February 27, 2026
Matvei Michkov hopped out of the penalty box and into a mosh pit of tired legs.
A loud Sam Ersson save off the goaltender's pad and an ensuing scramble in front of the Flyers' net saw the puck bounce into a safe spot on the ice for Sean Couturier to grab.
But the Philadelphia captain was gassed, so were his teammates who held the line to kill off the penalty, and so were the New York Rangers, who threw on an onslaught trying to end the game.
Michkov, though, had a full tank and started taking his strides toward center ice.
Couturier fed him a pass. Only a flat-footed and exhausted J.T. Miller stood in Michkov's way, and all it took was a couple more chops of the winger's feet to blow right by the newly minted goal medalist and to be left squaring up to New York goalie Igor Shesterkin.
Michkov picked his spot and tucked the shot underneath Shesterkin's pads to quiet Madison Square Garden.
He had the winner, and for himself and the Flyers, a badly-needed break in the form of a 3-2 victory in overtime on Thursday night.
MATVEI MICHKOV WINS IT FOR THE FLYERS 🚨
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) February 27, 2026
The Flyers forward makes no mistake in alone to secure the Subway Canada OT winner! pic.twitter.com/91UWPSiXYS
The win alone might not save the Flyers' season, as they still face quite a steep climb back up the Eastern Conference standings, and with considerably little time. It might not prevent the front office from thinking about selling again with the March 6 trade deadline looming, either – honestly, that route probably should be very much on the table.
But Michkov, who scored twice with a power-play goal in the second period and then the winner in the extra frame, at least salvaged the latter part of a road back-to-back that the Flyers could ill afford to drop entirely.
For a moment, and in what's been a pretty miserable sophomore season for the 21-year-old, who the Flyers hope will still soon enough be their star, he had the magic back – that Michkov Magic.
"He looked fast," Travis Konecny said in the visiting locker room afterward. "He looked confident with the puck. It was good."
And maybe, hopefully, a building block to better.
The Olympic break was always going to be precious time for Michkov, not to relax, but to train.
He reported to camp toward the end of the summer out of shape, which put him behind the eight ball once the season got going. It was an oft-reported sticking point for why he never looked as impactful as many hoped he would've been in Year 2, and just as quickly, it became a sore spot in the argument against head coach Rick Tocchet's curious and sometimes far too limited usage of him in the lineup.
Michkov, however, always owned his fault in that shortcoming and made it a point to turn that several-week break that the Winter Olympics granted into a mini-training camp of sorts.
When he and the Flyers reported back to Voorhees to start skating again, he told reporters through interpreter Slave Kuznetsov earlier this week that he lifted in the gym, then worked on his cardio for days straight while he was away, and hoped he would feel a lot better in games once their schedule resumed.
That first game back on Wednesday against the Capitals, a 3-1 loss, looked like it was just the Flyers falling right back into their tailspin.
Thursday night in Madison Square Garden, for a while, did, too, until Michkov snuck out of the corner and past everyone watching the puck to tuck it home and get the Flyers on the board in the final ticks of a power play.
Matvei Michkov makes no mistake! 🚨
— NHL (@NHL) February 27, 2026
📺: @espn ➡️ https://t.co/m0LyTCHYnH pic.twitter.com/3iORYqKMN3
He did make it dicey, though.
After Trevor Zegras netted the 2-2 equalizer early into the third, Michkov, with the puck, came barreling down the wall and cut in toward the net late in regulation to try and win the game there.Â
He lost the puck trying to make a move, though, and fell straight into Shesterkin, which put him in the box for the goaltender interference call that carried over as the clock expired to set the Rangers up with a man advantage in OT.
Inadvertently, though, the infraction put him in the right place at the right time in the end.
The Rangers and Flyers skaters were both caught on a shift for too long, and their legs were getting heavier.
Then the penalty box door opened, the puck rolled into Philadelphia's possession, and Michkov had the jump on everyone. It looked like the training had paid off.
The game was over as soon as Michkov spun a spent Miller around at the blue line to look up at Shesterkin as the last remaining obstacle.
"He sold it," Tocchet said of the shot Michkov slipped five-hole. "Â That's the stuff that he can do."
The magic was back, and for a moment, a badly needed break for the Flyers along with it.
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