|
Wrapup: Sharks 1 - Flyers 0 (OT) |
|
|
|
|
|
FLYERS WRAPUP: GOOD PROCESS, NO OUTPUT RESULTS IN 1-0 OT LOSS TO SHARKS
Melker Karlsson converted a 2-on-1 opportunity with 1:15 remaining in overtime to break a scoreless deadlock and send the San Jose Sharks to a 1-0 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers at the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday evening. The Flyers were once again left to look at the glass being half full as they dropped to 6-8-5 on the season. The Sharks improved to 11-8-0.
In terms of territorial possession and shots on net, the Flyers were the better team more or less from the first television timeout of the game onward -- especially in the second and third periods -- but they remained unable to get a win that was there for the taking.
“Give them credit today they played very good defense," Voracek said. "It reminded me of [games against Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer's former team] Jersey but it was a tough game where wasn’t much out there for them or even for us. It went to OT and everybody knows what happened there.”
Scoring chances were not very abundant for either club in the game, but Philadelphia had enough opportunities -- including an early game breakaway by Michael Raffl and a third period point-blank chance for Jakub Voracek -- to pull out a win. Good teams need to be able to win 1-0 or 2-1 when that's what it takes.
For the fourth straight game, Steve Mason (20 saves on 21 shots) gave the Flyers a very strong start in goal. San Jose had the better of the play very early in the first period and then sporadically had chances that required tougher-than-average saves. He had no chance on the game-ending 2-on-1 goal barring a miraculous lunging save or a mistake by the shooter. Mason tracked the puck well, covered his angles well and controlled rebounds; in short, everything he had to do to give his team a strong chance to win, especially on a night where the puck was much more often in the San Jose end as the night progressed.
“I finally am feeling like myself," Mason said. "It was definitely a tough start to the year mentally and emotionally I feel at this point I’m happy with where my game is at.”
At the other end of the ice, Martin Jones was the busier of the two goaltenders, stopping all 34 shots fired his way, including 28 from the start of the second period onward. He, too, kept his team one shot away from winning and got them through stretches where they were pinned deep in their own end.
The bottom line: The Flyers rank dead last offensively in the NHL, averaging a scant 1.79 goals per game. They've scored just 15 goals (1.50 per game) in 10 home games. Philly has scored two, one or zero goals in 13 of the 19 games played so far and have a 1-8-4 record in those games.
"Yeah, it sucks," Wayne Simmonds said. "Obviously we are trying to put the pucks in there, we’re squeezing our sticks a little bit tighter. We are going to get one bounce, one is going to go off our butt, one is going to go off someone’s head or something like that and it’s going to go in. We just have to continue to keep working, we can’t keep thinking about it.”
In terms of process, however, the Flyers played back-to-back solid overall games against Los Angeles and the Sharks.
Matched up against the dangerous Joe Pavelski line for much of the game, the Sean Couturier line spent the majority of their shifts, especially after the first period, pinning San Jose in its own zone. The Pierre-Edouard Bellemare line was also effective. Pressure from the Claude Giroux line was more sporadic. The Scott Laughton line with rookie Taylor Leier (playing his third NHL game) and Sam Gagner (in whom Hakstol does not seem to have much trust) was used sporadically.
"We had some matchups in mind tonight," Hakstol acknowledged. "We didn’t stick to them 100% but there were some matchups we were looking for and guys were doing a good job within those."
The Flyers were very strong on the penalty kill in this game, going 4-for-4 with a proper balance between aggressiveness and good positioning, including a 4-on-3 kill in overtime. Mason stopped the only two shots he faced.
"We’ve done a good job the last few nights, actually, then we make one mistake that tends to come back to hurt you," Hakstol said. "Tonight, we were solid all the way through. The guys were focused on what we wanted to do. The biggest thing is, they just went out and did the job from our goaltender on out. I thought our penalty kill was solid."
On the power play, Philly was 0-for-2 on an abbreviated power play and one full-length advantage. They generated four shots on net and had a couple of deflections that missed the net.
The Sharks clobbered the Flyers on faceoffs in the first period (15-for-19, 79 percent) but, by the end of the night, the Flyers pulled to an even 35-35 split against the club that came into the game ranked first in the NHL in faceoff winning percentage.
Radko Gudas finished with a game-high six credited hits -- one in open ice that potentially saved the team a heap of trouble had the play developed further -- in 22:55 of ice time. For the game, Philly had a slight 28-26 credited hit lead over a San Jose team that has a lot of big bodies who control the puck and the walls down low in the offensive zone when they are on their game.
“I think we put a pretty complete performance out there again,” Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol said. “That’s what we have to control and now we have to go on the road and do it. It’s tough because we left a point on the table here both of the last two nights. But you just got to go back at it. We were the better team I thought for the last 40 minutes of this hockey game. I thought we were a little but quicker and did things better during that time frame, so we’re going to take that and keep building.”
Once again, however, it was a case of a good process with zero result for Philly except for one consolation point in the standings for the regulation scoreless deadlock.
Right off the game's opening faceoff, the Sharks controlled the puck. A crazy carom hit off the end boards as San Jose flipped the puck in deep and came right out in front with Mason caught behind the net. Luke Schenn made a sliding shot block on Pavelski at the eight-second mark to save a goal and the puck hit the post. Then a bad giveaway
The first two shots of the game belonged to San Jose as play moved past the 3:30 mark as Mason made stops on Marleau and Matt Nieto on the same shift. Shots were 5-0 Sharks with the period passing the six minute mark as Mason moved over quickly to his right to deny a Justin Braun backhander on a mini 2-on-1 in the Flyers zone. Play stopped for the first TV timeout at 6:02.
The Flyers got the better of the play -- and the only three shots -- over the next five-plus minutes. The best shift was an extended forechecking sequence by the Pierre-Edouard Bellemare line and the defense pairing of Shayne Gostisbehere and Brandon Manning. The second TV timeout arrived at the 11:19 mark.
At the 14:03 mark, the Flyers turned a puck over at the blueline before Nick Schultz saved potential trouble with a stick block on a Sharks' shot attempt. The puck went up in the netting.
Mason made a tough pad save on Brent Burns at the 14:51 mark to keep the game scoreless. The Sharks continued to apply pressure before the Flyers finally got the puck to safety.
Gostisbehere made a beautiful stretch pass to Raffl to spring him on a breakaway. Jones made the save on Raffl's wrister at 16:38.
Shots in the first period were 10-6 in favor of San Jose. Attempts were 16-14 Sharks. San Jose missed the net twice and had five shot attempts blocked. The Flyers had four shot attempts blocked and missed the net four times.
In the opening seconds of the second period, the Couturier line gained the offensive zone. Jones denied Simmonds from a side angle. The Bellemare line followed it up with a good shift of their own. The Flyers had the period's first four shots within the first minute of play.
The Sharks had a good scoring chance a few minutes later but Mason made an excellent save on Tommy Wingels. Play immediately swung the other way. Bellemare cut over the middle and shot over the net at the 5:35 mark.
Couturier made a strong move around the net. Jones stopped his wraparound try at 6: . Shots for the period were 6-3 Flyers (13-12 Sharks overall) at a TV timeout at the 7:01 mark.
Gudas received the game's first penalty, going off for slashing Joel Ward at the 7:41 mark. The Flyers survived and San Jose iced the puck upon the penalty's expiration. Moments after the Flyers won the ensuing faceoff, Ward tripped Voracek to set up Philly's first power play of the game.
On the Philly power play, Jones cleanly gloved a well-set-up snap shot by Brayden Schenn from just inside the hash marks. Later, he stopped a Voracek slap shot from inside the right point.
Marleau came up with a clutch shot block to break up what would have been an outstanding scoring chance for Claude Giroux at 14:39. Shortly after that Couturier had a pair of shots and Simmonds had one. Shots were 20-13 for the Flyers through 38 minutes; 14-3 Flyers for the period.
The Couturier line applied heavy pressure again as the period ticked down to the final minute. Simmonds was not quite able to get to a rebound chance.
Shots in the second period were 15-5 Flyers (21-15 Flyers through two periods). Attempts were
24-15 Flyers (40-29 Flyers through two periods). San Jose missed the net five times (seven times through two periods) and had two shot attempts blocked (seven overall). The Flyers had seven shot attempts blocked (11 through two periods) and missed the net four times (eight overall).
The Couturier line opened the third period with another excellent shift, forechecking and cycling deep in the San Jose end with strong puck support. However, on their next shift, Simmonds turned a puck over dangerously near the defensive blueline and took a hooking penalty at 3:08.
On the ensuing San Jose power play, Bellemare sacrificed himself to painfully block a Burns shot attempt. He was smarting but returned late in the penalty kill, which the Flyers got through without San Jose generating any chances of note.
Couturier turned a puck over in the neutral zone and San Jose had a good counter opportunity; that is, until Gudas heavily knocked puck carrier Pavelski to the ice at 6:25 and the Flyers recovered. Shots for the period were 2-1 Flyers and 23-16 Flyers for the game at a TV timeout at the 6:58 mark.
The Bellemare line spent a solid shift in the San Jose end to set up an offensive zone start for the Couturier line. Not much of note happened, and San Jose eventually worked the puck down the ice and forced Mason to freeze the puck on a dump-in with only white sweaters oncoming.
Schultz was nabbed for covering the puck with his hand along the defensive zone wall. Time of the penalty was 10:40. The Sharks took a timeout with 1:19 left on the advantage. With 34 seconds left, Thornton tripped Matt Read on a shorthanded 2-on-1 rush to end the Sharks' power play and set up some 4-on-4 play. During the brief Flyers' power play, Brayden Schenn tipped a Gostisbehere shot that went just wide of the net.
With 2:45 left, Jones stoned Voracek from point blank range off a nice feed out of the corner by Brayden Schenn. The top line also applied some pressure in the offensive zone.
Simmonds was called for a tripping penalty with 18.9 seconds left in the third period to put the Flyers in dire straights.
Shots in the third period were 9-4 Flyers (30-19 Flyers through regulation). Attempts were 22-16 Flyers (62-43 Flyers after 60 minutes). San Jose missed the net five times (12 times after three periods) and had five shot attempts blocked (12 overall). The Flyers missed the net three times (11 through three periods) and got blocked nine times (21 overall).
Mason made a tough save in-close on with 20 seconds left on the 4-on-3 carryover penalty kill in overtime. When Simmond exited the box, he snapped a shot on net from just over the blueline. Play then moved to 3-on-3.'
Jones denied Voracek on a dash up the left wing and left circle shot at 2:18. A good look for Gostisbehere was blocked by Marleau a half-minute later.
Finally, the Flyers yielded a 2-on-1 rush as Gagner took an ill-advised route behind the net with the puck already about to be moved up the ice from the other side. That left Giroux was too much real estate to cover and play went by him, too, leaving Del Zotto as the lone defender with Joonas Donskoi breaking down the left side with Karlsson making a beeline down the right wing. Mason took away the shooting angle from Donskoi and Del Zotto slid in a desperate and futile attempt to break up a pass from going across the ice.
Once the puck got across from Joonas Donskoi to Karlsson, the Flyers needed the shooter to make a mistake by flubbing the shot, shooting it directly into Mason, hitting the post or missing the net. None of the above happened, and the Sharks won 1-0. Paul Martin got the secondary assist at 3:45 of overtime.
Shots in overtime were 4-2 Flyers (34-121 Flyers overall). Attempts were 6-5 Sharks (67-49 Flyers overall). San Jose missed the net once (13 times after overall) and had three shot attempts blocked (15 overall). The Flyers did not miss the net (remaining at 11 misses overall) and Marleau blocked a Gostisbehere shot attempt (getting 22 shots blocked overall).
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
Join the Discussion:
»