FLYERS PICK UP HARD-FOUGHT POINT AGAINST BOSTON
The Philadelphia Flyers peppered Boston Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask with 52 shots but had to settle for one point in the standings from a 3-3 tie and shootout loss yesterday afternoon at the Wells Fargo Center. The skills competition went five rounds before Boston's Reilly Smith potted the winner.
Vincent Lecavalier scored a pair of goals for the Flyers, the first of which was the 400th of his NHL regular season career and the latter of which tied the game at 3-3 with 24.7 seconds left in the third period. Philly also got a tally from Kimmo Timonen and a pair of key assists by Jakub Voracek. Former Flyers defenseman Andrej Meszaros, Zdeno Chara (power play) and Patrice Bergeron scored for the Bruins.
Steve Mason (27 saves on 30 shots) allowed one bad goal among the three he yielded. Bergeron's goal was a weak one. Rask (49 saves) let in a bad one on Lecavalier's first goal, so they ultimately canceled out each other. Both goalies came up big for their teams several times on difficult saves.
Special teams were the main reason why the Flyers needed a late-game rally with Mason pulled for an extra attacker to get the game to overtime. Boston made quick work of their first power play of the game, and went 1-for-2 on the man advantage. The Flyers went 0-for-4 on the power play, including a frustrating 1:47 worth of a 5-on-3 power play (with Chara in the box for Boston) in which they failed to generate scoring chances let alone a goal.
The Flyers played a very good first period, with the exception of making one defensive mistake that ended up in their net. Philly took a 2-1 lead to the first intermission against a team that entered yesterday's game with an average of barely more than two goals against per game.
At 5:25 of the first period, Lecavalier gained the blueline with the puck and fired a long-range slapshot that hit the bottom of Rask's glove and went in the net for career goal number 400. Adam Hall earned the lone assist as the Flyers jumped out to an early 1-0 lead.
The Flyers, who outshot Boston 11-10 in the first period, did not many mistakes in the opening stanza. However, one of the two glaring mistakes they did make ended up in the back of their net.
Almost predictably, it was Meszaros -- traded to Boston on deadline day -- that cashed in for his seventh goal of the season and second as a Bruin. Brad Marchand and Dougie Hamilton received the assists.
On the play, the Flyers ended up with all five skaters down low in the defensive zone and four committed to one side on a lengthy attacking shift for Boston. Meszaros sneaked in unmarked from the point and fired a shot from the mid-slot over Mason to tie the game at 1-1 at 10:43. Meszaros scored three similar goals with the Flyers this year before the trade.
The Meszaros goal was also somewhat similar to a waved-off Carl Gunarsson goal (for goaltender interference by Joffrey Lupul) in the Toronto game. It wasn't a carbon copy but what the two plays fundamentally had in common was that the Flyers were not alert to the D-man pinching. That is something that bears watching on Tuesday against a St. Louis team that generates a lot of offense from its point men moving to scoring areas with support up high in the offensive zone.
At the 15:51 mark, Zac Rinaldo helped out his Philadelphia team by taking Jarome Iginla off with him for five minutes. First, Rinaldo took out both Iginla and David Krejci with a hit just inside the Flyers defensive blueline. Iginla didn't like it and jawed and jostled with Rinaldo. Finally, Rinaldo dropped the gloves and engaged Iginla in a short fight, getting the jump on the veteran star and landing punches before Iginla tumbled to the ice.
There was momentary concern that Rinaldo might get an instigation penalty because he dropped the gloves first and went at Iginla before the Bruin cast aside his own stick and gloves. However, Iginla was an equal participant in escalating the body check into a fight.
In the end, this confrontation ended being a three-to-zero victory for Rinaldo and the Flyers: Working backward from the end result, Iginla was taken off for five minutes with no change in on-ice manpower. Rinaldo got the better of the fight. Iginla on Krejci on the receiving end of the initial hit.
With 42 seconds remaining in the first period, the Flyers regained the lead. Voracek, who has skated like a man possessed in the last two games despite not getting a point against Toronto on Friday, made a picturesque set-up pass to a pinching Timonen. With his head up all the way to spot an open man, Voracek threaded a backhanded pass through the legs of unsuspecting defender Johnny Boychuk. With half a net open, Timonen made no mistake on his fifth goal of the season and third in the month of March.
Second periods have been the Flyers' worst period for the 2013-14 season and yesterday's middle frame was no exception. Yes, Philly generated 16 shots in the period and several good scoring chances over the course of the period. However, they also gave up 13 shots and were guilty of running around at times. Boston had too many quality chances of their own and, moreover, Philly's special teams let them down in the middle frame.
Most important, of course, is the fact that the Flyers got outscored 2-0 in the second period.
Will Adam Hall in the penalty box for hooking, it took just 11 seconds for Chara to tie the game at 2-2. It started with a clean faceoff win for the Bruins and went downhill for Philly.
Standing along the goal line, hulking left-handed shooter Chara used his freakish reach to pull the puck to his backhand into a favorable shooting angle and then elevated the puck upstairs backhanded as well as a good righthanded shooter would on his forehand from the same angle. No goalie in the NHL would have stopped it once Chara got lift on the shot. The only chance to prevent it would have been for Kimmo Timonen to get to Chara first to disrupt the shot.
Chara's 17th goal of the season, came at 5:44 of the second period. Iginla and Krejci earned the assists. It was Chara's third power play goal in two games against the Flyers this season and the Bruins' fourth tally on the man advantage in the season series.
Mason played well throughout yesterday's game, with one lone key exception that nearly proved fatal. At the 11:05 mark of the second period, Bergeron circled out from behind the net, where he was well covered by Timonen. The Bruins center put a routine shot on net that went into the net under Mason's pad.
After the game, Mason explained that Bergeron was not looking at the net as he shot and the goalie was not expecting a shot. The goaltender was backing up into the net, which allowed the puck to leak through. Mason took full ownership of the weak goal.
A younger, less mature Mason might have crumbled after the Bergeron goal. Showing the greatly improved focused that has marked his play virtually the entire 2013-14 season, Mason buckled down and was not beaten again in regulation or overtime.
Nevertheless, once the Bruins get the lead, they are an extremely difficult opponent against whom to stage a comeback. After the iffy opening goal by Lecavalier and some rebound control issues in the first 30 minutes of play, Rask was pretty much lights out the rest of the way himself.
Showing the character and resiliency that has come to be one of the hallmarks of this season's Flyers team, the Flyers kept attacking and attacking to find an equalizing goal. Starting with a Scott Hartnell breakaway on the first shift of the third period and continuing through Lecavalier's 6-on-5 tying goal in the final half minute, Philly fought hard in outshooting Boston 17-6 in the third period.
Actually, the Flyers weakest 2:13 of work in the final stanza came during the overlapping Hamilton hooking (3:15) and Chara (3:28) delay of game penalties. The power play sputtered out without Rask being tested, and the golden opportunity went by the wayside.
To their credit, the Flyers worked through that adversity as well. Mason made a mind-boggling save on Carl Söderberg to keep the Flyers within a goal. The team also got several key blocked shots -- including a pair from Nicklas Grossmann -- when the Bruins seemed poised to put the game away.
Yesterday's game was on the brink of being one of those efforts where the Flyers played their hearts out only to make just enough execution errors to lose to an elite opponent -- the team had a pair of games like that against Anaheim this season. Finally, with time ticking down under the final half minute, the Flyers' hard work paid off.
Boston had an opportunity to clear the zone on the 6-on-5 but the puck hopped over a Bruin stick and was ultimately held in by Kimmo Timonen. Then the Flyers had a second bit of good luck as Boychuk swung and missed at the puck, which made its way to Voracek at the left side of Rask's net. Voracek got the puck to a wide open Lecavalier, who stashed the disc in the wide-open net to tie the game at 3-3.
Overtime belonged to the Flyers, who outshot the reeling Bruins by an 8-1 margin during the five minutes of 4-on-4 play. Most notably, Brayden Schenn was denied by Rask on a breakaway. As time ticked down to zero, Mark Streit fired the Flyers' 52nd and final shot on the net from near the spot where Lecavalier scored the game's first goal. This was was stopped easily by Rask.
The tie game moved to the skills competition with a bonus point -- needed much more by Philly than by Boston -- at stake.
Lecavalier went first. He tried an east-west move and a stuff-in but got in too close and tucked the puck wide of the net. Lecavalier ended up tangled with Rask in the crease.
Bergeron shot in the bottom half of round one. He successfully finished off a similar move to the Lecavalier tried, getting Mason to commit first and then reaching the other way to stash the puck in the net.
In the top of the second round, Flyers captain Claude Giroux -- who did not have one of his better games of the season -- pulled off a highlight-reel backhanded move that no goaltender in the world could have stopped. The score was tied 1-1.
In the bottom of the second round, Mason stuffed Marchand on a backhander. The score remained 1-1.
In the top of the third round, Craig Berube tabbed Michael Raffl instead of Matt Read (who is arguably the best Flyer on breakaways after Giroux). Trying the same move he used to win a shootout earlier this season, Raffl's forehand attempt was stopped cold by Rask.
Needing a save to keep the skills competition going, Mason stoned Iginla on his forehand.
In the top of the fourth round, Berube went with Read. Moving in on angle, Read found room in the top right corner, but shot the puck over the net.
Once again needing save to prolong the shootout, Mason denied Krejci as he attempted to move the puck to the backhand and find open space. The score was still 1-1.
In round five, Voracek got the nod. He got Rask to open up the five hole and it looked for a moment like Rask was helpless but Voracek wasn't quite able to finish off the attempt.
For a third straight round, Mason needed to make a save to prolong the shootout. This time the Boston shooter prevailed as Smith showed good patience to wait out Mason and then scored on a wrist shot from in close. Boston won the skills competition, 2-1.
Despite the fact that the Flyers lost ground in the Metropolitan Division to the second-place New York Rangers, who easily dispatched the Edmonton Oilers last night, it was hard to be too upset over the outcome yesterday from a Philadelphia standpoint.
The Flyers were playing against the best team in the NHL right now. Boston came into the game on a 14-0-1 run with eight straight wins on the road. The Bruins finished the month of March with a 15-1-1 record.
The Flyers brutally difficult stretch drive schedule continues on Tuesday, when they head to St. Louis to take on the Western Conference leading Blues. Then the Flyers play the Columbus Blue Jackets in a game that could be Columbus' last-ditch effort at challenging Philly for at least the third and final guaranteed playoff spot in the Metro. Next Saturday, the Flyers take on the Bruins again -- this time in Boston.
NOTES AND QUICK HITS
* Yesterday's game was an extremely physical match, with the two teams combining for 87 credited hits (44 for Boston, 43 for the Flyers). That was a season high, easily surpassing the previous high -- which was set on Friday in the game against Toronto (79 combined credited hits, with 39 for the Flyers).
* Vincent Lecavalier led the Flyers with nine shots on goal yesterday, including two that found the net. Every Flyers player in the lineup had at least one shot on goal. As yesterday's game progressed, the trailing Flyers moved Tye McGinn off the second line and put Lecavalier back on a line with Brayden Schenn and Wayne Simmonds.
* Nicklas Grossmann led the Flyers with three blocked shots. Grossmann and the usually finesse-oriented Matt Read also led the Flyers with five credited hits apiece. One of Grossmann's best hits was a full body check on countryman Söderberg. All of the impact of Grossmann's 230-pound frame was absorbed by the Boston forward, who was up against the boards and knew what was coming. Despite being braced for impact, the loud groan upon impact could be heard even above ice level.
* Andrew MacDonald led all Flyers defensemen with 23:24 of ice time. Claude Giroux led all Flyers skaters with 23:31 of ice time. Boston's Zdeno Chara led all skaters for both teams with 24:07 of ice time.
*The Flyers will take their team picture today at the Wells Fargo Center at 11 a.m. The team will immediately hold practice thereafter. The practice session is likely to be short with a plane trip to St. Louis and road game tomorrow.
* UMass Lowell was eliminated from a Frozen Four berth yesterday by Boston College. That means the Christian Folin sweepstakes will officially begin. Flyers prospect Shayne Gostisbehere (Union College) is in the Frozen Four, which will take place here in Philadelphia.
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