CHICAGO (AP) — Travis Konecny scored and added his 300th career assist, leading the Philadelphia Flyers past the Blackhawks 3-1 on Tuesday night and handing depleted Chicago its sixth straight loss.
Noah Cates had a power-play goal, Carl Grundstrom added an empty-netter and Philadelphia leading scorer Trevor Zegras assisted on Konecny’s goal to extend his point streak to a career-high nine games. The Flyers won their second straight, coming off a 5-2 win over Vancouver on Monday.
Samuel Ersson made 20 saves and Sean Couturier had two assists.
Chicago’s Ryan Donato scored to end an 11-game drought. Spencer Knight stopped 23 shots for the Blackhawks, who’ve dropped eight of nine and have just three wins in their last 17.
Chicago played tight hockey in its fifth game without leading-scorer Connor Bedard. He’s out until at least early January with a shoulder injury.
The Blackhawks also were without center Frank Nazar, sidelined for four weeks after being struck in the face with a shot Saturday at Ottawa. Captain Nick Foligno remains out with a hand injury.
Konecny opened the scoring at 10:17 of the first, 18 seconds after the Flyers killed a penalty to Zegras. Konecny drove down the right side of the slot and tapped in Zegras’ pinpoint cross-ice feed for his 11th goal.
Cates muscled in a shot from the crease, despite being tied up by Alex Vlasic, for a power play goal at 11:13 of the second to up the Flyers lead to 2-0. The score capped a tight passing sequence, with Konecny feeding Cates from the edge of the crease with a slick backhand pass.
Donato cut it to 2-1 during a 4-on-4 with 1:30 left in the second, firing in a screened shot from the top of the slot.
Ersson made several sharp saves to preserve the lead, including on Teuvo Teravainen’s one-timer with 3:45 left. Grundstrom’s fired into an empty net with 2:08 left
Up next
Flyers: At Seattle on Sunday;
Blackhawks: At Dallas on Saturday.
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AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/NHL
