Flyers vs. Avalanche: Matvei Michkov's Two Goals Push Philadelphia to a Second Straight Win

Nine games without a win had the Philadelphia Flyers looking like a team auditioning for a documentary about rebuilding. Two games later, they look like a team that might have found its leading man.

Matvei Michkov scored twice, Trevor Zegras set up all three goals and the Flyers held off the Colorado Avalanche 3-2 at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Monday night. Joseph Woll made 24 saves for his first win in orange and black, and Philadelphia now has a winning streak, which is a sentence nobody in the city expected to read this month.

Michkov Strikes First, and Then Again

The opening goal came with a little help from the hockey gods. On a first-period power play, Michkov fed the puck from the right corner to Zegras, whose slap-pass caromed off Denver Barkey in front and popped right back to Michkov below the right circle. He had an open net and did not miss at 7:41. Colorado challenged for goaltender interference, and the goal stood.

The Avalanche, last season's Presidents' Trophy winners, never found a rhythm after that. Michkov doubled the lead at 12:23 of the second with the kind of goal that makes highlight producers grateful. He looped through the offensive zone, then fired from above the circles through a forest of bodies, and the puck beat Mackenzie Blackwood on the glove side. Zegras and Noah Cates assisted.

"Those goals are just goal-scorers' goals," Flyers coach Rick Tocchet said. "He's timing it right, because sometimes you overshoot it or you're too late, but he has a knack to do that."

Colorado finally broke through late in the period. Travis Sanheim's roughing minor on Cale Makar at 15:49 gave the Avalanche a power play that Philadelphia killed, but Martin Necas scored three seconds after it expired. Artturi Lehkonen found him above the right circle and Necas roofed a shot over Woll's blocker at 17:52 to make it 2-1 heading into the third.

The Turning Point: Acciari Finally Gets One

Philadelphia opened the third on the penalty kill again after Sean Couturier was called for high-sticking Makar 42 seconds in. The Flyers killed that one too, and then they found the insurance goal that changed the math.

At 6:34, Oliver Bonk let a slap shot go from the right point and Noel Acciari got a stick on it in front, redirecting it past Blackwood for a 3-1 lead. It was the veteran center's first goal as a Flyer and, per NHL.com, his first point in 11 games with the team. Every rebuild needs a grinder who goes to the dirty areas. Acciari has been doing it for weeks without the box score noticing. Monday, it finally noticed.

That cushion mattered, because rookie T.J. Hughes cut it to 3-2 at 14:40. Sam Malinski's point shot deflected off teammate Fedor Svechkov's stick to Hughes, who scored from the right circle for the second straight game. Blackwood went to the bench for an extra attacker with 2:02 left, but Colorado managed only one shot on goal the rest of the way, and Sanheim blocked three other attempts himself to slam the door.

The Kids, the Playmaker and the New Goalie

Matvei Michkov now leads the Flyers with six goals in 11 games. NHL.com noted it took him 22 games to reach six last season, and that he has scored in three straight games for the third time in his career. He is also the first Flyer with a power-play goal in back-to-back games since Travis Konecny did it on Dec. 31, 2024, and Jan. 2, 2025. "I feel so good on ice, and I think I have energy for the season," Michkov said.

Trevor Zegras had three assists and finished plus-2. It was the fourth three-assist game of his NHL career and the first in his two seasons with Philadelphia. When he is threading pucks like this, the Flyers' offense looks a lot less like a group project.

Joseph Woll stopped 24 of 26. He spent the previous five seasons in Toronto, and this was his first victory with Philadelphia. He credited a lineup that was missing five injured regulars, including Konecny, Owen Tippett and Tyson Foerster, plus defensemen Cam York and Rasmus Ristolainen. "You've got guys playing bigger roles, and the guys coming into the lineup, for me, it seems like we didn't take a step down at all from our systems and honestly elevated our play," Woll said.

One of those fill-ins had a night to remember. Cole Knuble made his NHL debut for the team he grew up rooting for, logging 13:44 with one shot on goal. His father, Mike, played for the Flyers from 2005-09 and again in 2013.

Stats That Matter

• Giveaways: Colorado 16, Philadelphia 6. That gap tells you exactly what Jared Bednar was mad about.
• Blocked shots: The Flyers blocked 24 shots to Colorado's 15, and Sanheim's three late blocks came when it counted most.
• Faceoffs: Philadelphia won 56.9 percent of the draws.
• Special teams: Philadelphia went 1-for-2 on the power play and killed both Colorado chances.
• A first: NHL.com noted it was the first time all season the Flyers scored three goals against a goalie. Their third goal in Saturday's win over Ottawa went into an empty net.

What It Means

Philadelphia is 2-6-3 after opening the season 0-6-3, and both wins came in a three-day span: 3-1 over Ottawa on Saturday and now this. That is not a playoff push. It is a pulse. With Tocchet piecing together a lineup from four rookies and a stack of injuries, effort was the one thing he could demand, and he got it. "I just saw a lot of buy-in tonight," he said. "We asked certain things from the team, and we're slowly getting more and more of it." The Flyers visit Buffalo on Wednesday.

Colorado drops to 5-3-1 and heads to New Jersey on Tuesday with its coach in a sour mood. "Sluggish and sloppy," Bednar said. "It's hard to go anywhere when you're beating the puck up, and that's what I thought we did for the bulk of the game." Defenseman Josh Manson echoed it. "I think maybe we found our game a little too late," he said.

Closing Take

For nine games, the Flyers were stuck in the Groundhog Day loop: show up, compete, lose, repeat. Michkov looks like the guy who finally figured out how to break the cycle. Two wins do not make a season, but a young sniper scoring goal-scorers' goals while the injured list fills up is the most hopeful thing Philadelphia hockey has offered in a while.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Postgame quotes and notes from NHL.com; additional reporting from the Associated Press.