Wanna blog? Start your own hockey blog with My HockeyBuzz. Register for free today!
 

Wrap: Flyers Gain a Point in Detroit, Fall in Shootout and Standings

March 21, 2018, 12:35 AM ET [384 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
WRAP: FLYERS RESCUE ONE POINT, FALL IN SHOOTOUT AND STANDINGS

It wasn't the worst-case scenario but it was close. The Detroit Red Wings ended a 10-game winless drought at the expense of the Philadelphia Flyers, winning 5-4 via shootout at Little Caesar's Arena on Tuesday night.

As a result, the Flyers fell one point behind the Columbus Blue Jackets into fourth place in the Metro Division and a wildcard playoff spot. The Blue Jackets, who earned a 5-3 win over the New York Rangers on Tuesday, also erased the 1 ROW tiebreaker advantage the Flyers had brought into the night.

A sleepy start to the first period, especially over the first 10 minutes, saw the Red Wings get six of the game's first seven shots. The Flyers generated six of the next seven. The Wings, however, exited the scoreless first period with a 13-9 shot edge and a significant edge in shot attempts. Philly had a couple of latter period odd-man rushes that fizzled out.

The second period was disastrous. The Flyers were extremely sloppy in coverages, not nearly hungry enough for the puck and their starting goaltender let them down on an eminently stoppable shorthanded goal (the 10th the Flyers have yielded this season). Down 3-1, the Flyers switched goalies. Detroit exited the period with the same lead.

As they did this past Saturday in Carolina as well as in an early season comeback (but ultimate overtime loss) to the woeful and then-winless Arizona Coyotes, the Flyers staged a furious comeback in the third period to battle back to tie the game at 3-3. Just as they did on Saturday, the Flyers had another breakdown after tying the game to fall behind again but dug deep enough to knot the game at 4-4.

After a series of near-miss opportunities with a chance to pull out a regulation win, the Flyers took a lengthy 4-on-3 power play into overtime. The Flyers, who scored two power play goals in regulation, did very little with this one. Detroit went on to control most of the extra frame except for one great chance for the Flyers.

The Flyers fell to 2-7 in shootout, coming up blank in three skills competition shots while Detroit's first round goal was enough to earn the second point and end their winless drought.

Goalless in his previous 17 games, speedy young forward Dylan Larkin scored his 10th and 11th goals of the season. Luke Glendening scored a nearly backbreaking shorthanded goal (9th), while Evgeny Svechnikov (1st) also scored during Detroit's three-goal outburst in the middle frame. In the shootout, Frans Nielsen scored in the top of the first round before Gustav Nyquist and Larkin were stopped.

Veteran goalie Jimmy Howard stopped 27 of 31 Flyers shots in regulation and overtime. He was 3-for-3 in the shootout.

For the Flyers, Sean Couturier finally got his elusive 30th goal of the season (and 100th career goal) after a 15-game goal drought. During the team's third period comeback, they got goals from Matt Read (1st), Shayne Gostisbehere (power play, 13th) and Travis Konecny (20th). In the shootout, Jakub Voracek, Jordan Weal and Nolan Patrick were unsuccessful.

Claude Giroux collected three assists. During regulation, Giroux passed Eric Lindros for 5th on Flyers' all-time scoring list. Lindros, Philly's all-time points-per-game leader got his 659 points in 486 games. Giroux passed him by three in his 730th game.

Making his return to Detroit after being traded to the Flyers shortly prior to the NHL trade deadline, Petr Mrazek was pulled at 9:57 of the second period. Coming off a generally strong performance against Washington on Sunday, Mrazek never really seemed to be in a rhythm on this night. He let in one outright soft goal -- the Glendening shorthander -- and another potentially stoppable one among the three he yielded on 19 shots.

As he did last Thursday against Columbus (as well as his start in Carolina on Saturday), Alex Lyon did a strong job in relief. He stopped 11 of 12 shots, with his best work coming in overtime. The rookie also gave his team a chance in the shootout, stopping two of the three shots that he faced.

After the scoreless first period in which the Flyers killed off a Radko Gudas interference penalty with relative ease, the Red Wings grabbed a 1-0 lead at 6:58 of the second period.

The play started out as a 2-on-1 counterattack for Detroit off a rebound in their defensive zone, with Gudas back to defend. Coming back on the play, Robert Hägg went to cover the left slot. Puck carrier Larkin elected to shoot from the right circle above the dot and beat Mrazek cleanly low to the long side. Darren Helm got the lone assist.

An awful giveaway by Ivan Provorov into the slot nearly ended up in the Flyers net right after the Larkin tally. The Flyers escaped consequences on that one.

Things went from bad to worse at 7:59 with Jonathan Ericsson in the penalty box on a slashing minor. A shot got blocked down in front of the Detroit net and Glendening skated it up the ice on the right wing. Mrazek committed himself to the ice very early. From outside the faceoff dot, Glendening fired a shot over Mrazek high to the short side. While well-placed (as was the earlier Larkin goal), the puck was shot from an angle that is normally a routine save. Detroit defenseman Trevor Daley got the lone assist for the initial play in the defensive zone.

Couturier got the goal right back with the Flyers still on the power play at 8:53. Voracek won a battle on the right side boards to prevent a clearing opportunity for Detroit, and the Flyers got set up. From the left side, Giroux fired a puck at the net that was knocked aside. Couturier, near the right post, had two whacks at the loose puck before stashing it home. The assists went to Giroux and Gostisbehere.

The Red Wings restored their two-goal margin barely a minute later, making it 3-1 at 9:57. The Flyers never got their coverages straight in what turned into a scrambling shift and a three-shot sequence. Mrazek turned and whirled his way into a couple of stops before an open Svechkinov scored from nearly point blank range from the slot. Martin Frk and Larkin got the assists.

Mrazek was pulled from the game. Before he exited, he apparently asked the bench if there was perhaps goalie interference on the Detroit on the play. Lyon entered the game and went the rest of the way in goal.

Nearing adding to the Keystone Kops period for the Flyers, Couturier inexplicably tried to throw the puck up ice from behind his net with time about to expire. Instead he fumbled the puck right into the slot with no help nearby. The Flyers were very lucky to exit the period down by two goals. Second period shots were 9-5 Detroit.

Realizing they were in dire straights, the Flyers threw everything they had at the Red Wings in the third period. They hounded the puck all period, keeping the Wings hemmed in for long stretches. The Flyers generated a host of scoring chances on their way to a 16-4 shot edge.
Eventually, pucks started to go in the Detroit net.

Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol juggled the team's first and second lines for a portion of game while Philly was in comeback mode. Sean Couturier center Oskar Lindblom and Jakub Voracek while Nolan Patrick was in between Giroux and Konecny.

At 7:46 of the third period, a Scott Laughton side-angle shot was deflected into the net by Read to narrow the gap to 3-2. Jori Lehterä earned the secondary assist as the Flyers' fourth line helped give the team life.

The Flyers went to the power play at 8:40 on a Zetterberg high stick. Philly got the game tied at 3-3 at the 9:40 mark. Taking a pass from Voracek, Gostisbehere pinched down the right circle and passed across the ice to Giroux. The Flyers captain then passed the puck up high to Voracek, who rotated the puck back to Gostisbehere. Moving back into the right circle, Gostisbehere measured a wrist shot that he put through a Wayne Simmonds screen and over Howard to the short side. Voracek picked up his 61st assist of the season, while Giroux got his 60th.

Philadelphia continued to press a territorial advantage. Suddenly, at 14:06, the Flyers once again tried to push the self-destruct button. Lyon turned a puck over behind the net. Even worse, Patrick was mesmerized watched the puck behind the net. Larkin slipped untouched into the slot the take a feed from Anthony Mantha and fire the puck past Lyon for a 4-2 lead.

The Flyers got the goal right back at 14:34. Konecny had the puck in go off his skate as he crashed the net as Couturier sent the puck to net-front. The puck crossed the goal line before Konecny took the post off its moorings. The initial call on the ice was no goal but replays quickly showed it should be allowed, and the decision was reversed. Giroux earned his third assist of the game and 61st of the season, while Couturier got his 40th assist and 70th point of the season.

Philly had several golden opportunities to win the game in regulation. On the closest of the bunch, Simmonds hit the post from close range and the puck stayed out. At 19:25 of the third period, the Flyers went back on the power play after Konecny took a nasty high stick from Danny DeKeyser. The Flyers generated a pair of good looks at the net but time expired.

Philly then took 1:25 work of carryover power play time into a 4-on-3 in overtime. The power play went poorly, with the Red Wings getting a couple of clears and the Flyers not finding good shooting lanes in a shotless remainder of the man advantage. The Flyers finished 2-for-4 on the power play and 1-for-1 on the penalty kill.

Thereafter, Detroit dominated the extra frame. Andreas Atanasiou and Larkin -- two of the world's fastest-skating hockey players -- turned Flyers defenders inside out. Lyon kept the game going with a 10-bell save on a wide-open DeKeyser in front. Howard responded with a great save on Giroux off a rush. Before time expired and the game went to the shootout, Lyon had to make another outstanding save on DeKeyser to prevent a near buzzer-beating goal.

In the shootout, Nielsen beat Lyon through the five-hole. Voracek seemed to have Howard beaten on a backhander but Howard got a piece of the puck with his blocker, and puck crawled across the sprawling goalie's back and never went in the net.

Nyquist tried to something similar to Nielsen but Lyon made a pad save. Jordan Weal never got Howard to commit, indecisively skated in too close, and got poke-checked without ever getting off a shot.

A skate/pad save by Lyon on Larkin prolonged the shootout and gave Patrick a chance to force a fourth round. It wasn't to be. The Flyers rookie got Howard to commit but fired over the net aiming for the top shelf.

Dave Hakstol's decision to choose Weal in the shootout, while not selected either Giroux or Konecny for the first three rounds, drew instant second guessing on social media. The coach's reasoning was likely that he was trying to go by recent career success percentages in shootouts. That was solely why he left his best player on the bench to put the game on someone else's stick. Unfortunately for the Flyers, it didn't work out.

Weal entered the game at 4-for-9 on shootouts in his NHL career, including two successful attempts this season. Giroux is 0-for-6 in shootouts this year, 7 for his last 39 (17.9%) dating back to 2014-15. As for alternative options, Konecny has zero career shootout goals on seven attempts (0-for-4 this year). Simmonds is 29.2 percent for his Flyers career (7-for-24) but 2-for-9 over the past three seasons.

*********

STANDINGS IMPACT

The out-of-town scoreboard news was quite a mixed blessing for the Flyers on Tuesday night. Here's what happened elsewhere in the Metro and Eastern Conference races:

* The Metro-leading Washington Capitals rebounded from their loss in Philadelphia on Sunday with a 4-3 home win over the Dallas Stars. The Caps are now five points and 39-35 ROW ahead of the Flyers. Washington also has one game in hand.

* The second-place Pittsburgh Penguins were upset, 4-1, by the host New York Islanders. The Flyers are now one point behind the Penguins. However, the Penguins hold a 39-35 ROW advantage plus a game in hand over Philly.

* The Blue Jackets, winners of nine straight games, moved one point ahead of the Flyers into third place in the Metro. Both teams have played 74 games and both teams now have 35 ROW. In the event they end up in a dead heat in both points and ROW, the next tiebreaker is total points in head-to-head games between the teams. But since the Flyers and Blue Jackets each beat each other once in regulation and once beyond regulation (a shootout win for Columbus, an overtime victory for the Flyers, both teams earned three points against other head-to-head. That would then leave a season goal differential as the final tiebreaker, in which Columbus holds an edge.

* The lower wildcard seeded New Jersey Devils got blown out in San Jose on Tuesday. As a result, the Flyers moved four points ahead the Devils and retained their 35-32 ROW advantage. The Devils hold one game in hand.

* The Florida Panthers hammered the host Ottawa Senators, 7-2, on Tuesday. Florida now has 34 ROW (one less than the Flyers), and moved within one point of the Devils and five behind the Flyers. The Panthers hold two games in hand on the Devils and three on the Flyers.

On Wednesday night, the Penguins host the Montreal Canadiens in the lone game with direct implications on the Flyers. Philly returns to action on Thursday, hosting the New York Rangers. The Panthers visit the Blue Jackets on Thursday.
Join the Discussion: » 384 Comments » Post New Comment
More from Bill Meltzer
» Flyers Gameday: 3/28/24 @ MTL
» Wrap: Flyers Lose 6-5 OT Game to Rangers
» Flyers Gameday: 3/26/24 @ NYR
» Quick Hits: Flyers-FLA Wrap, Flyers Daily, Phantoms, Bigger than Hockey
» Flyers Gameday: 3/24/2024 vs. FLA; Phantoms Update