Sharks push Flyers, but lose, 4-3, on penalties

PHILADELPHIA – The Flyers downed the visiting San Jose Sharks on Monday night, 4-3, after penalties.

Matvei Michkov, who returned from two healthy scratches, scored in the penalty phase of the game.

He also had a goal and two points in regulation.

“With the two games missing, I had plenty of energy and feel really good,” Michkov said through an interpreter. “The two games I watched, it was good to watch and good to get some time off and rethink.”

Samuel Ersson made 27 saves through the extra session and stopped two skaters on penalties.

Travis Konecny also scored in regulation for the Flyers, and scored on a penalty shot.

“You can sense that our game is really coming,” Konecny said. “We’re playing more consistently the last four games in the style we want to play and getting better results.”

Erik Johnson put the Flyers up, 1-0, with 1:40 gone in the first period.

“Started with a great breakout in our own end and I just jumped into the play and he put it right on my tape, and I just had to do the rest,” Johnson said. “Felt good to get an early goal at home and get rolling. … Especially with them on the back-to-back, we wanted to pounce on them early.”

Konecny pushed the lead to 2-0 at 15:56 of then fist with a power-play strike.

Michkov stretched the advantage to 3-0 on a breakaway.make it 3-0

“He’s competitive, that’s what we love about him,” Konecny said. “He brings all the other stuff to the game, the skill and that offensive mindset, but he also competes, and he hangs in there. He had some hits tonight too. So he’s not just contributing on offense, he’s trying to do different parts of the game; block shots, too. He’s obviously great, and in the things you guys don’t talk about, he’s also trying to do those too. He’s trying to play on the other side of the puck the right way, contribute to all aspects. It was good to see him have a good game tonight.”

The Sharks rallied back to force the extra session.

The Sharks trimmed the deficit to 3-1 on a strike by William Eklund at 15:29 of the middle frame.

Mikael Granlund cut the Flyers’ lead to one at 18:33, sending the game to the third with the Sharks trailing 3-2.

Barclay Goodrow forced the extra session when he scored with less than three minutes left in the third period.

“I think we fought hard,” Goodrow said. “Obviously you don’t want to dig yourself a [3-0] hole like that to begin with. But once we were there, I thought we fought hard to get it back. Obviously would have liked the extra point, but I think we did a good job in getting it there.”

Vitek Vanecek made 39 saves in the loss.