They didn't make things easy on themselves, but the Philadelphia Flyers showed a lot of moxie rallying back from deficits of 3-0 and 4-3 to force overtime and then capture a second point via shootout last night in Calgary. Coming off a miserable performance in Edmonton, the Flyers simply refused to quit against the Flames.
In the opening stanza, Philadelphia had the better of the territorial play and scoring chances but still found themselves in a 2-0 hole. The big difference in the opening period was the quality of the goaltending. Miikka Kiprusoff was sharp. Ilya Bryzgalov was not.
Mark Giordano's power play goal started with a Braydon Coburn turnover. The slapshot was kind of a knuckleball by the time it got to Bryzgalov but was still a stoppable shot if the goalie had made himself a little bigger in his net. The second goal, by Matt Stajan, was little more than a routine -- and weak -- shot from the deep slot that Bryzgalov simply missed. That one should never go in under any circumstances.
It is easy to forget in the glow of victory that the Flyers' weakest stretch of the game was the first half of the second period. The team tried and failed repeatedly to force plays that weren't there. Claude Giroux, Jaromir Jagr, Danny Briere and defensemen Kimmo Timonen and Matt Carle were among the team's biggest culprits. The club could not generate shots on Kiprusoff as they repeatedly went one-and-done in their attempts to work the puck into the offensive zone.
The beginning of the Flyers' turnaround started when Scott Hartnell dropped the gloves with Giordano at the 7-minute mark of the middle stanza. It wasn't much of a fight, but it gave Philadelphia a little more energy and resolve.
The next few shifts for the Flyers were a little better. Credit should go to the all-rookie line of Sean Couturier, Matt Read and Zac Rinaldo who kept the Flames hemmed in deep. The Brayden Schenn line also turned in good work on their next shift and then the top line drew a power play for the team.
You could see there was now a spark. Could the Flyers turn into, well, a flame? When a bad turnover by Briere led to Tom Kostopoulos claiming the puck and beating Bryzgalov for a shorthanded goal to make it 3-0, the chances of a Philadelphia victory seemed remote. That was a classic backbreaker -- and this one was not on the Philadelphia goalie.
It was now up to someone else to reignite the team. Jakub Voracek answered the call. He blew past Derek Smith at the Flames' blue line, went in uncontested and beat Kiprusoff to make it 3-1 with 4:13 left in the second period.
To have a realistic chance to pull off a comeback, the Flyers still needed to get one more back by the end of the second period. In the final minute of the period, they made a little good luck for themselves. Coburn made a good pinch, and ripped a side angle shot toward the net with Zac Rinaldo setting a moving screen in front of Kiprusoff. The Finnish goalie fought off the puck but it quickly deflected off him, pinballed off the skate of defenseman Scott Hannan along the outer edge of the crease and then deflected into the net.
Now the Flyers truly had life heading into the third period. Hartnell and company were determined to leave Calgary with at least one point. The Flames got themselves into penalty trouble in the third stanza, and Philly capitalized.
With Philly on a 5-on-3 power play, Timonen moved up about 10 feet from the center point and wristed a shot that hit Hartnell in the pants and re-directed past Kiprusoff to the tie the game. But the tie lasted barely three minutes.
In a very questionable ruling, Alex Tanguay was awarded a penalty shot on a mini-breakaway where he was barely impeded by a Pavel Kubina hooking attempt. He still got a good shot on goal, which Bryzgalov stopped. I was stunned that the ruling was a penalty shot rather than a minor penalty (no guarantee the Flyers' struggling PK would have killed it, but it would have been the proper ruling). Tanguay converted the penalty shot to restore the lead.
Once again down by a goal, the Flyers threw everything they had at the Flames. At the 12:21 mark, the Flames' D backed off way too far to allow Nicklas Grossman -- who is far from an offensive threat but had all sorts of time and space -- to skate into the high slot and measure a wrister toward the net. Hartnell tipped it in for his 30th goal of the season.
Philly had a power play opportunity late in regulation (Olli Jokinen slashed Hartnell's stick and broke it) to win the game. They weren't able to convert.
The Flyers looked disorganized early in the extra frame but then got the better of play in the latter portion, with Danny Briere and Jaromir Jagr coming close to hooking up for their second OT winner in the last three games. With time running out in overtime, Giroux (who had two assists on the night) had a pinching Andrej Meszaros set up perfectly with half the net open to him. The defenseman partially fanned on the shot.
The shootout went five rounds and 10 shooters deep. Bryzgalov denied Olli Jokinen. James van Riemsdyk lost the puck as he attempted to make a quick move to his left. Bryzgalov got a measure of revenge on Tanguay, stacking the packs to make a save. Briere went in too slowly and got pokechecked by Kiprusoff before he could attempt a shot. Mike Cammalleri beat Bryzgalov over the glove for the first goal.
Now it was up to Giroux to keep the shootout alive. He moved in, got Kiprusoff to commit early and buried a wrist shot in the top corner of the net. It was on to round four.
Bryzgalov did not bite on about five different moves by Calgary captain Jarome Iginla and Iglina ended up with nothing to shoot at but the goalie's midsection and pads. Wayne Simmonds moved to his backhand and had Kiprusoff beaten but ticked his shot off the inside of the goal post and the puck stayed out. Time for round five.
Curtis Glencross tried to simplify things but could not one past a determined Bryzgalov. That left the game up to Matt Read, who used his quick-release snap shot to beat Kiprusoff and win the game, 4-3.
With the victory, the Flyers have assured themselves of no worse than a .500 record on their four-game westerly road trip, which concludes Tuesday night in San Jose.
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Some additional notes from last night's game:
* Jagr was originally credited with the secondary assist on the 5-on-3 goal, which would have moved him past Joe Sakic for sole possession of eight place (1,641 points) on the all-time NHL point list. That will have to wait at least one more game, because he lost the assist when the scoring on the play was correctly changed to credit Hartnell with the goal and Timonen and Giroux with the assists.
* With the dual scoring changes on the goals originally given to Timonen and Grossman, Hartnell at first gained -- and lost -- credit for his second Gordie Howe Hat Trick of the season (he had been given the secondary assist on the Grossman play). However, he did clinch his second career 30-goal season.
* I thought that Grossman (apart from his first career two-point game) was outstanding defensively in this game, as was Kubina. Andrej Meszaros also played a tremendous game. It was an up-and-down night for the remainder of the Philadelphia blueline corps.
* Last night's win marked the third time this season the Flyers have recovered from a 3-0 deficit to win a game. They previously accomplished the feat on Dec. 2 in Anaheim and then five days layer in Buffalo. Both previous wins came in overtime.
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When a goalie allows too many soft goals over the course of a season -- and the same thing can be said about an overabundance of defensive breakdowns -- it eventually drags everything else down with it. Television cameras caught Meszaros disgustedly rolling his eyes after the Stajan goal was scored. Early in the second period, there was far too much individual play by Philadelphia.
To their credit, though, the Flyers pulled together as a team and started to build the momentum as a collective unit once a couple of players (especially Hartnell and Voracek in making up their minds that no one was going to stop them) set a positive example for his teammates. You could see the confidence and determination come back shift by shift.
Bryzgalov also pulled things together nicely after his horrendous first period. He was almost angry and defiant in making the saves by time the shootout rolled around. That is exactly the mindset the Flyers need from him: keep battling no matter what.
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With the trade deadline looming tomorrow afternoon, the next day and a half will be a nerve-racking time around Philadelphia, as well as most every other NHL city. If the salary cap were not a factor, the Flyers would ideally add another checking liner -- especially one with some size and physicality -- but I don't see them doing much, if anything.
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