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Wrap: Penguins Shred Flyers, 6-2 |
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WRAPUP: PENGUINS SHRED FLYERS, 6-2
The Philadelphia Flyers are still in control of their destiny in the playoff race but gained no breathing room in a lopsided 6-2 loss to the white-hot Pittsburgh Penguins at the Consol Energy Center on Sunday afternoon. Pittsburgh blitzed the Flyers right from the opening faceoff, and built a commanding lead.
Flyers goaltender Steve Mason actually played pretty well in goal but finished with an ugly stat line (33 saves on 38 shots). Four of the five goals he yielded were unstoppable. The other was a tough chance from the slot on a blocked pass that went right back to the eventual scorer.
Eric Fehr scored two late goals -- the latter being a shorthanded empty netter -- for Pittsburgh. The Penguins also got goals by Sidney Crosby, Beau Bennett, Patric Hörnqvist and Carl Hagelin also scored goals. Matthew Murray stopped 28 of 30 shots to earn the win.
The Flyers got goals by Wayne Simmonds and Jakub Voracek. Claude Giroux, Andrew MacDonald, Shayne Gostisbehere and Sean Couturier got one assist apiece. MacDonald later left the game after getting hit from behind into the boards on the sequence that ended with Fehr's first goal.
Pittsburgh came out of the gates in a hurry. The Flyers turned over a puck and the Penguins had a quick flurry of chances in the opening 21 seconds. Kunitz, Hörnqvist, Daley and Hörnqvist again all had shots on net; the latter three at close range.
Ian Cole went off for interference at 2:21. The Flyers had one good crack at the net on a Gagner shot. Shots were 6-3 Pens at 4:28 of the period.
Brian Dumoulin snapped a point shot on net through traffic. Mason turned it aside as play neared the six-minute mark. At 6:29, Mason carefully grabbed a side-angle Crosby shot through a screen that he did not seem to see at first.
Shots were 10-4 Pittsburgh through the first nine minutes. The teams traded offside rushes (two for the Flyers, one for the Penguins) and each team took an icing in a more methodical middle section of the period. Philly did a good job of bottling up the slots when the Penguins got possession down low in their zone.
Simmonds had Schenn set up in the left slot but the lane disappeared quickly and the shot was blocked by Tom Kuhnhackl. On the next shift, Gostisbehere hit Couturier in stride but the Pens again recovered and a backhanded shot attempt was blocked aside by Ben Lovejoy.
Mark Streit blocked a Phil Kessel shot and tied up Nick Bonino to prevent him from getting to the puck. Moments later, the puck was chipped into the benches TV timeout followed with 5:37 left in the first period.
Mason denied a close-range Crosby backhander and then Crosby bought a Simmonds hooking penalty at 15:03. Crosby then bagged a backhanded rebound goal from the doorstep off a Kessel right circle shot to give Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead on their 14th shot of the first period. Kessel got the lone assist on Crosby's 33rd goal of the season at 15:38.
Pittsburgh struck quickly again on a 2-on-1 off a Matt Read turnover. Beau Bennett finished it off at the right post on a cross-ice pass by Conor Sheary as Mark Streit was not able to get his stick down to deny the pass. Justin Schultz got the secondary assist as he started the transition play. Bennett's sixth goal of the season came at the 16:43 mark.
With just 26.7 seconds left in the period, Read got a long-range routine shot on net. The Flyers won the ensuing faceoff, and Murray fought off a rising shot.
Shots in the first period were 16-6 Pittsburgh.
The Pens came out attacking again in the second period, with shots by Daley and Crosby in the opening half minute. After the Flyers' Raffl missed the net on a good scoring chance from the left slot. Shultz joined the rush and forced Mason to make a save from below the circles at 2:24. Moments later, a wide-open Bennett steered a shot wide from point-blank range.
The Couturier line had a promising counterrush brewing at the 4:41 mark. They went offside. Murray stopped a deflection on net as the Flyers generated their eighth shot and then he found a Streit point shot through a Wayne Simmonds screen.
The Penguins generated their next wave of offensive zone pressure on a long shift that included Mason leaving out a rebound in front and then knocking it to safety and Schenn catching a Matt Cullen high stick. Philly then took an icing. Pittsburgh won the draw but everything was contained to the perimeter.
Wit 12:09 left in the period, Voracek initially seemed to have a breakaway but Hörnqvist recovered. Voracek ended up spinning around and getting a weak backhander on net.
Twentt seconds later, Letang had a bang-bang chance from the slot on a Flyers turnover but the Flyers' Schultz recovered enough to deflect the puck out of play.
The Flyers benefited from a questionable icing call but the Penguins broke out the other way on a 3-on-2. Kessel batted an aerial puck out of the air and on net. Mason kicked out his left leg to make a very tough pad save.
The hot-headed Letang cross-checked the agitating Nick Cousins after the whistle after a close in play at the net. No penalty was called. When play went the other way, Letang snapped a pair of shots on net. He then exchanged shoves with Michael Raffl after the whistle.
After a lost faceoff and failed clear on the walls by the Flyers, Hörnqvist cut across the offensive zone with the puck. MacDonald blocked the Swede's pass attempted for Crosby but the puck went directly back to Hörnqvist. Hörnqvist then snapped a right slot shot over Mason's glove at 10:21 for his 21st goal of the season. The Penguins' third goal on 25 shots was unassisted.
Crosby shot high-and-wide of the left post on a 2-on-0 counterrush. Mason seemed to have the side sealed off, anyway.
Murray hung on to a side-angle Schenn shot with Simmonds on the doorstep in the event of a rebound. Shots were 10-8 Penguins with 4:34 left in the period. Couturier made a strong move from the circle and then made a quick centering pass to Raffl. Although well-covered, Raffl got a shot on net.
Simmonds laid a good hit on Letang going for a puck behind the net. Letang went off with 3:10 left in the period. Schenn created a scoring chance off the rush and was taken down going to the net after his own rebound, but there was no call.
Finally, Simmonds got the Flyers on the board with 41.2 seconds left in the period. Taking a breakout pass from MacDonald, Giroux carried into the offensive zone with control, backing off the defense and making a drop-pass to Simmonds. The right winger then snapped a 35-foot shot under the crossbar for his 29th goal of the season to cut the gap to 3-1. Murray's shutout streak ended at 122:06 and Giroux and Andrew MacDonald drew the assists.
Shots in the second period were 13-10 Flyers; 26-19 Penguins through two periods.
Crosby snared a dangerous Crosby shot off a pass by Hörnqvist at 35 seconds. There were some anxious moments around the Flyers net as Mason overplayed a Fehr shot and Gostisbehere blocked Kuhnhackl in front.
Schenn had a Simmonds side-angle rebound momentarily sitting for him on the doorstep but Letang broke up the play before Schenn could pot the puck.
A diving Hagelin made it 4-1 at 4:14, beating Manning the puck on a deflected Letang point shot that Bonino got a piece of in front. The goal was Hagelin's 12th of the season.
Simmonds, increasingly getting under the Pens' skin, nearly jammed a puck home on the next shift after the Hagelin goal. Giroux had a momentary rebound chance but could not do anything with it.
The Flyers got back to 4-2 as Voracek got position on Dumoulin and deflected home under the crossbar a Gostisbehere shot from up high. The goal at 8:07 was Voracek's 11th of the season.
The Penguins made it 5-2 on a play where Andrew MacDonald got hammered from behind into the boards by Kuhnkhackl on a play worthy of a boarding major but no call was made. The Pens ended up with numbers down low and Fehr scored from point blank range. Cullen and Kuhnhackl got the assists.
Play got chippy after the non-call. Both teams traded off a couple scoring chances.
With 6:42 left, Gostisbehere got a holding penalty behind the net on Kessel. Mason made a great pad save on a Kunitz one-timer. With 3:47 left, Simmonds high sticked a loose rebound that hit the top of the net, bounced off Murray's back and into the net. The goal was disallowed, correctly.
Bonino got a hooking penalty with 2:07 left. The Flyers pulled Mason for an extra attacker. Fehr scored a shorthanded empty netter on a 2-on-1 with 1:39 left to make it 6-1.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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