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Wrapup: Tampa Blanks Flyers, 3-0 |
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The Philadelphia Flyers had a 70-to-29 shot attempt advantage over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday afternoon at the Wells Fargo Center but a 3-0 deficit the only place it really mattered: the scoreboard.
Tampa Bay goaltender Andrei Vasilveskiy played brilliantly in authoring a 32-save shutout. The Lightning also blocked 21 Flyers shots and Philadelphia missed the net -- including on several of their best scoring chances -- on 21 other occasions.
The Flyers did not yield much defensively during the game but had major breakdowns on a pair of Tampa Bay rushes (one on the power play, one at even strength) and Tampa made precision plays when they had opportunities. The Bolts completed a scoreboard picket fence with a third period breakaway goal by Jonathan Drouin. Tyler Johnson (power play) and Ondrej Palat scored the other Tampa goals. Johnson's was a virtual slam dunk and Palat's was an outstanding individual effort.
Tampa won the special teams battle in the game, going 1-for-2 on the power play and 5-for-5 on the penalty kill. The Flyers had some good pressure, especially in the first period, but were either denied by Vasilevskiy, got blocked or missed the net.
Flyers goaltender Steve Mason was neither bad nor stellar in this game. He stopped 15 of 18 shots, but none of the goals were soft ones as Tampa executed very well on all three. The Drouin blink-of-an-eye breakaway was partially saved but Mason didn't get quite enough of his pad on it to make the save.
“You don’t get points for winning at shot attempts or winning on the shot chart. We did a lot of good things today. This is a tight hockey game against a good team,” said Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol.
"There were a lot of positives in our game, but as I said, a critical error at the wrong time changes the outcome of the game. We can’t control necessarily what goes on at the other end of the rink. I thought their goaltender was good. I do think we can do a little better job at finding a rebound. We didn’t get many rebounds tonight. Their group does a good job boxing and battling out in that area, but maybe we can find a way to get to one of those. Do that a little bit better.
"At the other end of the rink, do a little bit better job on a night like tonight. We didn’t get give up much tonight. We didn’t give up very much. That’s the area that I’ll look at and say we can do better in a couple of those areas.”
Philadelphia defenseman Ivan Provorov cranked out another strong game in all three zones, and was one of the team's bright spots even as the Flyers fell back to .500 (8-8-3 record) on the season.
Shayne Gostisbehere returned to the Flyers' lineup after being a healthy scratch on Thursday. Brian Boyle was a late scratch for Tampa Bay. The Lightning dressed seven defensemen instead.
Mason had to make a pair of saves in the opening minute of the game, including a Valttteri Filppula chance n close. Brayden Schenn then broke up a developing outnumbered situation on the next shift. Michael Del Zotto hit the post from his favorite shooting spot (the left circle) on Philly's first good scoring chance.
At 5:31 of the first period, the Flyers got the game's first power play. Ex-Flyer Braydon Coburn got the gate for boarding Chris VandeVelde on the defensive half boards. Gostisbehere snapped a left point shot on net early for Philadelphia's first shot on goal. Subsequently, Vasilevskiy had to make saves on Schenn and Claude Giroux. Despite the good pressure, Philadelphia did not score.
With 9:43 remaining in the opening period, Mason finally saw his third shot of the period. He snared a routine Andrej Sustr shot from the top of the right circle and held on for a television timeout.
The Flyers went back to the power play on an interference penalty against Nikita Kucherov at 10:56. With 41 seconds left and the second power play unit on the ice, Vasilevskiy fought off an Ivan Provorov right point blast into the stands.
Tampa received into first power play at 13:06 as Sean Couturier was sent off for cross-checkng Ryan Callaan near the player benches. A tic-tac-toe passing sequence by Tampa gave Johnson a virtual slam-dunk inside the left post from the bottom of the right circle. Alex Killorn and Filppula got the assists at 14:25 on Johnson's sixth goal of the season. The Flyers got mesmerized watching the puck and ended up with all four PKers on the left side or over the middle.
Mason stopped Jonathan Drouin from the left circle off a Tampa couterattack at 15:20. Drouin may have taken a stick from Schenn before going off in a bit of discomfort.
After the Flyers were unable to find a loose puck in a Provorov rebound scramble in front during a delayed penalty, Johnson went off a high-stick behind the net at the 16:30 mark. Philly generated nothing of consequence.
Shots in the first period were 12-6 in the Flyers' favor. Flyers left winger Chris VandeVelde left the game with an upper-body injury and did not return.
The Couturier line generated Philly's first good chance of the second period. At the 4:00 mark, Mason made his first stop of the period before the net came off its moorings. Vasilevskiy hung on to a tricky point shot by Provorov that nearly beat him through traffic at the 5:51 mark.
After Radko Gudas landed a solid bodycheck on Callahan, he was challenged to a fight by J.T. Brown. Gudas obliged and a lengthy spirited bout ensued. Gudas seemed to get the better of the fight by a small margin. Brown gave former Tampa defenseman Gudas a little pat on the b head as a respectful gesture at the end. Time of the fight was 6:37.
Tampa pened a 2-0 lead at 7:40. From the right circle, Palat stickhandled over the middle as Del Zotto attempted to slide in front of him, used Wayne Simmonds as a screen snapped a shot over Mason to complete an outstanding individual effort. Vladislav Namestnikov had the lone assist on Palat's third tally of the season.
Vasilevskiy made a point blank save on Nick Cousins at 9:50; his toughest stop of the game up to that point. Matt Read was sent off on a retaliatory cross-checking penalty in offensive corner at 14:15, putting the team in dire need of a successful kill. The Flyers survived.
With 3:02 left in the middle frame, Vasilevskiy reeled in a Del Zotto point shot. It was his 18th save of the game and sixth of the period.
An Andrej Sustr turnover caused a heap of trouble for Tampa, and Sustr took a desperation stick holding penalty at 18:46 as Philly was not quite able to capitalize. The power play started with heavy Flyers pressure but missed nets on open opportunities proved costly. Time expired on the period with 46 seconds of carryover power play time.
Shots in the second period were 8-7 in Tampa's favor (19-14 overall in the Flyers' favor).
At 4:26 of the third period, Drouin attacked on a breakaway with tremendous speed. Moving left, his shot went Mason's pad and into the net for his third goal of the season. Palat received the lone assist.
Philadelphia got its fifth power play at 6:09 on a Kucherov high-sticking penalty. They generated very little, drawing boos from the home crowd.
With 5:29 left in the third period, Vasilevskiy snapped a Pierre-Edouard Bellemare shot for his 25th save. A TV timeout followed. Save 26 came on a routine, unscreened Gostisbehere shot after play resumed. Next, Vasilevskiy needed some puck-clearing help from his defense after leaving out his first bad rebound of the game and received it, although the play resulted in a Tampa icing.
Voracek, snakebitten all game, had a good scoring chance from the right circle at 17:33 but Vasilevskiy slid across for his 30th save.
With 1:36 remaining, coincidental slashing minors on Palat and Konency created 4-on-4 play for the rest of the game. Vasilevskiy grabbed two more saves to bring his final total to 32.
Third period shots were 13-4 in the Flyers' favor and 32-18 in the Flyers favor overall.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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