POSTGAME 5: Everybody have fun tonight

HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED
In their next-to-last game before the NHL All-Star break and bye week, the Philadelphia Flyers earned a 4-1 win over of the LA Kings. at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday night.
Travis Konecny opened the scoring early in the first period and then bagged a second goal for his team-leading 16th and 17th goal of the season early in the middle stanza. Both goals were assisted by James van Riemsdyk. Joel Farabee got a fortuitous deflection goal that built a 3-0 lead through 40 minutes.
In the third period, Dustin Brown (10th) briefly cut the gap to two goals but van Riemsdyk made it a three-goal game again. Brian Elliott earned the win, stopping 34 of 35 shots. Jack Campbell took the loss, with 21 saves on 25 Flyers shots.
Three Stars:1st: James van Riemsdyk (1g-2a)2nd: Travis Konecny (2g)3rd: Dustin Brown (1g)

TURNING POINT
LA had the better of the play in the opening few minutes of the first period. That is, until Konecny struck for a give-and-go goal off the rush. Philly took over the game.

MELTZER'S TAKE
1) In need of spreading the depth down the middle a little more, the Flyers moved Claude Giroux back to center for this game. He started the sequence that resulted in the give-and-go goal off the rush between eventual scorer Travis Konecny and James van Riemsdyk Even beyond the goal, the line had an excellent first period. Travis Sanheim was also an early standout.
2) The Flyers gambled and lost on a coach's challenge of a goaltender's interference ruling on James van Riemsdyk in the crease that caused a would-be goal to be disallowed. Philly killed the penalty. There was no disallowing the Flyers goal at 3:44 of the second period as Konecny struck again. Couturier forced a turnover behind the LA net. JVR claimed the puck and made a perfect pass-out to an open Konecny, who made no mistake.
3) Farabee made Drew Doughty pay for carelessly high-sticking him behind the LA net. After the Flyers' top unit generated heavy pressure but not a goal, the second unit delivered. A simple point shot by Matt Niskanen with traffic (Farabee) in front bounced in off Farabee's skate. He has tallies in back-to-back games. Sanheim earned a secondary assist on the goal.

4) Elliott stoned Jeff Carter on a breakaway in the opening 90 seconds of the third period to keep the Flyers ahead, 3-0. But Brown beat Matt Niskanen off a counterattack and then scored upstairs to make it a 3-1 game at 5:06. LA continued to push until Nikolai Prokhorkin took an awful offensive zone hooking penalty. The Flyers promptly restored a three-goal lead on a nice deflection by van Riemsdyk.
5) Hopefully, Michael Raffl is OK after taking a heavy hit from Brown behind the Flyers' net in the third period. He finished his shift but did not skate another.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
* Travis Konecny scored the game's first goal for the seventh time this season, which leads the team and ranks second among all NHL players... He also recorded his eighth career two-goal game.
* Joel Farabee scored for the second straight game... Claude Giroux posted two assists... Jakub Voracek led the team with five shots on goal.
* With his assist, Sean Couturier recorded his 200th point playing a home game, which also includes the Winter Classic at Citizen's Bank Park, Stadium Series at Lincoln Financial Field and NHL Global Series in Czech Republic.
* The Flyers still have not lost two games in-a-row in regulation at home all season, going 4-0-0 in the game follows a regulation loss.
* The Flyers have one more game before the Bye/All-Star break and it's a meeting against the rival Pittsburgh Penguins. Puck drop is 7 p.m. on NBCSN & 97.5 The Fanatic.
THEY SAID IT