Over the course of the first six to eight weeks of the 2013-14 regular season, the Philadelphia Flyers were in deep trouble any time they trailed in a game. The team wasn't scoring goals, so any deficit seemed like an insurmountable climb.
Even when leading, the Flyers too often folded as soon as they got hit with some adversity, especially in third periods. Attention to detail went out the window.
That has changed in recent weeks and, with it, the team's record has soared along with its confidence in its ability to back battle when things aren't going their way. The Flyers defeated the Phoenix Coyotes last night by a 5-3 count despite a poor second period that saw Philly fall behind by scores of 2-0 and 3-1.
The win marked the third time in the season -- all since the start of December -- that the Flyers have won a game they've trailed after two periods. It also marked the sixth time (out of 18 games) the Flyers have won a game when yielding the match's first goal.
As a result, the Flyers (21-17-4, 18 wins in regulation) wake up this morning in second place in the Atlantic Division.
Considering that the team started the season with a 1-7-0 record after eight games and 4-10-1 after 15 games, that is an impressive amount of ground to gain by the time the season was one game past the midway point.
The Flyers started out the season by averaging a pathetic 1.47 goals per game (22 goals) through the first 15 games of the season. Since that time, they have brought their season average up to 2.64 goals per game (111 goals in 42 games) by averaging 3.296 goals per game (89 goals) over the last 27 games.
Last night, there was no sense of offensive panic when the team trailed 2-0 and 3-1. The bigger concern in this game was the defensive sloppiness that set in during five-on-five play in the second period.
The first Phoenix goal, scored by Rob Klinkhammer at 1:29 of the second period, came off a lost battle down low and Nicklas Grossmann drifting too far over to partner Mark Streit's side, leaving him unable to get back to his side quite in time to tie up Klinkhammer in front.
Steve Mason (26 saves on 29 shots) had some rebound control issues in this game, but battled hard in net and was able to make most of the second-chance saves he needed to. However, the Lauri Korpikoski goal that made it 2-0 at 2:54 of the second period came off a fat rebound of an uncontested Connor Murphy shot from high in the Flyers zone.
Craig Berube used the Flyers' timeout right after the quick back-to-back goals by the Coyotes. Just 17 seconds later, Scott Hartnell scorched home a shot from the right circle after a perfect feed from a pinching Streit on the other side.
The sequence started with Brayden Schenn pressuring the Coyotes into a turnover behind their own net. Hartnell gathered the puck, circled out and found Streit on the other side of the ice. The play turned into a long distance give-and-go as the Coyotes did a poor job of shutting down the passing lanes and Streit perfectly returned the puck to Hartnell in good shooting position. Nice execution all the way around by the Flyers.
The tally was Hartnell's ninth goal of the season. He has points in seven straight games, posting three goals and five assists over that span.
The Coyotes soon restored their two-goal lead. At the 6:47 mark, Phoenix's Mikkel Boedker cashed in on a blueline-in breakaway on Mason. The Flyers were caught on an ill-advised line change as they failed to get the puck deep into Phoenix territory. Boedker got behind all the Flyers as players were going off the ice. None of the new troops coming off the bench were able to catch the Dane once he received a stretch pass on the tape from Keith Yandle.
At the 8:52 mark of the second period, there was a neutral zone faceoff near the Coyotes bench. Flyers enforcer Jay Rosehill found himself lined up next to his Phoenix counterpart, Paul Bissonnette. Rosehill challenged Bissonnette to fight, but the Phoenix player hesitated.
The reason for the hestitation: Bissonnette realized that fighting in that sort of situation could work to the benefit of the other team and there really wasn't much advantage for his own club. Bissonnette looked at Coyotes head coach Dave Tippett.
The coach gave his player the go-ahead. At the drop of the puck, Rosehill and Bissonnette immediately cast off their gloves and proceeded to have one whale of a bout -- one of the best sustained fights this season in the NHL.
There was no decisive winner in the fight itself. However, the Flyers got the jolt of energy and emotion they seemed to be lacking with the exception of the brief post-timeout outburst that led to the Hartnell goal.
While the game's ultimate outcome opened Tippett up to some second-guessing for giving Bissonnette the go-ahead to fight, Flyers analyst Bill Clement raised an excellent point after the game. It is really up to the player to decide if it was OK or not to fight in that situation. Bissonnette put his coach on the spot by so blatantly turning around to see if he was "allowed" to fight. The only answer Tippett could give was yes.
The Rosehill-Bissonnette fight proved to be an emotional catalyst for the Flyers. It was a partial turning point of the game. I say partial, because Philly still got outshot 11-8 for the period and the turnaround snowball effect really did not start in earnest until the latter part of the period.
At 17:15 of the middle stanza, Brayden Schenn brought the Flyers back within a goal. A point shot by Braydon Coburn went wide of the left side post. Vincent Lecavalier did a tremendous job down low as, in one lightning-quick motion, he settled the disc down and, with no angle for himself to shoot, nudged the puck to Schenn. From a tough angle himself, Schenn jammed the puck home before Mike Smith (23 saves on 27 shots) could recover.
The goal was Schenn's 10th of the season. He has three goals and five points in his last four games, dating back to when he broke a 16-game goal drought with a crucial goal in the Flyers' comeback shootout win in Vancouver.
The third period saw the Flyers take control, generating 14 of their 28 shots on the night. Philly went on to score three more unanswered goals to stun the Coyotes.
Firs, at the 4:22 mark, the Flyers cashed in on a power play. Demonstrating crisp puck movement, four of the five Flyers on the ice touched the puck within a span of about six seconds. Claude Giroux claimed a loose puck worked the puck from the left wing to Kimmo Timonen at center point atop the team's umbrella. Timonen passed to Jakub Voracek in the right circle. Voracek passed to Wayne Simmonds near the goal line. Smith stopped Simmonds first shot but the power forward stuffed home his own rebound to tie the game at 3-3.
Simmonds has always been a streaky scorer, with feast-or-famine tendencies. Of late, he's been scorching hot. The goal was his 14th of the season and his ninth in the last nine games. Additionally, Simmonds has recorded at least one point in eight of the last nine games.
At 11:52, the Flyers took the lead for the first time in the game. Prior to setting up the Simmonds goal, Voracek had gone pointless in three and two-thirds games on the heels of a nine-game point streak. Now he made it a multi-point night for himself at a crucial juncture of the game.
Giroux pressured Keith Yandle on the forecheck, all the way from behind the Phoenix net to the circle to the left of Smith. Voracek swooped in and stole the puck from Yandle. Giroux peeled off and headed for the net. Voracek froze Smith by looking in Giroux's direction and then wristed a tracer through the goalie's five-hole before he could get squared for it.
Suddenly, the Flyers were up 4-3 but there was still 8:08 left on the clock. Philly did a generally good job of keeping Phoenix in its own end of the ice, although there were a couple of extended shifts in the Flyers' end as well.
One of the overlooked aspects of the win last night was the Flyers' penalty kill. They went 4-for-4 last night (and have killed off 12 penalties in a row), including a late-third period kill of a minor on Steve Downie for putting his hand over the puck behind the Flyers' net.
Back in the first period, the Flyers killed off back-to-back minors on Zac Rinaldo for a borderline offensive zone elbow followed by a no-doubt-about-it slash in the defensive zone moments after exiting the box. The other kill, prior to the Rinaldo penalties, came in the first half of the opening stanza on a Simmonds hooking penalty.
The Coyotes pulled Smith for an extra attacker late in regulation. Giroux intercepted a puck, skated to the red line and buried the disc in the empty net with 31 seconds left to seal the 5-3 victory.
Philadelphia finished the five-game western portion of its six-game post-Christmas road trip with a 4-1-0 record. They will try to make it a 10-point trip on Tuesday night when they take on a Metropolitan Division rival, the New Jersey Devils, in Newark. On Wednesday, the Flyers return home to play Montreal.
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