Avalanche fends off pesky Flyers in 3-2 win

Corey Masisak, The Denver Post on Dec 7, 2025

Published in Hockey

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PHILADELPHIA — Mackenzie Blackwood had some time to think about staring down the greatest shootout player in NHL history Sunday afternoon.

He decided, in this critical spot, trying not to think was his best path to success.

Blackwood stopped Trevor Zegras on a penalty shot early in the third period and the Colorado Avalanche hung on to defeat the Philadelphia Flyers, 3-2, at Xfinity Mobile Arena.

“Good challenge,” Blackwood said. “Great challenge. He’s a hell of penalty shooter, man. That guys’s skills are next level. In the back of my mind, I was just trying to be very patient and make him make all the moves. Don’t chase him around and try to kind of wait him out.

“I wasn’t really thinking. I was just waiting for him to make a move.”

The Avs weren’t particularly happy that it was a penalty shot. Nathan MacKinnon clearly committed the holding infraction, but he first made contact with Zegras in the neutral zone and the Flyers forward was still able to get a shot off a second later.

Zegras has scored 17 times on 25 career shootout attempts. His 68.0% conversion rate is the best in league history for players with at least 10 attempts. He took a very slow and meandering path to the net, but Blackwood turned aside his shot directed towards the five-hole.

“I didn’t like that we had both D activating and then that guy getting in behind us at that point in the game,” Bednar said. “That was my concern, and the penalty shot … that’s a judgement call by the official, I guess.”

In the end, it truly was a group effort to hang on. Blackwood made 24 saves and Brock Nelson’s power-play goal proved to be a difference maker for the Avs.

When Valeri Nichushkin whipped a wrist shot past Flyers goalie Samuel Ersson after a cross-ice pass from Devon Toews at 1:47 of the second period, the Avalanche had a 3-1 lead and a 15-4 advantage in shots on goal. At that point, the Avs looked in total control.

Whether it was bad decisions with the puck or sagging energy levels from playing a third road game in less than four days — or both of those things feeding each other — the Flyers were able to keep this from being yet another Colorado runaway in a season full of them.

Travis Konecny made it a 3-2 game at 5:58 of the second. Josh Manson drove the net in the Flyers end and had a centering pass sent in his direction, but when that connection did not work out the home side went the other way quickly. That left Brent Burns on an island, and then a bank pass off the right boards from Emil Andre helped Konecny slip behind the veteran defenseman.

Konecny's subtle fake like he was going left appeared to fool Blackwood and allowed him space to beat the goalie along the ice.

Some of the issues in the second period bled into the third, and a desperate Flyers team poured on the pressure. Blackwood made several key saves, but there were also two wide-open nets on rebounds or busted plays that a player in front of him prevented a goal on as well.

"They were throwing a lot of pucks at the net," Manson said. "They were creating a lot around the net. They're a dangerous team like that. The way we collapsed and supported each other and played strong around the net — that was the key to victory in the third."

Sean Couturier gave the Flyers an early lead with a tip-in goal from a tight angle. Noah Juulsen's shot was going two feet wide of the Colorado cage, but Couturier was able to direct it just inside the near post at 2:09 of the opening period.

Philadelphia had two shots on goal at that point. The Avs went into lock-down mode for a while after that, yielding just two more shots in the next 21 minutes en route to building a 3-1 advantage.

Burns evened the score at 8:28 of the first. Martin Necas had the puck low in the left circle but found Burns with a diagonal pass and his shot from the edge of the right circle beat Ersson for his fourth goal of the season.

Necas, who had three assists Saturday in a win against the New York Rangers, had a point on six straight Colorado goals dating back to the final two scored Thursday night on Long Island.

Nelson scored a rare power-play goal for the Avs to take the lead late in the first. A Cale Makar shot from the top of the offensive zone led to a goal-mouth scramble, with Nelson finding a way to poke the puck across the line for his 10th of the season. MacKinnon had an assist on the play, giving him a league-leading 49 points.

"Really good first power play," Bednar said. "I think we had four scoring chances on it, finally put in a rebound. Took some shots with traffic. We moved it around and had the one-timer that we missed an open net on.

"Good attack mentality, puck was moving quick and good net presence — put all three of those together for a full two minutes and you get rewarded."

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