PHILADELPHIA – Samuel Ersson's entire family from Falun, Sweden — yes, both parents, two brothers and two sisters — traveled to the United States with the hope of watching the Flyers backup goalie play. Even Ersson's girlfriend made the trip. Ersson's family had never seen the 24 year old play live in the NHL until this week, and parents Hans and Lena could not pass up games in Philadelphia.
As for his older siblings?
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“They went on kind of a vacation," Ersson said, laughing. “They'll see other places as well and they'll come here for a little bit.”
What two older brothers and two older sisters missed — what mom and dad were thrilled to experience — was perhaps the performance of the young goalie's career.
Ersson stopped 33 shots for his third career shutout and Cam York scored to lead the Philadelphia Flyers to a 1-0 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday night.
“It was definitely huge to be able to get a shutout,” Ersson said.
Ersson was in net with starting goalie Carter Hart out with an illness. Ersson preserved the early 1-0 lead with 12 saves in the second period for the suddenly streaking Flyers and held strong at the end when the Red Wings used an extra attacker.
“If he continues to play like that,” York said, “we're going to win a lot of hockey games.”
And who would have thought that about the Flyers in training camp?
Seemingly poised for a long season — general manager Danny Briere had been open about the potential rough rebuild ahead toward becoming a contender — the Flyers instead have won six of seven. The hot streak hasn’t been a fluke, either. Under second-year coach John Tortorella, the Flyers now have 17 wins and 37 points in 30 games. They have a point in a season-best eight straight games, certainly good enough to stick them in the Eastern Conference playoff standings.
York beat Alex Lyon for his fifth goal of the season early in the first period — the Flyers improved to 15-1-0 when scoring first and are 11-2-0 when leading after the first period.
“I feel like we're a team that can win 6-5 or 1-0,” York said. “That's something that's really important to be able to do and it's something we didn't do great last year.”
Ersson improved to 6-0-1 over his last seven games. He has two shutouts this season in 11 starts.
“How we're playing as a team is the main part,” Ersson said. “I think for myself, I've been getting more and more confident in the league. Just getting some games under my belt.”
Lyon stopped 14 shots in 15 attempts before he left in the second period with an unspecified injury. Lyon blocked a shot, stumbled out of the crease and awkwardly fell backward. He was replaced by Ville Husso.
Detroit's injury woes continued in the third when forward Robby Fabbri took a stick to the face and skated off hunched over with blood dripping on the ice.
“We knew this would be a tough part of our schedule,” Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. “We have to fight, dig a little bit deeper.”
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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL