The Philadelphia Flyers let one point slip away last night as they were unable to protect a one-goal lead in the third period and wound up losing 3-2 via shootout to the Florida Panthers. Jakub Voracek and Matt Read scored for Philadelphia, while Jack Skille and Stephen Weiss countered for the Cats.
In the skills competition, Jonathan Huberdeau and Peter Mueller converted their chances against Ilya Bryzgalov, while neither Matt Read nor Claude Giroux were able to put a puck past Jose Theodore. Bryzgalov finished with 22 saves (all in regulation) while Theodore had 25 regulation saves, 7 overtime stops and the two shootout saves.
Coming off a strong 60-minute effort in Tuesday's win over Tampa Bay and facing a Florida team they had blown out the previous Saturday, there was a risk of the Flyers having a lethargic start to last night's game. The need for a third straight strong start was something Peter Laviolette attempted to address before the game, and which the team leadership group also emphasized.
It didn't happen. After two straight games of setting an immediate hard-skating, tough forechecking presence right from the opening shift, the Flyers had very little energy at the outset of the game.
"In the first period we were a little slow out of the gate. Instead of being on the offense, we were on our heels," said Danny Briere. "Maybe if we come out a little better maybe we jump to a one-nothing lead instead of playing from behind. I think that it’s the first period I would like to have back."
"The easy answer is that it’s you play such a high tempo game with a lot of emotion; it is tough to come back right away with the same kind of effort. You see it all the time, everywhere. We tried to warn everyone talking about that today, but it’s tough to find the jump and emotion."
Skille's goal at 10:52 of the opening period was arguably the leakiest goal that Bryzgalov has allowed to date. Everything was covered on the line rush and Skille's shot from the deep slot over the middle glanced off the goalie's stick and went into the net.
Bryzgalov has erased a lot of miscues his teammates have made thus far this season, so they owed him one to get the goal back quickly. In the meantime, Bryzgalov settled in over the rest of the genuine hockey portion of the game. He later made several tough saves that contributed to his team at least getting one point out of the game.
The Flyers got their first power play of the game 28 seconds after the Skille goal, as Filip Kuba visited the sin bin for interference. The Flyers controlled the puck off the draw, and Giroux and Kimmo Timonen worked the puck to Voracek along the right half boards. Holding the puck a couple seconds, Voracek skated to the faceoff dot and wripped a shot through Tye McGinn's screen and into the net.
The two teams ended up skating off to the first intermission tied at 1-1. Philadelphia would control the majority of the remaining 45 minutes of hockey, but their ongoing struggles to score goals (nine of 11 games with two or fewer goals) combined with a letdown on a third-period penalty kill resulted in the game going to the skills competition finale.
Early in the second period, Sean Couturier and Mike Knuble worked the puck behind the net. Knuble pushed the puck out in front to the post and then dug it free before Theodore could cover it for a stoppage. An open Read claimed the puck and put it upstairs to give the Flyers a 2-1 lead.
The tally was Read's fourth goal of the season against Florida. That represents his entire team-leading goal-scoring output in the 11 games the team has played to date.
The Flyers had plenty of opportunities to extend their lead but were unable to do so. After killing off their first three penalties of the game, the Flyers had an immediate letdown on their fourth penalty. It took the Panthers all of 10 seconds to cash in a Bruno Gervais tripping penalty incurred at 8:25 of the third period.
Philly failed on a clearing attempt, which was held in the zone by defenseman Dmitry Kulikov, who fed the puck to Weiss. The penalty killing box broke down as Weiss worked a give-and-go with Tomas Fleischmann. With a passing lane open, Weiss accepted the return pass in good sniping range in the lower circle. Using a quick release, Weiss' wrist shot went under Bryzgalov's glove and into the net.
There was still plenty of time left for the Flyers to rescue a win in regulation. They had back-to-back power plays in the second half of the period, but failed to generate much in the way of scoring opportunities. Late in regulation, the Giroux line had one of its best shifts of the game, but still couldn't find the net.
The ice was tilted in Philly's favor during the 4-on-4 overtime. The shots were 5-0 in the extra frame. In particular, Couturier had one of his most offensively dominant shifts of his NHL career to date, in which he was a one-man forechecking machine in the Florida end of the ice for a good 20 seconds. Late in the shift, Couturier put a side angle shot attempt past Theodore but which slid untouched through the middle of the crease to the other side of the ice.
After Florida survived the lopsided overtime, they immediate stepped up to dominate the shootout. Huberdeau put a nifty move on Bryzgalov and snapped a low shot home. Read, who had previously had a lot of shootout success for the Flyers, was denied by Theodore on a five-hole attempt. Mueller beat Bryzalov low. Needing a goal to force a third round of the shootout, Giroux was stopped by Theodore's pad near the inside of the left post.
The Flyers wrap up their four-game homestand tomorrow afternoon against the Carolina Hurricanes. With a win, they will have taken seven of a possible eight points before they head out for a tough week on the road.
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