Ducks vs. Flyers: Leo Carlsson Burns the Team That Tried to Sign Him in Anaheim's 5-4 Comeback

Last summer, the Philadelphia Flyers wanted Leo Carlsson badly enough to sign him to a five-year offer sheet. The Anaheim Ducks matched it and kept him. On Saturday, the Flyers got a front-row seat to what they missed.

Carlsson scored Anaheim's first goal and set up the game-winner, Tristan Luneau had a goal and two assists, and the Ducks erased a two-goal hole to beat the Flyers 5-4 at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Saturday afternoon. The win snapped a five-game losing streak for Anaheim, and every one of those five losses had come in regulation.

Philly Strikes First, Then Chaos Takes Over

The first period turned on one sequence at 13:41. A.J. Greer dropped the gloves with Hunter McDonald and was tagged with an instigator penalty and a misconduct on top of the fighting major, 17 penalty minutes in one shift. Sam Colangelo went off for roughing on the same play, and suddenly Philadelphia had a 5-on-3.

The Flyers cashed in twice on that one advantage. Matvei Michkov fired through a Porter Martone screen from atop the circles at 13:59, and 63 seconds later Martone tapped in a Travis Sanheim seam pass at the right post. Trevor Zegras assisted on both. It was 2-0, and the home crowd smelled a fourth straight win.

Anaheim spent the rest of the period and the start of the second feeding the Flyers more power plays. Jackson LaCombe alone took three minors by 5:48 of the second. Philadelphia, to the Ducks' great fortune, could not make them pay again.

Then Carlsson went to work. At 8:38 of the second, Cutter Gauthier fed him from behind the net and Carlsson one-timed it from the slot to make it 2-1. Gauthier, who per the AP is still hearing it from Flyers fans three years after forcing his way out of Philadelphia, got the last laugh on that one.

At 13:07, Greer, back from his long stay in the box, tied it 2-2. It took a ruling to confirm it: the shot went off the far post, and Joseph Woll's skate was judged to have crossed the goal line completely, per the Ducks' website. From the penalty box to the score sheet in under 20 minutes of game time is peak hockey.

The Turning Point: A 75-Second Answer

This is where most slumping teams fold. Sean Couturier went off for roughing at 13:52, giving Anaheim a power play, and instead the Flyers struck shorthanded. Tyson Foerster beat Lukas Dostal low from the right side at 15:04, the puck squeezing under his pads. Philadelphia led 3-2, and Anaheim had just been burned on its own man advantage.

The Ducks did not blink. Just 75 seconds later, Judd Caulfield redirected an Alex Killorn pass for his second goal of the season, and it was 3-3 heading to the third. Without that answer, a five-game skid might well have become six.

Two minutes into the final period, Luneau found a sliver of space between Woll's arm and body from the right side for his first goal of the season and Anaheim's first lead of the day. When Jacob Gaucher went off for tripping at 5:48, the Ducks finally converted with the extra man: Carlsson fired a feed toward the net and Beckett Sennecke tipped it between Woll's pads at 7:10 for a 5-3 lead.

Michkov answered 67 seconds later, crashing the crease and jamming a loose puck under Dostal for his second of the game. That set up more than 11 nervy minutes, capped by a Sennecke hooking call with 41 seconds left that handed Philadelphia one last power play. Anaheim survived it.

Stars of the Afternoon

Carlsson had a goal and an assist in 20:26, and he now leads the Ducks with 13 points (three goals, 10 assists), per the AP. On a day built around his offer sheet saga, he delivered the kind of game that explains why both teams wanted him.

Luneau was the quiet MVP, with a goal, two assists and a plus-3 rating in 17:47. He assisted on both second-period equalizers, from Greer and Caulfield, then scored the go-ahead goal himself. Not bad for a defenseman who entered the day without a goal this season.

Sennecke scored his sixth of the season on the power play. Dostal made 28 saves on 32 shots, not his cleanest afternoon, but he held the fort over the final 11-plus minutes.

For Philadelphia, Michkov scored twice to reach eight goals and extend his point streak to five games, according to the AP. Martone had a goal and an assist, Zegras added two assists in 21:32, and Woll made 21 saves on 26 shots.

Stats That Matter

• 7: Power-play chances for Philadelphia. The Flyers scored on two of them, both off the same first-period sequence of penalties.
• 34-20: Anaheim's edge in hits. The Ducks played heavy all afternoon.
• 32-26: Philadelphia's edge in shots, which did not stop the Ducks from scoring on 5 of their 26.
• 8-1: Flyers takeaways. Philadelphia won a lot of battles and still lost the game.
• 4: Different Ducks who scored at even strength in the comeback: Carlsson, Greer, Caulfield and Luneau.

What It Means

Anaheim moves to 5-6-0 with 10 points. The Ducks had scored five goals combined in the last three losses of that skid, against the Rangers, Islanders and Devils, so matching that total in one afternoon felt like a dam breaking. The skid is over, the Ducks are 4-3-0 on the road, and they head home to begin a three-game homestand Tuesday against Vancouver.

Philadelphia falls to 3-7-3 with nine points. The Flyers opened the season 0-6-3 before winning three straight, and that streak ends here. They are 2-3-2 at home and host Columbus on Tuesday.

Buyer's Remorse, Reversed

Philadelphia tried to buy Leo Carlsson last summer. On Saturday, it paid for him anyway. The Flyers had the early lead, the power plays and the shorthanded dagger, and the player they could not sign still walked out with the win. Call it the revenge of the matched offer sheet.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details from the Associated Press and the Anaheim Ducks on nhl.com.