PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Travis Konecny and the Philadelphia Flyers were able to exhale after almost improbably coughing up two points.Konecny scored his second goal of the game 1:27 into overtime and Philadelphia bounced back from squandering a big lead to beat the Detroit Red Wings 6-5 on Saturday.“It feels good to get that one Adidas Paul Stastny Jersey , especially when you have the thought of maybe losing a game that you should have,” Konecny said.The Flyers led 5-1 with 19 minutes left in the third period. The Red Wings tied it on Anthony Mantha’s second goal of the game with seven seconds remaining in regulation.“We definitely have to clean some things up,” Konecny said. “Some of that stuff is not acceptable for a team to come back like that. . But we’re just glad we came out on top of this.”Despite overcoming a four-goal lead in the third period, Detroit remained winless in Philadelphia for more than 20 years. The Flyers are 15-0-1 on home ice against the Red Wings since getting swept by them in the 1997 Stanley Cup Final.Konecny sent Philadelphia to its 11th win in the last 13 with a wraparound tally in the 3-on-3 extra session. Sean Couturier put a shot toward the net and Jonathan Bernier’s save went to Konecny, who skated around the back of the net and put a forehand shot inside the post as Bernier couldn’t recover in time.Asked about his message to the Flyers prior to overtime, Philadelphia interim coach Scott Gordon said, “Go get the second point we lost.”The game was the first of a home-and-home for the teams, who will meet again Sunday night in Detroit to wrap up their three-game season series.Nolan Patrick had a goal and two assists, Scott Laughton and Shayne Gostisbehere each had a goal and an assist and Jakub Voracek scored for the Flyers, who began play eight points behind Pittsburgh for the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.Tyler Bertuzzi had a goal and an assist in his return to the lineup, and Thomas Vanek and Gustav Nyquist also scored for Detroit.“It goes to show that when we want to start playing that we can play at a high pace and then score goals,” Bertuzzi said.Mantha’s stellar deflection of Mike Green’s shot from the point went over Carter Hart’s left shoulder and capped an improbable comeback for Detroit, which trailed by four when coach Jeff Blashill pulled goaltender Jimmy Howard for backup Bernier after the Flyers netted a pair of rebound tallies in the opening 1:24 of the third.“The goalie switch always wakes us up,” Mantha said. “It tells us that we’re playing terrible.”It appeared that the Flyers had turned the game into a rout when Voracek and Patrick scored on rebounds early in the third.But the Red Wings quickly responded to the goalie change by scoring twice in 44 seconds, first by Bertuzzi and then Vanek, to pull within 5-3. And Mantha’s first goal Adidas Max Pacioretty Jersey , a deflection of Danny DeKeyser’s shot from the point with 11:24 left in regulation, went through Hart’s legs to make it a one-goal contest.“We decided to play 18 minutes and we got four goals,” Mantha said. “We’ve got good talent in here. I think we played the right way, we could win games.”Hart made 33 saves to win his ninth in the last 10. Hart faced Detroit in his NHL debut on Dec. 18, making 22 stops in a 3-2 victory that also marked the first game for Gordon.Newly acquired goalie Cam Talbot was not with the Flyers, and Mike McKenna served as Hart’s backup. Philadelphia traded goalie Anthony Stolarz to Edmonton for Talbot early Saturday morning. When he gets a start, Talbot would help Philadelphia set an NHL record by becoming the eighth starting goalie to appear in a game this season for the Flyers.Notes: Detroit C Frans Nielsen (stomach virus) didn’t play. . Bertuzzi had missed seven in a row with a concussion. . Voracek extended his point streak to nine consecutive games, with four goals and seven assists over the stretch. . Laughton had gone 26 games without a goal before scoring from close range 4:02 into the second. . Philadelphia has scored on the power play in four straight contests.UP NEXTDetroit: Host Flyers Sunday.Philadelphia: At Detroit Sunday. Shandor Alphonso never envisioned his hockey career taking him to officiating. He didn’t have to look far to see it was possible.As a young, black player, all Alphonso had to do was watch ”Hockey Night in Canada” or the Stanley Cup Final and he saw fellow minority Jay Sharrers working as a linesman.”To be able to see someone who kind of looked like me working at the biggest stage of his job, it was unreal,” Alphonso said.The 34-year-old Alphonso is the NHL’s only African-American official, and Calgary Flames assistant Paul Jerrard is the league’s only black coach. With the sport’s expansion to some nontraditional markets across the United States, there are almost two dozen black players in the NHL, but Sharrers, Alphonso and Jerrard serve as inspiration for more to follow into positions of authority.”I think it’s an evolutionary process Adidas Seth Griffith Jersey ,” said Sharrers, who recently retired. ”It’s definitely moved slowly, but I think when you just look at the amount of black players that are now in the league and the fact that that has increased, it would stand to reason that hopefully the opportunity for officials would present itself.”Sixty years after Willie O’Ree of the Boston Bruins broke the color barrier as the NHL’s first black player, the league is still taking steps to increase its diversity. Alphonso is an ambassador for the ”Hockey is for Everyone” campaign this month, which is Black History Month.Sharrers acknowledged the expense of playing hockey has been a hurdle for minority children for years, but said he is optimistic that more will not only lace up their skates but move into other roles.”It just stands to reason that that would be a natural progression, that there would more officials of color,” Sharrers said. ”The league has been very proactive since they partnered with Willie and created the diversity taskforce almost 20 years ago to expose and to present to people of color that hockey is a great game and it’s a viable opportunity.”Opportunities have existed for minorities to get into coaching and officiating, though the majority have ended up as goaltending coaches like former NHL goalie Fred Brathwaite. Jerrard played five games in the NHL and then went into coaching, where he’s a visible role model – even if that’s not a role he was looking for.”I’m just another coach who’s trying to do a good job in the league and stay in the league,” said Jerrard, 52, who has been an assistant with the Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars and Flames along with several American Hockey League teams. ”I guess I am now in a little bit of a position of a role model, but my drive to be a role model isn’t due to the color of my skin. It’s just the way I wanted carry myself as a human being Adidas Jack Roslovic Jersey , the way I want to be looked at: doing the right thing and working hard.”Jerrard hopes kids seeing minorities on the ice playing or officiating or behind the bench coaching shows that ”if they’re skilled, driven and passionate, there’s an opportunity for them.”That’s what happened for Alphonso, who knew he wasn’t going to make it to the NHL as a player and wanted to stay in the game. He thought to himself, ”If Jay Sharrers can do it, I could do it” and followed him up the ranks.Now Alphonso is the one kids can look up to, and Sharrers – who became the NHL’s first black referee in 2001 – believes his younger counterpart can have an even bigger impact.”Being that his skin is a lot darker than mine and I’m very light-skinned, it wouldn’t register necessarily with someone unless they knew my background to know that I was a person of color,” Sharrers said. ”I think for him having both parents being black and being much more of a visible minority, if you will, I think that’s definitely a role that he will now assume.”Alphonso welcomes that position and would love to one day meet a fellow official he inspired to go that route.”It’s huge for younger kids to see there are way more things to hockey than just being a hockey player,” Alphonso said. ”That’s hopefully what we can inspire these kids to do and get them more involved with the game down the road.”—