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Meltzer's Musings: Third Multi-Goal Comeback Win of December

December 29, 2013, 10:18 AM ET [251 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
FLYERS PULL OFF THIRD MULTI-GOAL COMEBACK WIN OF DECEMBER

The Philadelphia Flyers have had a staccato month of December, but have posted a 5-1-1 record over their last seven games and a 6-4-2 record overall during the month. The team's newfound resiliency has been a major factor in its surge to two wins above the .500 mark after starting the season with a 4-10-1 record through the first 15 games.

Last night in Edmonton, the Flyers erased a 2-0 deficit after the first period and a 3-2 deficit in the final five-and-a-half minutes of the third period. Ultimately, the Flyers earned a skills competition bonus point after trailing the shootout 1-0 after the first round.

Two second-period power play goals by Wayne Simmonds and a third-period power play goal by Scott Hartnell forged a tie game. In the shootout, Claude Giroux and Michael Raffl scored in succession after Vincent Lecavalier was stopped in the opening round.

Simmonds has scored two goals in three straight games. According to the research of Flyers' Media and Broadcast Services manager Brian Smith and the Elias Sports Bureau, this is just the third time in franchise history that a Flyers player has scored multiple goals in three straight games. Reggie Leach and Ross Lonsberry accomplished the feat during the 1975-76 season and then Leach did it again in Oct. 1981.

Second line right winger/ top power play unit forward Simmonds has seven goals and nine points over a current five-game point streak.

Giroux and Jakub Voracek both recorded a pair of assists in the game. Giroux now has a career-best eight-game point streak (five goals, 10 assists, 15 points). Linemate Voracek has a career-best nine-game point streak (six goals, nine assists, 15 points).

The Flyers win on Saturday night marked the third time in December the team has pulled off a multi-goal comeback win this month. The team also came back from 2-0 and 3-1 deficits against Detroit on Dec. 4 and third-period deficits of 3-0 and 4-2 against Columbus on Dec. 19. Additionally, on Dec. 17, the Flyers trailed Washington by second period scores of 1-0 and 2-1 before storming back to win 5-2.

Heading into last night's game, there was a danger of the Flyers digging themselves an early hole as they recovered their skating legs and timing. Philly had been off for four nights over Christmas and had only had one practice before departing for the start of a six-game road trip. The Oilers had played on Friday night and, while that had the potential to contribute to Philly having an advantage over the latter portion of the game, it gave Edmonton an on-paper edge in the early minutes of the game.

There are many times in hockey where the game doesn't follow the "conventional wisdom" script but that's pretty much exactly how the match progressed last night.

The Flyers were not sharp in the first few minutes of the game, and Edmonton pounced twice to build a 2-0 lead. Thereafter, the Flyers started to settle in and dominated the game both in terms of territorial advantage and quality of scoring chances. The Flyers methodically chipped away at Edmonton goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov and came up with three power play goals that the ex-Flyer had no chance of stopping.

Edmonton grabbed a 1-0 lead just 32 seconds into the game. Taylor Hall intercepted the puck from Braydon Coburn inside the Philadelphia zone, took two a quick stride in and elevated a shot over Steve Mason's glove from point blank range.

At the 4:02 mark, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins beat Mark Streit one-on-one on a rush up the ice and then beat Mason high to the blocker side (his most vulnerable shooting target) from the deep slot.

After those two breakdowns, the Flyers started to assert control of the play. They outshot Edmonton by an 11-8 mark in the first period -- despite taking three minor penalties to none for the Oilers -- but could not put a puck past Bryzgalov.

Mason (13 saves on 16 shots) had a "hang in there" sort of game. He went long stretches without seeing any shots and, having been beaten twice so early in the game, could easily have blown sky high. Instead, he battled through the adversity.

At 3:37 of the second period, the Flyers used rapid puck movement on the power play to work the puck to Giroux in the left circle. The Flyers captain blasted a shot on net, which Simmonds tipped-in from the door step. Voracek earned the secondary assist.

Philly tied the game at 12:13 of the middle frame. This time, a wide open Simmonds had an easy tap-in from the goal mouth after Voracek found him with a cross-ice pass. The sequence started with a bit of good luck, as Hartnell attempted a shot from the left side, which got snuffed out but went directly to Voracek.

The Flyers outshot Edmonton by a 14-3 count in the middle stanza. Bryzgalov turned in excellent work just to keep Philadelphia from taking a lead.

Midway through the third period, the Oilers regained the lead on a fortuitous power play goal of their own. With Mason guarding the short-side post, David Perron attempted to make a cross-crease pass. Flyers defenseman Nicklas Grossmann went down to block the pass but the puck ticked off his shin pad and re-directed into the net.

Bryzgalov was similarly helpless to prevent Philly from re-tying the game at 14:28. With the Flyers on a 5-on-3 power play, the top power play unit worked the puck back to Kimmo Timonen at the point. Hartnell moved in front of Bryzgalov into screening/deflection range and came up with the re-direct to knot the game at 3-3.

Herein lies a key difference between Steve Mason and Ilya Bryzgalov: Mason has learned the value of mental toughness during the tough times in his career. It took several years, but he matured and benefited from a change of scenery. At age 33, Bryzgalov remains overly emotional and prone to getting knocked off his game.

After Edmonton re-took the 3-2 lead, Mason simply exchanged conciliatory stick taps with his defenseman and then got refocused immediately. Contrast that to Bryzgalov's response when Hartnell re-tied the game. After yielding the unstoppable goal, Bryzgalov flipped his stick up in the air in frustration and looked skyward.

As well as he played during the game -- make no mistake, Bryzgalov was the main reason that the Oilers got even one point from the game -- Bryzgalov lost his composure when things didn't go his way. One got the sense that the game's final goal, whether it was scored in regulation, OT or shootout, would be scored by Philadelphia after Bryzgalov committed himself too early against a shooter. It seemed inevitable.

The Flyers outshot Edmonton 11-4 in the third period and 2-1 in the scoreless overtime. In the shootout, Mason handled a little more adversity. Bryzgalov didn't.

In the opening round of the shootout, Jordan Eberle kicked things off by beating Mason high to the blocker side. Lecavalier skated in very slowly, picked up a little speed as he moved in and pulled the puck to the backhand but wasn't quite able to lift the puck over Bryzgalov.

In the second round, Perron tried go five-hole on Mason and was stoned. Giroux tied the shootout by shooting the puck through a beach-ball sided space between Bryzgalov's pads. Again, Bryzgalov showed a reaction of frustration, which meant there was a good chance he would be ripe for the picking in round three.

In round three of the skills competition, Mason waited out Sam Gagner. Gagner ran out of room, ultimately pulling his shot attempt wide of the net. Bryzgalov committed too early against Raffl and the Austrian rookie moved to an open area and calmly deposited the winning goal into the net.

The Flyers return to action on Monday night in Vancouver.

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