end,” captain Sean Couturier said.
