Scott Laughton had himself one heck of a night as the Philadelphia Flyers won 4-1 over the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday. Not only did he score all four goals for the Flyers, but one of them was an absolute beauty, featuring a unique way to score on a breakaway.
Scott Laughton became the first Flyer to score four goals in a game since John LeClair did so in October 2002. His performance also led the Flyers to back-to-back wins, and they’ve now earned at least a point in 13 of their last 17 games.
Laughton has been in the Flyers organization since 2012, and with a career-high of 18 goals in a season, scoring four in a single game wasn’t on many people’s bingo cards before Thursday.
Laughton entered the game against the Red Wings with only three goals in 29 games. He opened the scoring on a breakaway, but it wasn’t your typical breakaway goal. Instead of going for the deke, he fired one of the season’s hardest slap shots, leaving Cam Talbot no chance to stop it.
Scott Laughton’s incredible goal
The puck went bar down and into the net. In the third period, Laughton scored his second goal of the game while shorthanded. He then added an empty-netter to secure his hat trick and capped it off with a second empty-netter for his fourth goal of the night.
Fans were thrilled by the performance, with many singling out the stunning bar-down slap shot as the most memorable moment.
“There’s something so elegant about winding up for the slap shot while on the breakaway. Almost feels like time is frozen during the windup,” one user said on social media.
“A clapper from the hashes is diabolical,” another said.
“That’s one of the coolest goals I’ve seen in a while,” a third added.
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