VANCOUVER — It doesn’t make much sense. Sam Ersson, plainly the Philadelphia Flyers’ No. 1 goalie at the moment, might be the least talked-about goalie in the organization over the past few months.
There was Carter Hart’s removal from the roster in January. The towering Ivan Fedotov, mind-boggling backstory and all, surprisingly joined the team in late March. Then there was the will-he-or-won’t-he come to North America saga of prospect Alexei Kolosov. Heck, even Yegor Zavragin, selected by the Flyers in the third round of the 2023 NHL Draft, has been a talking point among hardcore fans the past few days for his recent dominance in the KHL.
Right now, though, the cage is still mostly the 24-year-old Ersson’s. And he’s out to make a point that he’s actually the guy that fans should be most excited about as the next potential franchise goaltender.
He’s off to a good start. Ersson, coming off of an impressive preseason, was the Flyers’ best player in their 3-2 season-opening win over the Vancouver Canucks on Friday at Rogers Arena, making 24 saves through regulation and overtime and denying four of five Vancouver attempts in the shootout.
His best stops came early. The Canucks, playing their second game of the season after opening the season Wednesday, were the better team territorially, aided by a couple of minor penalties to Scott Laughton and Matvei Michkov. Ersson made a couple of strong stops in tight at the tail end of Vancouver’s first power play, and gloved a shot by Brock Boeser about seven minutes into the game on what was his fanciest save of the evening.
“I thought the key was Ers in the first period,” coach John Tortorella said. “I thought we were awful killing penalties. And they’ve got a good power play. That’s a skilled team. That’s what I thought the key to the game was, Ers just giving us a chance to get our legs.”
Our stars shined bright for Flyers After Dark.
⭐️: Samuel Ersson (24 saves)
⭐️⭐️: Kevin Lankinen (L)
⭐️⭐️⭐️: @camyork2 (1g)#PHIvsVAN | @Toyota pic.twitter.com/rRHaiXvQl4— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) October 12, 2024
The Canucks grabbed a 1-0 lead on a Nils Höglander goal after Ryan Poehling missed a pass from Rasmus Ristolainen in the defensive zone. The Flyers answered on the power play when Tyson Foerster finished off a nifty passing play that started with Bobby Brink and continued with Joel Farabee, who found Foerster cutting to the net for an easy tap-in.
Vancouver took a 2-1 lead in the second on a Teddy Blueger score when the winger snuck behind Jett Luchanko, but the Flyers again answered with Cam York’s tying goal at 2:48 of the third.
The Flyers barely survived a scoreless overtime, thanks in part to a two-minute, five-second shift by Travis Sanheim to close it out that left the defenseman gasping for air at the horn. Travis Konecny and Morgan Frost then converted on their shootout attempts to earn the Flyers the second standings point.
The Flyers were much better in the third period than they were in the first two, outshooting the Canucks 13-8, including York’s score in which he picked the far corner over goalie Kevin Lankinen.
No one will dissect a season opener too much, particularly since the Flyers had gone a full 10 days since their most recent preseason game featuring NHL players. But, much like they did last season when they surprisingly hung around the playoff race, the Flyers squeezed out a win against a more skilled team with their scrappy brand of hockey.
“I think we just wanted to grind them out,” Farabee said. “Obviously they went down to five (defensemen) pretty early (due to an injury to Tyler Myers), and we kind of knew that. We really just want to grind them out down low, tire them out. And obviously Yorkie comes up with a big goal there to tie it up, and Ers locks it down from there.”
Tortorella said there was “more flow in the third. Both teams went back and forth a little bit. Both teams made a ton of mistakes. We find a way to win.”
The Flyers’ most glaring mistake came on Vancouver’s second goal. Luchanko simply didn’t pick up Blueger while the Flyers were scrambling around their own zone, and the veteran winger easily converted a feed from Derek Forbort to give the Canucks the lead back.
But Luchanko and Michkov, both making their NHL debuts, were leaned on heavily throughout the game despite their ups and downs. Luchenko finished with 14:36 of ice time and one shot on goal, while Michkov was at 18:32 with four shots. Both players had significant power-play time, and both were getting shifts late in the tie game and in overtime.
“They deserved to play,” Tortorella said. “I thought Mich looked a little nervous. Both of them were in situations, both of them made some good plays, had some struggles, too, as probably all 40 of them out there tonight. I like what they bring, I do. I don’t think they’re afraid of anything.”
Regarding Vancouver’s second goal on which he erred, Luchanko said: “To be able to go far in this game you have to be able to put that behind you pretty quickly, and just learn from it. It’s something that is important to me is just being able to do that.”
Which is still essentially what this season is all about. Tortorella said Thursday after an off-day skate that everyone expects the two young rookies to make mistakes, but that’s OK, because he wants the team to continue to “play with risk.” Considering the Flyers enter the season as the third-youngest team in the NHL, that doesn’t just apply to the two teenagers, either.
How patient Tortorella will be with those mistakes, well, we’ll see as the season moves along.
But a good goaltender is key of all when those mistakes and breakdowns are being made. Friday, Ersson was that. If he can keep it up and the young Flyers figure out how to make fewer and fewer errors as the season progresses, it might not matter what all of those other goalies in the system making headlines end up doing.
“I think we’d like to give him a little bit more help, maybe not put such a load on him,” Frost said. “But I thought he played really well. Keeps us in the game and gives us a chance to win.”
(Photo of the Flyers’ Travis Sanheim watching Sam Ersson making a save on Vancouver’s Nils Höglander: Bob Frid / Imagn Images
