Before the Flyers tied the game against the Sabres tonight – a game in which they were losing 3-0, by the way – Jake Voracek was destroyed by Sabres defenseman Dmitri Kulikov. You can watch the hit below.
GIFs:
Kulikov received a two-minute minor, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the league at least looks at it a little bit further.
Voracek went to the locker room, likely as a precaution, but was quickly back on the bench not much later. I don’t think we’ll see a suspension come of this, if only because of how inconsistent the NHL’s Department of Player Safety has been in dishing out suspensions. Kulikov didn’t even get a game misconduct, and you know without a shadow of a doubt if that was a Radko Gudas hit, he would’ve been sent off the ice quicker than a James Ellsworth superkick.
And the Flyers made the Sabres pay. On a power play after Brandon Manning got clipped with a high stick, Mark Streit was able to sneak the puck past the line for the game-tying goal:
And with no team scoring in overtime, the two teams would head to a shootout. After two Steve Mason saves and a Claude Giroux goal, the game was on Jake Voracek’s stick. Here’s what he did with it:
Good guys 4, Bad guys 3.
I just had a flashback to Scott Stevens… Ahhh, bright lights! I’M DIZZY…