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Wrapup: Disastrous 2nd Pd Costly in 4-3 Loss in Pittsburgh |
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A disastrous second period that saw the Philadelphia Flyers rapidly squander an early 2-0 lead in a three-goal, 17-shot barrage by the Pittsburgh Penguins proved to their undoing as Pitsburgh snapped an eight-game losing streak against the Flyers.
The Flyers struck for first period power play goals by Brayden Schenn (11th goal of the season) and Jakub Voracek (sixth) to take a 2-0 lead to the first intermision. Late in the game, a power play goal by Claude Giroux narrowed a 4-2 deficit to one goal. Philadlephia put on a heavy late push but narrowly missed finding an equalizer in the waning seconds.
In between, Pittsburgh dominated the game as they struck four times, including twice on the power play. The Penguins were by far the better five-on-five team, including during the early portion of the first period, and look dangerous every time they were on the man advantage.
Phil Kessel scored power play and even-strength goals for the Penguins, while Sidney Crosby had a goal and an assist. Recently acquired defenseman Trevor Daley tallied an early seond period goal to start the momentum rolling for Pittsburgh.
Steve Mason was strafed for 45 shots, stopping 41. Along the way, the Flyers goaltender stopped several odd-man rushes and second-hance opportunities. Winning netminder Marc-Andre Fleury turned back 29 of 32 Philadelphia shots.
On special teams, the Flyers finished the night at 3-for-6 on the power play; the first time this season Philly has scored more than two goals in a game on the man advantage. Pittsburgh went 2-for-4 and narrowly missed another on a puck that skittered across the goal line and stayed out of the net.
Both teams were guilty of some bad turnovers that led to odd-man rushes. Ultimately, the Penguins were the more opportunistic team.
One of their two even strength goals started with a failed clearing or breakout opportunity for Michael Del Zotto, followed by a virtually impossible finish by Crosby to find a puck-sized opening over Mason's right shoulder from a flat angle below the circle to tie the game at 2-2. The other was a counterattacking rush that developed in to a 2-on-1. On this one, Del Zotto defended the 2-on-1 poorly and Kessel ended with a virtual tap in as he went to the net and received a pass from the opposite slot to put the Pens ahead 4-2.
While the Flyers ended with one more power play goal than the Pens got, the even strength play was what carried the day for Pittsburgh.
In the first period, Schenn potted a Shayne Gostisbehere rebound kept alive by Wayne Simmonds as Fleury was unable to locate the puck. The ill-fated lead doubled as Voracek cut in from the circle after Giroux found a cross-ice seam. Voracek then wristed home off the post his first power play goal of the season. Gostisbehere earned another assist.
A late first-period slashing penalty by Ryan White, committed moments after White turned over the puck in the defensive zone, carried over into the second period. The Flyers needed to kill it off to prevent Pittsburgh from building momentum, but the opposite happened.
At the 1:40 mark, former Dallas defenseman Daley wristed a left circle shot through traffic in front and past a screened Mason to cut the gap to 2-1. Olli Määttä and Chris Kunitz got the assists on Daley's fourth goal of the season.
The goal energized the Penguins and what had been a silent Consol Energy Center. Pittsburgh went on to utterly dominate the middle frame. It was during this frame where the absence of Sean Couturier (day-to-day with a lower body injury) was severely felt by the Flyers; not just because of his track record of giving fits to Evgeny Malkin in particular but also for his ability to provide stabilizing shifts where his line generates puck possession. Philly spent the vast majority of the frame hemmed in its own end.
Crosby's severe angle goal at 7:29 knotted the score. While Mason gave up a little bit of space upstairs by dropping into the butterfly, very few NHL players could score from that angle without some sort of fluky bounce. Crosby's shot was filthy -- perfectly placed into the small opening over Mason's glove-side shoulder and under the crossbar.
Pittsburgh's power play passing carved up the Flyers PK and a wide-open Kessel scored from point blank range to put Pittsburgh ahead at 14:06. Crosby and Patric Hörnqvist collected the apples on Kessel's 13th goal of the season.
The damage actually could have been a lot worse. Based on the quality and volume of Pittsburgh shots, the Penguins easily could have led 5-2 or 6-2 at the second intermission. Instead, Philly was able to bring the period to a merciful close with 1:55 of carryover power play time on a Penguins too many men on the ice penalty and a chance to tie the game.
Unlike the Penguins in the second period, the Flyers were unable to cash in on their start-of-period power play. That was another momentum boost for Pittsburgh.
Over the course of the third period, Mason remained very busy (18 saves on 19 shots) and Philly wasn't able to get much of a sustained push-back until very late. Flyers coach Dave Hakstol, partially due to all the special teams play and partially because of the increasing desperation of the situation, double-shifted Giroux (24:26 of ice time).
After the Flyers very narrowly averted a third Pittsburgh power play goal (the Pens, the crowd and even Mason thought the puck had gone in rather than dancing across but never over the goal line), their luck ran out. The situation became dire at 6:20 as Kessel scored on a tap in on a 2-on-1 to give Pittsburgh a 4-2 lead. Carl Hagelin and Ben Lovejoy got the assists on a sequence that started in the Pittsburgh end.
With 4:19 left to play, Pittsburgh's Brian Dumoulin accidentally flipped the puck over the glass from the defensive zone to receive a delay of game penalty. At the 16:35 mark, Giroux snapped off a wrist shot from the deep left slot that Fleury was unable to track and went cleanly into the back of the net. Voracek and Schenn got the assists.
Hakstol did not pull Mason for an extra attacker until nearly the final minute of play. He then called timeout after a Pittsburgh icing at the end of a long shift. As time ticked down into the final 30 seconds, Kris Letang took a foolish pair of icings that gave Philadelphia offensive zone faceoffs.
After the Penguins cleared the zone, the Flyers had time for one more rush. A Giroux shot was blocked but went directly went to the area where Schenn was stationed -- with half an open net staring at him -- but the puck eluded him and went to a pinching Gostisbehere in the left circle. With two Penguins sliding in desperation and a maze of bodies in front with Fleury down on the ice, Gostisbehere was not able to thread through a final shot attempt before time ran out.
The Flyers have now suffered back-to-back regulation losses. On Saturday, the team is in Brooklyn to take on the New York Islanders.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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