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Wrapup: Flyers Crash Late in Tampa, Phantoms Win, Snider Hockey |
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WRAPUP: FLYERS CRASH LATE IN TAMPA, LOSE 4-2
A parade to the penalty box wore down the Philadelphia Flyers in the third period, and the team was unable to close out a much-needed road win on the second half of back-to-back games. Instead, the Tampa Bay Lightning scored twice in a span of 12 seconds on a pair of broken plays and then went on add an insurance goal to turn a 2-1 Flyers lead in the latter half of the third period into a 4-2 Tampa victory.
The Flyers, who skated to a 3-1 win in Sunrise over the Florida Panthers on Tuesday, endured an awful first period in Tampa that saw Philly take a string of penalties and get outshot 12-2. Overall, the Flyers had to play shorthanded seven times in the game. They went 6-for-7 on the penalty kill but seemingly ran out of gas in the process. The Flyers power play, after going 2-for-2 against the Panthers, went 0-for-4 against Tampa. The Lightning also blanked Philly on the power play on Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center.
Steve Mason played a much better game than his stat line indicates (25 saves on 29 shots). He had little chance on two of the Tampa goals and no chance on the other two while authoring numerous tough saves along the way. Lightning counterpart Andrei Vasilevskiy, who shut out the Flyers on Saturday, yielded one bad goal among the two he permitted on 31 shots. The Flyers' best period, by far, was the second period as they enjoyed a 22-9 shot advantage and scored both of their goals.
Dale Weise scored for the second straight game. At the 6:06 mark of the second period, Weise knotted the score at 1-1 with a right circle shot that handcuffed Vasilevskiy to the short side. At 19:05 of the second period, Ivan Provorov pinched down the left circle, took a nice cross-ice feed from Matt Read and beat Vasilevskiy for his first NHL goal. Provorov also assisted on the Weise goal, along with Chris VandeVelde.
Earlier, in the final three seconds of the first period, Victor Hedman ripped a power play shot past a heavily screened Mason to send Tampa to the locker room with a 1-0 lead. After the Flyers took over the game in the second period and survived another series of penalties in the third period, the roof fell in.
At 13:28, a Slater Koekkoek left side shot off the rush went wide of the net and caromed directly to Alex Killorn in the right slight. Flyers defenseman Brandon Manning was unable to neutralize Killorn's stick and the Tampa player scored just ahead of Mason's desperation stretch to seal off the post with his skate. Twelve seconds later, on another broken play, Provorov went over to partner Mark Streit's side to help out with a bouncing puck and Ryan Callahan skated untouched the crease on the right side and scored a backdoor tap-in goal off a pass from Brayden Point.
With the Pierre-Edourd Bellemare line on the ice and Mason still in the net, Tampa's Nikita Kucherov put the game away with 1:45 left in the third period. Kucherov carried the puck up the right side, working against Manning. As he dropped the puck for Valtteri Filppula, Manning and Shayne Gostisbehere attempted to switch sides on the coverage. Kucherov got free of Manning, took a return feed from Filppula and had a tap in from the crease.
The Flyers return to action on Friday afternoon, playing the New York Rangers in the Wells Fargo Center's annual Black Friday matinee.
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QUICK HITS: NOVEMBER 24, 2016
* One game after their eight-game winning streak came to an end, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms got back on the winning track with a 1-0 road win against the Binghamton Senators on Wednesday night. Alex Lyon notched a 28-save shutout and team captain Colin McDonald broke a scoreless deadlock at 9:21 of the third period.Taylor Leier (11th assist of the season) and Corban Knight earned the helpers on McDonald's eighth goal of the season. The two teams will rematch at the PPL Center in Allentown on Friday.
* As the holiday season gets underway this weekend, the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation will compete head-to-head in a "Face Off Fundraiser" against Hockey in Harlem. The competition begins as the opening faceoff drops in the Flyers vs. Rangers game at the Wells Fargo Center and concludes on #GivingTuesday on November 29 at 11:59 p.m.
The organization that raises the most money will be crowned #FaceOffChamps. Flyers fans can show their support for Snider Hockey via the organization's social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and especially by making a donation at SniderHockey.org.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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