FLYERS VS. LIGHTNING GAME PREVIEW (10:00 A.M. EDT)
Needing a win to strengthen their tiebreaker-only hold on third place in the Metropolitan Division, the Philadelphia Flyers (41-29-9) face the much tougher half of their Sunshine State road trip when they take on the Tampa Bay Lightning (43-27-9). Game time is 7:30 p.m. EDT. The match will be televised locally on CSN Philly.
This is the third and final meeting of the season between the teams, and the second in Tampa Bay. The Bolts have won each of the first two games. On Nov. 27, the Flyers dropped a 4-2 decision in Tampa. On Jan. 11, the Lightning came to the Wells Fargo Center and skated off with a 6-3 victory.
The Lightning are a team that gives the Flyers fits on a regular basis. The Flyers are 0-4-1 in their last five games in Tampa and 1-6-0 in their last seven overall against the Lightning.
After tonight, the Flyers have are in Pittsburgh on Saturday afternoon. The next day, Philly will close out the regular season with a home game against Carolina.
FLYERS OUTLOOK
Although the Flyers have clinched a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, there is still plenty to play for over the final three games. The Flyers need to win out in their final three and have the New York Rangers lose (in any fashion) one of their two remaining games to get home ice in the first round. Meanwhile, the Flyers could fall into a wildcard spot if the Columbus Blue Jackets surpass them in the standings.
The Flyers are coming off a 5-2 home win over Buffalo on Sunday and a 5-2 road win over Florida on Tuesday. After two games against bottom-dwelling teams, the next two games for Philly are tough ones.
A four-goal second period propelled the Flyers to Tuesday's win. A pair of goals by Claude Giroux led the way, sandwiched between tallies from Vincent Lecavalier and Sean Couturier.
Lecavalier became the seventh Flyers player to reach the 20-goal mark for the 2013-14 season. Couturier's 11th goal of the season broke a 17-game goalless drought.
The third period saw the Flyers shut down their engines too early, getting outshot by a 16-3 margin. An early goal by Erik Gudbranson got the Panthers on the board and Jonathan Huberdeau cut the Panthers' deficit back to two goals with 14:22 remaining in regulation.
Tye McGinn bagged his fourth goal of the NHL season, and first since October 15 -- a 12-game stretch over several callups from the AHL's Adirondack Phantoms -- with 4:54 left in the third period. The goal sealed the 5-2 win for the Flyers.
For the second straight game, Steve Mason took a shutout into the third period before giving up a pair of goals in the final stanza. He had to work much harder in this game than in Sunday's match against Buffalo, and ended up stopping 38 of 40 shots for the game.
The Flyers have had eight forwards reach double-digit goals this season. If Michael Raffl (nine goals) can score one in the final three games of the regular season, they'll have nine.
Tonight, Zac Rinaldo will serve the second game of his four-game suspension by the NHL. It will carry through the remainder of the regular season.
LIGHTNING OUTLOOK
The Lighting will play the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the playoffs. There is a slim chance that Tampa could be the home-ice team in the series. Tampa is three points behind Montreal with one game in hand.
Tampa is coming off a costly 3-0 win over Toronto. Goaltender Ben Bishop, who has had a magnificent season (37-14-7, 2.23 GAA, .924 save percentage, five shutots) suffered an apparent wrist injury early in the game. Bishop had to leave the game and will miss at least the final three games of the regular season.
Backup goaltender Anders Lindbäck (6-12-2, 3.11 GAA, .884 SV%) came into relieve Bishop. Although Lindbäck has scuffled at times this season, he was flawless in stopping all 25 shots the golf course-bound Leafs fired on his net. Lindbäck has also done well against the Flyers in his career to date, posting a 2.30 goals against average in seven games.
Ondrej Palat scored a pair of goals for Tampa in the Toronto game. Victor Hedman added an empty net goal.
High-scoring superstar Steven Stamkos was injured at the time of the first two meetings of the season between the Flyers and Bolts. He has scored 13 goals and posted 20 points overall in 19 career games against the Flyers.
Apart from Bishop, the Bolts will also be without hard-shooting but often injury-prone defenseman Sami Salo (upper body).
KEY STAT COMPARISONS (NHL OVERALL RANKING)
Non-shootout goals per game: Flyers 2.81 (11th), Lightning 2.85 (8th)
Non-shootout goals against per game: Flyers 2.72 (17th), Lightning 2.60 (12th)
Even strength Goals For/Against Ratio: Flyers 0.98 (17th), Lightning 1.14 (9th)
Power play efficiency: Flyers 19.2% (10th), Lightning 18.2% (14th)
Penalty killing efficiency: Flyers 84.9% (6th), Lightning 81.0% (21st)
Faceoff percentage: Flyers 50.1% (16th), Lightning 49.3% (19th)
PROJECTED LINEUPS (Subject to change)
FLYERS
19 Scott Hartnell - 28 Claude Giroux - 93 Jakub Voracek
10 Brayden Schenn - 12 Michael Raffl - 17 Wayne Simmonds
9 Steve Downie- 14 Sean Couturier - 24 Matt Read
15 Tye McGinn - 40 Vincent Lecavalier - 18 Adam Hall
44 Kimmo Timonen - 5 Braydon Coburn
8 Nicklas Grossmann - 32 Mark Streit
47 Andrew MacDonald - 22 Luke Schenn
35 Steve Mason / 29 Ray Emery
Potential Scratches: Zac Rinaldo (NHL suspension), Jay Rosehill (healthy), Erik Gustafsson (healthy), Hal Gill (healthy), Chris Pronger (LTIR, post-concussion syndrome).
LIGHTNING
18 Ondrej Palat - 91 Steven Stamkos - 9 Tyler Johnson
17 Alex Killorn - 51 Valtteri Filppula - 24 Ryan Callahan
23 J.T. Brown - 11 Tom Pyatt - 86 Nikita Kucherov
71 Richard Panik - 44 Nate Thompson - 16 Teddy Purcell
25 Matt Carle - 7 Radko Gudas
77 Victor Hedman - 3 Keith Aulie
2 Eric Brewer - 62 Andrej Sustr
39 Anders Lindbäck
[37 Kristers Gudlevskis]
Potential Scratches: Ben Bishop (upper body), Sami Salo (upper body, doubtful), Michael Kostka (concussion), Brian Lee (knee surgery), Mark Barbeiro (healthy), Cody Kunyk (healthy), Ryan Malone (healthy), Mattias Öhlund (LTIR, left knee surgery).
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