PHILADELPHIA — Tyson Foerster and Bobby Brink each scored and the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-2 after a power outage led to a nine-minute delay on Tuesday night.
Both Foerster and Brink had recently returned to the lineup.
The Flyers also got goals from three defensemen, Travis Sanheim, Sean Walker, and an empty-netter from Cam York in the third period. Noah Cates also added an empty-netter and goalie Samuel Ersson made 21 saves to earn the win, just the second in the last six games for Philadelphia.
“The biggest point I take out of this is we didn’t lose our concentration. It was an easy game to get caught up in all the delays and the lights,” Flyers coach John Tortorella said, referring to the first-period delay caused by a partial power outage at the Wells Fargo Center. “For two periods it was two teams not doing much, so to come out and play a good third period, it’s a good sign.”
Nicholas Paul and Steven Stamkos each scored for the Lightning, who had their four-game road winning streak snapped. Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 23 shots. Nikita Kucherov picked up an assist on Stamkos’ goal, adding to his league-leading point total. Kucherov has 103 points in 60 games.
Tampa Bay had won eight straight games in Philadelphia but that streak ended as well after the third period snowballed on them.
“We’ve had a lot of success in this building, so at some point something’s going to give,” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. “They got that early one (in the third period) and it went their way.”
Foerster made a nifty toe-drag move to pass the puck to himself between his own legs before sliding a backhander past Vasilevskiy 54 seconds into the third period.
“I didn’t have any sense of trying to take it to the net, I was just trying to get it on net. I don’t know if it was the lights or not, but it just squeaked in and I was happy,” he said.
Foerster returned to the lineup Sunday after missing four games with a lower-body injury after blocking a shot.
Brink opened the scoring 2:22 into the first period, firing a shot off Vasilevskiy’s blocker and into the net.
Brink, who was with the Flyers to start the season, was sent down to Lehigh Valley of the AHL on Jan. 22 in hopes to jumpstart his season.
He was recalled prior to the game Tuesday, and made an immediate impact, scoring on his first shift.
“When you try to prepare yourself for a lot of challenges that’s probably one you don’t prepare for,” Ersson said of the lighting issues. “It was just weird because it was different. It felt old school, maybe hockey from 50 years ago. That’s kind of what it looked like for me.”
With the Flyers leading 1-0 and 13:43 remaining in the first period, a section of the building lost power and the game was stopped.
The emergency lighting remained on and the teams resumed play. The end of the rink where Tampa Bay was shooting was a bit darker than the rest of the rink. Most of the East end of the building was without power, including on the concourses, in suites and on the balcony level where executives from both teams, the broadcast booths and the press box is located.
“During the first period we had a transformer on the event level go,” said Phil Laws, President of the Wells Fargo Center. “It blew up. Burnt up. I don’t know why. I don’t know if it came from external stuff or inside the building.”
UP NEXT
Lightning: Host the Sabres on Thursday.
Flyers: Visit the Capitals on Friday.
