Jakub Voracek powers Flyers to seventh straight win

PHILADELPHIA -- Philadelphia Flyers forward Michael Raffl finally decided to listen to teammate Jakub Voracek, and it paid off at the most optimal time.
Raffl scored with 1:29 remaining in the third period to lift the Flyers to their seventh straight win, 6-5 against the Edmonton Oilers at Wells Fargo Center on Thursday.
He got a cross-ice pass from Voracek, powered around Oilers defenseman Oscar Klefbom to get to the net and beat goaltender Jonas Gustavsson for the game-winner.

WATCH: All Oilers vs. Flyers highlights
"[Voracek] has been hard on me to use that play for three years now," Raffl said. "First time it worked. … I just put a little fake in there and got around [Klefbom] and chipped it up high."

Voracek had a goal and three assists, Claude Giroux had two goals and an assist, and Mark Streit and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scored for Philadelphia (16-10-3). Steve Mason made 28 saves.
Connor McDavid, whose 38 points lead the NHL, had a goal and an assist for Edmonton (14-11-4). Leon Draisaitl had a goal and two assists, Klefbom, Andrej Sekera and Benoit Pouliot scored, and Gustavsson made 25 saves.
The Flyers trailed 5-3 after Klefbom scored at 5:12 of the third.
Voracek scored on the power play at 6:31 made it 5-4, and then the Flyers tied it 5-5 on Giroux's second goal of the game, at 12:11. Defenseman Radko Gudas got the rebound of his shot behind the Oilers net and passed to Giroux in the slot.
"We stuck with it," Voracek said. "We came back from 2-0 [in the second period], we got down two goals in the third again. Power play wasn't very good, but it came up big when it needed to. The fourth goal was big to get us back in the game. We stuck with it and won the game."

Edmonton took a 2-0 lead on McDavid's first power-play goal of the season, at 4:35 of the second period. But Streit, Bellemare and Giroux scored in a 1:12 span to put the Flyers ahead 3-2.
"We had a number of leads in the game," Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. "One of things we didn't want to do was put them on the power play, and we put them on the power play continually. Whether they score or not … I thought our penalty-killers did a tremendous job, [but the Flyers] gain a lot of momentum and energy and belief off of that.
"They always found a way to get back in, to recapture momentum, and when the clock ran down obviously we were on the wrong end of it."
Draisaitl gave the Oilers a 1-0 lead at 4:39 of the first period with his 12th goal of the season, fifth in the past five games.
After the Flyers took a 3-2 lead, the Oilers tied it on Sekera's shorthanded goal with 3:45 remaining in the second. McDavid's assist on the goal was his first NHL shorthanded point.
Pouliot put the Oilers ahead 4-3 at 3:07 of the third with his fifth goal.

Goal of the game

Voracek saw Klefbom had left too big a gap between himself and Raffl on the play that led to the winning goal. "If their [defenseman] wants to have a gap on that play, you put it off the boards, it's tough to handle for that defenseman."

Save of the game

Gustavsson and Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds got tangled in front of the net, and Gustavsson fell. But lying on his back, the Edmonton goalie was able to make a save on Philadelphia forward Travis Konecny at 8:05.

Unsung performance of the game

Bellemare went head-to-head against McDavid all game and limited him to one even-strength shot on goal, and also scored his first goal of the season to tie it 2-2 at 13:24 of the second period.

Highlight of the game

Gudas made a nice play at the point to hold in an Oilers clearing attempt and pinched deep in the Edmonton zone to get a shot on goal. Then he got his rebound, circled behind the net and found Giroux for the game-tying goal at 12:11 of the third.

They said it

"There's definitely a certain talent to be able to win games and close them out. I think we're still trying to figure that part out." -- Oilers captain Connor McDavid
"The guys bailed me out tonight. That's a sign of good things hopefully. When your goalie's not making the saves that you need but the guys are still battling in front, from a personal standpoint, it's huge to see that." -- Flyers goalie Steve Mason

Need to know

Edmonton forward Jordan Eberle's assist on Klefbom's goal was his 200th in the NHL. … The Oilers have an NHL-high 53 goals on the road. … Giroux's assist on Voracek's power-play goal was his 370th, moving him past Eric Lindros and Rick MacLeish for fifth all-time with the Flyers. … The last time the Flyers won seven in a row was Dec. 2-15, 2011.

What's next

Oilers:At the Minnesota Wild on Friday (8 p.m. ET; FS-N, SNW, NHL.TV)
Flyers: Host the Dallas Stars on Saturday (1 p.m. ET; SN1, CSN-PH, FS-SW, NHL.TV)