Flyers pull away from the Canucks, 5-2, with 4 3rd-period goals

Jackie Spiegel, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Dec 22, 2025

Published in Hockey

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PHILADELPHIA — Skating in front of a sellout crowd of 19,994 at Xfinity Mobile Arena, the Philadelphia Flyers gave the faithful something to cheer about.

In their final home game of 2025, the Flyers beat the Vancouver Canucks, coach Rick Tocchet’s old team, 5-2.

The Flyers snapped a two-game losing streak with their second win in the past seven games. It is their fourth win out of 11 games in December.

Vladař impresses in net

Standing on the Chase Bridge at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, Flyers general manager Danny Brière revealed that goalie Dan Vladař “has got a little, little boo-boo.” He added his upper-body injury is “nothing too serious” and that “he should be back, we hope, by Monday.”

After not dressing on Saturday, Vladař was indeed back between the pipes on Monday, and the netminder picked up right where he left on in his last start, a 4-1 win against the Montreal Canadiens last Tuesday.

Vladař played his angles well as his defense kept the Canucks away from the front of the net. Through the first two periods, he stopped all 17 shots on goal he faced.

According to Natural Stat Trick, only one — on the power play — was a high-danger shot; and it was the only shot he stopped across two penalty kills. Eleven of the shots were low-danger. Late in the second period, it looked like he even made a save off his mask on a shot by Evander Kane.

The Czech netminder was 6 minutes, 55 seconds away from getting the first Flyers shutout of the season, but Vancouver’s Max Sasson ended the bid. Conor Garland drew in Emil Andrae and made a leading pass to Sasson, who skated in alone and scored.

Drew O’Connor added a goal with 18 seconds left for the Canucks.

May the 4th be with you

The fourth line has been retooled, and it is working. Nikita Grebenkin and Carl Grundström each got on the board for the Flyers.

Grebenkin gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead 13:13 into the second period. Grundström made it 2-0 5:58 into the third period.

To open the scoring, Grebenkin got a stretch pass from Cam York down the left wing boards and, although it bounced off his stick, he chased down the puck. The Russian winger then sent a backhand pass up the boards to Rodrigo Ābols, who was providing support.

Ābols curled away from his check and sent the puck up to Andrae at the point. The Swedish defenseman put a one-timer toward the net, and Grebenkin, who went to the net after being checked along the end boards, tipped in the puck past Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko.

It is Grebenkin’s second goal of the season and his first since Nov. 4 in Montreal, which was also the first of his NHL career.

Grebenkin then played a big role to help Grundström pad the lead with his fourth goal of the season. The 22-year-old winger got the puck high along the right boards from Grundström and carried it down behind the net.

Along the way, he avoided a check by Filip Hronek and then did a little fake before going deeper into the zone. He sent a backhand chip pass to Grundström in front, finding an open lane despite four Canucks surrounding the Swede.

Grundström, who had peeled off and headed to the net after getting the puck to Grebenkin, quickly got the shot off on Demko before getting a second chance and burying it to put the Flyers up 2-0.

Dvorak’s big role

Brière also added that Christian Dvorak would miss Saturday’s game, and he did with a minor lower-body injury. Like Vladař, he returned on Monday and played a big role in the win.

In the third period, the Flyers headed up the ice, and Travis Konecny hit York coming late. The defenseman handed it back to Konecny, who then fed Trevor Zegras skating down the slot. His shot attempt was blocked by Brock Boeser and went off the glass behind the net before Dvorak batted the puck out of the air into the back of net at the left post to put the Flyers ahead 3-0.

It was Dvorak’s eighth of the year.

Breakaways

Owen Tippett pulled off a highlight-reel move — going inside-outside on Vancouver’s Tom Willander — to add a breakaway goal in the third period for his 11th of the season. … Matvei Michkov added an empty-netter for his first goal in December. … Forwards Garnet Hathaway and Nic Deslauriers, and defenseman Noah Juulsen were healthy scratches. It is the second straight scratch for Hathaway and the fourth straight for Juulsen.

Up next

The Flyers get right back at it on Tuesday against the Blackhawks in Chicago.