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Wrap: Flyers Outslug Islanders, 6-4; Hextall on WJC, Frost Update |
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WRAPUP: FLYERS OUTSLUG ISLES, 6-4
A high-octane performance by the Philadelphia Flyers over the opening 40 minutes, a four-goal outburst in the middle frame and surviving a hairy third period lifted the team to a feisty and physical 6-4 win over the New York Islanders at the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday night.
Although the teams went to the first intermission tied at 1-1, the Flyers were the markedly better team in the first period. That carried over into an outstanding second period where goals started to come in bunches. That was enough to withstand a heavy pushback in the third period.
"I thought tonight there was a real mindset to get to that hard area. To do that first you have to win pucks down low. You have to come up with possession in the zone. That was the first part that I thought our guys did a real good job in that area. Getting guys around the puck, finding possession and then getting to the hard scoring area," Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol said.
"I think we can be better in the last 20 minutes. I thought we took our foot off the gas a little bit and against this team they have got a history here of pushing hard in third if they are down and they do a good job of it. They can come hard. They have got pretty good offensive numbers for a reason. Give them some credit but I thought we backed off some of that pressure that I talked about in the offensive zone earlier on. We didn’t come up with as many pucks. We didn’t spend nearly as much time in their zone and by nature you are going to start to defend and that is a group you don’t want to spend the whole time chasing or defending against.”
Despite the third-period scare, the Flyers got strong performances from several lines. Only the fourth line struggled on more than a sporadic shift here and here.
Sean Couturier (power play, 19th goal of the season), Michael Raffl (7th goal), Wayne Simmonds (13th goal), Ivan Provorov (5-on-4 power play and empty net power play goals, 6th and 7th) scored for the Flyers. Jakub Voracek (39th and 40th assists of the season), Claude Giroux (34th and 35th assists), Ivan Provorov (11th assist), Shayne Gostisbehere (22nd assist), Robert Hägg (5th and 6th assists), Jordan Weal (7th assist) and Nolan Patrick (6th assist) collected apples.
"I think we want to establish our forecheck, our game, and I think tonight there was a lot of momentum. Guys were ready from the start and we responded pretty well from last game," Couturier said.
Added Konecny, "I think everyone is starting to get into their mojo now. You’re seeing different guys every night step up and it’s important when you have a whole team contributing each and every night. When you still have our top unit on the power play getting the chances there, it’s pretty lethal."
Brian Elliott got the start for the 15th consecutive game. He showed signs of fatigue, looking vulnerable on his glove side but battled hard around the net and came up with just enough timely saves to win. Elliott finished with 27 saves on 31 shots.
"You try and get out there and just, like I always say, be the best for the guys in front of you and give them a chance. I didn’t feel like I had my best effort, it’s nights like that when other guys pick up the slack, that’s huge for me," Elliott said.
"Next game is next game, you kind of erase this one from the records and start all over again. It’s a couple of weird ones, 1 o’clock games and we have to be prepared for that, you can’t be sleepy or not ready for those games because they can bite you.”
Provorov, whose parents and sister were in attendance, had a rough game against the Penguins on Tuesday. He made the Islanders' pay for it.
"The game against Pittsburgh wasn’t my best. Those games happen, you just have to be able to learn from them and bounce back. I think we came out with the right mentality today and I was able to bounce back for myself and I think as a team we played much better and the way we need to play," Provorov said.
Cal Clutterbuck (5th and 6th goals), John Tavares (power play, 22nd), Ryan Pulock (3rd goal) scored for the Islanders. Nick Leddy (21st and 22nd assists), Dennis Seidenberg (4th and 5th assists), Shane Prince (1st assist), and Mathew Barzal (24th assist) collected earned assists.
Thomas Greiss received the start in goal for the Islanders. He was strictly average, stopping 26 of 31 shots. In fairness, he also didn't get much help from the porous team defense in front of him.
The Islanders came into the game with the NHL's 30th-ranked penalty kill and the Flyers with the 29th. Sure enough, the Flyers went 3-for-5 on the power play and the Isles went 1-for-1.
The game also featured spirited three fights, a combined 46 credited hits (23 for each side) and lots of chirping and nastiness. Couturier had a Gordie Howe Hat Trick; the first of his NHL career. Konecny fell an assist short of the Gordie.
Recalled by the Flyers on Wednesday while in Toronto along with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, a flight cancellation and delays prevented Tyrell Goulbourne from getting to Philadelphia in time to make his NHL debut. That may come instead of Saturday.
"What we are looking for from him is a little bit of energy. He has outstanding speed, a heavy player, a heavy stick, he’s a good penalty killer and he’s been a good player for us up there. But, the energy, the speed, the forecheck, physical play, he has come a long way in three years," Flyers general manager Ron Hextall said.
“He wasn’t an enforcer. He played first line in junior as a 20-year-old. He’s a decent player, he’s not a guy that can’t play the game, he’s not a guy that can just go out there and play four minutes a game, he can actually play the game. He has great speed, good on the forecheck and he has learned to work harder and stay with it and stay focused on the things he needed to learn.”
1ST PERIOD
Scott Laughton took the puck hard at the net for the game's first scoring chance at 3:12.
Jordan Weal drew the game's first power play on a rush up the left wing. After a very long delayed call and two good scoring chances, the Islanders finally got the touch up at 7:43. Dennis Seidenberg went to the box for hooking.
The Flyers capitalized at 8:38. Couturier moved across the high slot, took a pass over the middle from Jakub Voracek and tipped home the re-direct for a 1-0 lead.
Weal cut across in front and nearly tucked up a backhander as the period hit the midway mark. Shots were 7-2 in the Flyers favor.
At 11:04, Travis Konecny dropped the gloves with Shane Prince moments after dropping him with a hit at the blueline. Konecny also won the fight.
Clutterbuck drew iron on a slow-developing 3-on-2 high to the glove side but scored later on the same shift after out-muscling Andrew MacDonald for position in front. The Islanders tied the game as a shot by deflected off Clutterbuck's knee into the net to tie the game at 1-1 at the 15:37 mark. Seidenberg, who was double-covered by Taylor Leier and Dale Weise and left Leddy with ample time and space, got the secondary assist.
After play resumed, Radko Gudas put Mathew Barzal on the seat of his pants. At the other end of the ice, Simmonds landed a solid check on Thomas Hickey.
Shots were 11-5 in the Flyers' favor (four by Robert Hägg). The Islanders won 9 of 15 faceoffs. Credited hits were 12-7 in the Flyers' favor.
2ND PERIOD
MacDonald blocked a Seidenberg shot off the instep in the opening minute of the period.
The Flyers' Gostisbehere had a good keep at the blueline, fed over to Provorov and the 20-year-old Russian wired a shot with Raffl screening in front. Raffl got just a piece of the puck for a 2-1 lead at 1:36.
Philly struck again on the next shift for a 3-1 lead at 2:16. Weal worked the puck on the walls and sent it out to Hägg at the left point with Nolan Patrick and Simmonds in front of the net. Simmonds quickly pounced on the rebound and swept it home.
Elliott gloved an Adam Pelech shot at 15:45 for his eighth save on nine shots.
For the second game in a row, MacDonald took a stick to the mouth that cut him. Pittsburgh's Kris Letang only got a two-minute minor but, this time, Tanner Fritz got a double-minor at 5:09. Couturier was unable to find the puck with a yawning net staring and him. Behind the net, Couturier got away with an unpenalized high stick on Clutterbuck. The two then roughed one another and got coincidental minors at 5:56. The Flyers remained on a 5-on-4 power play.
At 6:24, Provorov rifled a wrister a stride inside center point through a maze of bodies, including Weise directly in front for Greiss, for a power play goal and a 4-1 edge. Patrick and Hägg drew assists.
After the period moved past the halfway point, Filppula tipped a shot in front and very nearly made it a four-goal lead but the puck went just wide of the net.
Instead, the Islander got back within two goals. After a neutral zone turnover by Leier, the Islander countered quickly. A Price shot from the high slot produced a fat rebound that Clutterbuck, driving on past Weise, immediately pounced and elevated home for his 2nd goal of the game and a 4-2 score at 12:26.
Barzal and the Islanders pressured heavily but could not score. At 13:56, Couturier flipped a pass ahead to Konecny for a breakaway from the blueline in. The second-year pro finished it off blocker side from the right hash marks for a 5-2 lead.
Konecny nearly scored again with 3:30 left, taking a feed from Giroux near the right post but Greiss denied him with a sliding save. With 3:17 left, Josh Bailey turnstiled Provorov and went one-on-one in close with Elliott. The Flyers' goal made the stop.
A bad turnover in the Flyers' zone did not come back to hurt them although there were nervous moments with the puck loose and Elliott rolling around. At the other end, Voracek worked a give-and-go with Raffl, who crashed the net (and ultimately into Greiss as he couldn't stop his momentum).
Late in the period, Bailey accidentally lifted a puck that nearly hit a Flyer on the bench. The Islander forward apologized.
Second period shots were 14-8 in the Flyers' favor (25-14 overall).
3RD PERIOD
Gostisbehere turned over a puck early in the period but Price was not able to finish it off. A few minutes later, at the 4:19 mark, Konecny blocked a shot off his calf.
New York got its first power play at 5:22. Laughton got the gate for hooking. The Flyers paid for it. At 6:02 with Anders Lee parked on the doorstep to set up a heavy screen, Tavares wristed a tracer to make it a 5-3 game.
On the next shift, Gudas turned a puck over right into the slot. Elliott made a crucial save on Jordan Eberle.
Andrew Ladd took an awful tripping penalty well away from the puck at 6:50. On the power play, Couturier passed up a look at a half-open net to try to get the puck to Couturier for a tap-in. The chance was lost. The second unit, which featured Manning as well as Provorov, did not do much.
Elliott absorbed a Ryan Pulock blast with 9:03 left. There was no rebound.
Hägg knocked down Bailey behind the net but the Laughton line struggled for a clear against the Tavares line. However, play was kept to the perimeter.
At 14:35, Pulock faked a slap shot, moved in to the bottom of the right circle past Hägg and beat Elliott high to the glove side as the puck went in off the goalie's shoulder. The goal was unassisted.
With 5:10 left after he hit Anders Lee, Couturier dropped the gloves and fought Bailey. Couturier won but it took the Flyers' best defensive forward off with a one-goal lead. It did complete a Gordie Howe Hat Trick.
Greiss was down and out with time ticking down near 2:40 left but Simmonds, moving right after taking a feed from Giroux, wiped out.
The Islanders pulled their goalie for a 6-on-5 attack with left. A massive scrum produced three great chances for the Islanders but not a goal.
The Flyers got a power play after Ladd cross-checked and then tripped MacDonald. Ladd then tried to stir up a scrum as the Flyers sent the puck down the ice. Things heated up and Laughton fought Eberle with 49.1 seconds left. Philly got a power play for the rest of the game.
Near the benches, chirping involving Clutterbuck, Simmonds, Konecny and others kept going on and on. Finally, before play resumed, Clutterbuck and Simmonds were dispatched on 10-minute misconducts.
Giroux hit the post from the red line and then missed the net. Finally, Giroux fed Provorov, who scored into the empty net from inside the top of the hash marks for his second goal of the game at 19:47.
Third period shots were 17-7 in the Islanders' favor; 32-31 Flyers overall.
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WJC: MEDAL GAMES SET, HEXTALL DISCUSSES FLYERS PROSPECTS
Friday's gold medal game of the 2017-18 World Junior Championships in Buffalo will pit Canada against Sweden in the gold medal game. Team USA, the now-dethroned defending champion, will play the Czech Republic for bronze.
Flyers general manager Ron Hextall, who is back from scouting the WJC in conjunction with assistant GM Chris Pryor and the Flyers' scouting staff, talked a bit about the Flyers prospects in the tournament prior to Thursday's game at the Wells Fargo Center.
In semifinal action on Friday, Canada breezed past the Czechs, 7-2. Flyers goaltending prospect stopped 18 of 20 shots. Both Czech goals were scored by potential 2018 top-two Draft pick Filip Zadina. The first, which briefly gave the Czechs a 1-0 lead in the first period, was an absolutely filthy shot by Zadina. The second one was a goal Hart would have liked to have back; it was scored on the rebound of a fluttering backhanded shot that Hart bobbled onto the doorstep and Zadina followed up his own shot by sliding the puck under the goalie's glove.
In the other semifinal, Sweden scored a pair of shorthanded goals on the same kill in the third period to open up a 4-0 lead on Team USA. Although the Americans cut the gap in half late in the game, they ran out of time. Flyers defense prospect Linus Högberg skated just 2:22 and five shifts for Tre Kronor.
"I saw Högberg twice," Hextall said. "Högberg didn’t play very much, five minutes, seven minutes, but he has great feet. He has a really good stick; he really understands the game. I guess the negative would be that he played five to seven minutes, the positive would be the fifth round pick and he’s on the Swedish World Junior team. We’re happy with him, I would love to see him play a little bit more. He had one unfortunate play, where he went in front of the net and it ended up in his net, but other than that he played well. Like I said, his skill set, his skating, his very good hockey sense."
Denmark swept the relegation round with Belarus, two games to none. The Belarusians erased a 2-0 deficit in the third period courtesy of a power play goal and an assist by Flyers right wing prospect Maksim Sushko but went down in a shootout. Sushko, designating by his coach as the fifth-round shooter, never got to take his turn.
Sushko, who logged an average of over 25 minutes per game, set a new Team Belarus record at the WJC with eight points (two goals, six assists) in six games.
"He's a big player on that team. They don’t have a ton of ability, so he plays a big role, probably a bigger role than playing another country. But he was playing probably 24, 25, 26 minutes; too much for a forward," Hextall said.
"He’s a big guy that can skate, has good sense and using their power play and their penalty kill like he did, he did a lot of good things. He’s not going to be that type of a player at the pro level. He’ll be more of a two-way guy that’s not expected to score. You hope they chip in. He did a good job and made a name for himself. Obviously, we knew him and we picked him in the fourth round.”
Hextall also weighed in on 2016 first-round pick German Rubtsov, whom he watched twice in the tournament. Rubtsov, who is at a somewhat disappointing one point per game average in his Quebec League draft-plus-two season. He finished the WJC with four points (one goal, three assists), a plus-four rating, nine shots and one minor penalty in five games.
"Ruby was good, his game is very similar most nights, he plays a good two-way game. He seems to only be the third man high. That’s a coaching thing, not something we’re going to correct or it’s up for us to correct. He’s got good skills, played a lot on the power play, he was good. He took two points, I think, one game I saw him.”
Although Hextall defended the player on the basis of his solid play without the puck and some scoring chances he created, Russia needed Rubtsov to be more of a regular offensive difference maker in the quarterfinals against Team USA. He skated 18:08 of ice time across 30 shifts. Pointless in the game, he was even in plus-minus and had one shot on goal. While not a poor showing in most of the games, he's capable of producing more than he has this season in the Quebec League for two teams and in his second WJC.
As for Hart, Hextall took in his shut out win over Denmark. Hart's tournament will ultimately be judged primarily by how he fares against Sweden in the gold medal game. Hart let his guard down a bit in the third period of blow out quarterfinal and semifinal wins where he didn't see many shots for long stretches. The gold medal game will be a more telling challenge.
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SOO STREAK ENDS, FROST'S CONTINUES
The Ontario Hockey League's Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds saw their 23-game winning streak come to an end on Thursday night with a 4-3 road shootout loss to the Mississauga Steeheads. The Greyhounds trailed 3-0 after the first period on a natural hat trick by Owen Tippett (one even strength, two power play goals).
Thereafter, the Greyhounds chipped away for one goal in the second period and then two in the third. With 5:07 left in the third period, Flyers 2017 first-round pick Morgan Frost tied the game at 3-3.
Frost finished the night with eight shots on goal (all after the first period), a plus-one rating and 9-for-20 on faceoffs. He was unsuccessful on his second-round shootout attempt. The Steelheads went 2-for-3 in the skills competition to win the bonus point.
With his game-tying goal, Frost extended his point streak to 15 straight games. In that span, he has 11 goals, 22 assists and 33 points. Frost's updated season stats and league rankings are as follows: 37 games played, 22 goals (7th), 39 assists (T-1st), 61 points (1st), +47 (1st).
The Greyhounds (32-3-3) still have a 24-game point streak (23-0-1). The team returns to action on Friday, visiting the Oshawa Generals (19-17-2). The Generals claimed a 6-5 shootout road win over the North Bay Battalion on Thursday.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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