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Wrapup: Flyers Edge Leafs, 2-1, Take 3-Game Win Streak to All-Star Break |
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WRAPUP: FLYERS NIP LEAFS, 2-1, TAKE 3-GAME WIN STREAK TO ALL-STAR BREAK
The Philadelphia Flyers took an important step toward remaining in the driver's seat for the final wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference as they earned a 2-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday night.
With the win, the Flyers (25-19-6) take a three-game winning streak in the National Hockey League's All-Star break and earned their 20th notch in the ROW (regulation and overtime win) tiebreaking column. The Boston Bruins, 4-3 winners over the Pittsburgh Penguins, jumped from beneath the playoff cutoff to third place (an automatic playoff spot) in the Atlantic Division. Toronto dropped below the playoff cutoff. The Flyers hold two games in hand on Boston (52 games to 50) but the Leafs hold three games in hand on the Flyers and five on the Bruins.
“You go through different stages. We went through a month where a lot of times we were our worst enemy," Flyers head coach said of the team's 10-game winning streak, struggles over the next 15 games and current three-game resurgence.
"We weren’t playing complete games. One area or another was breaking down. You go through those stretches and it seems like right now we are fighting through that. Everyone seems to be fighting a little bit more.
"I think you saw in the third period tonight everyone just stayed with it. We got a little bit better each period in this hockey game. They check well. They check well, they skate well. I know the way everyone talks about their ability, but I think those are two areas of strength in their game. I think we dealt with that better and better through this game. So what this means mentally I don’t know. I think we are good in terms of mental toughness in the locker room. I think we are just fine. I like the way our team reacted tonight.”
A strong four-minute penalty kill enabled the Flyers to get going after some early turnover issues in dangerous areas of the ice. Philly took a 1-0 to the first intermission and got stronger as the game progressed. Even after the Maple Leafs tied the game in the second period on a bad sequence of Philadelphia plays in their own end, the Flyers generated their third consecutive strong final period and were finally able to ahead for good.
Wayne Simmonds, a stalwart during Philly's four-minute penalty kill, converted a breakaway chance on his next even strength shift in the first period. A feast-or-famine scorer for much of his career -- never a matter of effort but just the ups and downs of the sport for many power forwards -- Simmonds has scored in each of the last three games and four times in the last six matches. His 21 goals pace the team.
"We weren’t the greatest the first couple of minutes," Simmonds said.
"But when you get a penalty kill, you usually look for the penalty kill to reverse your fortunes. That’s kind of what happened but we were able to relieve their pressure and get pucks out. We kept our shifts short so we could rotate a lot of guys through. It really worked out.”
After William Nylander tied the score in the latter stages of the second period, the Flyers had no shortage of opportunities to regain the lead. Finally, at 17:23 of the third period, checking forward Roman Lyubimov got his own rebound back, measured a shot and got a friendly bounce in off goaltender Curtis McElhinney's midsection for his fourth goal.
In his rudimentary but ever-improving English, a smiling Lyubimov succinctly described his goal as, "I just shoot at goal, pick up puck, and it bounced.”
Michal Neuvirth, starting on the heels of a Steve Mason shutout on Wednesday, dialed up a strong performance with 27 saves on 28 shots. McElhinney stopped 32 of 34 in a losing cause.
While the four-minute kill was huge for Philadelphia early, the Flyers only had one power play of their own. The second unit outpaced the first unit but did not score. On the PK, Philly finished 3-for-3.
The Flyers dominated much of the game in the faceoff circle, winning 35 of 55 faceoffs (64 percent), led by Sean Couturier going 13-for-17 and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare going 6-for-8. The Flyers also came up with 21 shot blocks -- 15 through the first 30 minutes of regulation.
Ivan Provorov, logging 23:02 of ice time despite serving the aforementioned four-minute penalty, was active in the offensive zone in firing a half-dozen shots on net (among nine attempts). Although tagged with a game-high four giveaways, he had good recoveries and otherwise took care of business without the puck.
Hakstol was asked a Corsi-driven question about whether he thought Bellemare's line with Chris VandeVelde and Lyubimov had a strong bounceback game after the line did not have a shot attempt in the Flyers' 2-0 win in New York on Wednesday. The coach immediately disputed the notion that there was anything wrong with the way the trio played against the Rangers, either.
"I thought they were excellent last night. Sometimes you don’t see what they contribute in the stats. I thought they were excellent last night, and followed that up again tonight. Every night they are a hard working line. They play together hard. Most often they are out there winning shifts and you don’t always just win shifts by scoring goals," Hakstol said.
"Some of the little things, and some of the little momentum that they are able to build, that sometimes goes unnoticed, because of the shift they had, and the momentum they build another line can go out and build off of that. Tonight, they were the line that was able to capitalize and rightly so."
Andrew MacDonald turned a puck over in deep on the game's first shift, although no shots or scoring chances resulted. Neuvirth made the game's first save on a long distance shot by William Nylander from over the blueline and then a second routine save on an unscreened point shot by Roman Polak. Shots remained 2-0 through the first three minutes.
At 3:30, Matt Read collected a Toronto turnover near the attacking blueline, moved in and under pressure elevated a backhand shot high and wide. McElhinney made his first save 30 seconds later on a backhanded dribbler from Giroux. At the five- minute mark, Travis Konecny had a good look at the net from the left circle after a nice centering feed by Brayden Schenn but missed the net.
Leo Komarov had a momentarily open chance near the right post but was harassed just enough by Radko Gudas to fire wide. At 7:08, Neuvirth denied a Nazem Kadri backhander in close for his third save. A TV timeout ensued.
Off the next faceoff, Provorv was called for a high-sticking double-minor at 7:12 as his stick came up on Tyler Bozak and got him in the face. An early Neuvirth save and some effective time-ragging by Wayne Simmonds and Sean Couturier helped kill the first minute. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare then came up with a zone clear, followed by Gudas. The first half of the penalty went by.
Kake Gardiner fumbled a puck at the point and then an errant pass left the zone. Time ticked down to one minute on the penalty. Simmonds and then Brandon Manning cleared the zone. The Flyers stacked up at the blueline and Bellemare forced a turnover in the waning seconds. The penalty expired with just the one early Toronto shot.
"They have a good power play. We know that, we did a lot of scouting on them earlier this morning. Our four minute kill was huge for us. It got us a little bit of momentum," Simmonds said.
A fumbled puck by Matt Huntwick near the blueline off a Gostisbehere clear up the ice enabled Konecny to feed Simmonds. At 12:15 on the breakaway, Simmonds beat McElhinney up high for his 21st goal of the season. Konecny got the lone assist.
"TK made a great play. I kind of looked around me and there was no one around and I just went in on a breakaway. I made a move and the goalie went down first and I put the puck over him," Simmonds said.
On the very next shift, Cousins had a wide open path to the net off the left wing. His backhander was denied by McElhinney.
The crowd wanted a penalty on an apparent neutral zone trip of Raffl. None was forthcoming. McElhinney from a long-range flip in for a stoppage and TV timeout at 15:24. Shots were 5-4 in Toronto's favor.
MacDonald was knocked down cleanly at the offensive blueline, enabling a Toronto odd-man rush. Neuvirth stopped Nylander, leaving out a fat rebound but it was cleaned up until a Provorov turnover. Neuvirth froze the puck on a Komorov shot from the center slot. The Leafs' Bozak won a draw against Brayden Schenn but Konecny came up with a blocked shot. Toronto increased its shot total edge to 8-4 through 16:28 but the Flyers kept the 1-0 edge in the cash register.
Gudas was called for kneeing on a center ice hit on Kadri at 18:03. Neuvirth complained of a bump near the net as he went to the ice early in the penalty kill but no call ensued. With 24.8 seconds left, Neuvirth absorbed a Nylander perimeter shot with no rebound. The Flyers won the draw and Simmonds cleared the zone. Provorov and MacDonald came up with successive shot blocks on Auston Matthews in the closing seconds.
The penalty carried over three seconds into the middle frame. First period shots were 9-6 in Toronto's favor.
Neuvirth corralled a tricky bouncing puck in the opening 50 seconds of the second period. Giroux won the ensuing faceoff cleanly and the Flyers exited the zone. At 1:52, McElhinney stopped a Manning point shot for his first save of the period.
At 3:15, blocking a Nikita Zaitsev shot, Gudas kicked the puck soccer style over the glass from the defensive zone. Toronto hollered for a delay of game penalty but didn't get it. Connor Brown had a right circle shot go high and wide as Neuvirth sealed off the angle.
At the five-minute mark, Voracek took a feed from Giroux just outside the right slot but McElhinney made the save.
Manning jawed with Matt Martin after the whistle at 6:07, taking exception to a hit he received in the neutral zone.
Streit came up with a huge shot block on Zaitsev to erase a prime chance for the Leafs on the rebound of an initial Mitch Marner shot. Second period shots were 5-5 through nine minutes. The Flyers had 15 blocked shots to eight for Toronto at the same juncture.
Philly went to its first power play at 11:08 as Connor Carrick was called for neutral zone interference on Konecny. Taking a diving feed from Schenn, Giroux was stopped point blank by McElhinney. The second power play unit then generated heavy pressure and several goods looks at the net but could not extend the lead.
The dangerous Marner was sprung on a semi-breakaway by Martin Marincin but Neuvirth blockered away his right-circle shot. It was Neuvirth's 15th save.
The Leafs tied the game at 15:35 on a Keystone Kops sequence. The Leafs got a chance in front after Manning and Cousins got in each other's way and never effectively recovered after the puck was lost. As he out-muscled Shayne Gostisbehere in front, Nylander got enough of a loose puck scramble in the goal mouth to nudge the puck over the goal line past Neuvirth. Kadri and Komarov received assists on Nylander's 10th of the season.
"I thought I had it. It was a quick play with myself and the way he shot it at me I thought I had it. I thought I had it under my arm, kind of in my chest or stomach area. But I didn’t get that one," Neuvirth said after the game.
Read could not quite finish off a rush in the final four minutes of the period. McElhinney then turned aside a routine Nick Cousins' offering for his 16th save of the game.
Second periods shots were 13-10 Flyers; 19-19 overall.
In the opening minute of the third period, Couturier received a backhanded centering feed from Cousins. Near the right post, he was unable to flip the puck high enough to get it over McElhinney in tight quarters.
Manning nicely rode James van Riemsdyk off the puck and into the end boards on a Toronto rush. Konecny missed the net after a breakout the other way.
Neuvirth fought off a rising Matthews shot with a shoulder save at 3:19. Couturier won the next faceoff. At 3:41, McElhinney cleanly stopped a Provorov shot from the top of the left circle. Cousins was high-sticked on the play but it was undetected. Toronto won the draw and cleared the defensive zone before Streit brought it back in for a perimeter bid that McElhinney turned away. The Toronto goalie then stopped a Voracek one-timer off a clean Giroux faceoff win.
The Flyers bench was yelling again after a high stick on Schenn was not called -- it was apparently ruled a follow-through. Shots in the third period were 6-1 Flyers through 6:32.
Couturier was unable to pot a Porovorov rebound, firing the puck right back into McElhinney from the left side at 7:19. Giroux won the next draw but nothing developed.
Neuvirth, the less buds of the two goalies, made his second stop of the period at 8:35 on a routine perimeter shot. Toronto won the next draw, and he had to make a tougher one on a Carrick shot through traffic.
Cousins missed just wide on a re-direction of a point shot off a Couturier left-circle faceoff win. Shots were 10-3 Flyers through 11:27. Couturier had another crack at a Provorov rebound but couldn't find the net. At the other end, Neuvirth and the Flyers heaved a sigh of relief on a shot that had room on the long side but went off the post. With 6:15 left, Neuvirth melted down play on a Zaitsev point shot. There was some pushing and jawing after the whistle but things quickly settled back down.
Voracek made a power move off the right half boards and fed Raffl for a chance that was tucked wide. MacDonald tried a bank shot off the end boards on the next shift but the bounced wide of where Konecny could handle it,
With 2:37 left, the Flyers finally broke through. Lyubimov scored on a pinballing shot that went in off goalie McElhinney's midsection. Streit, who made an initial slap-pass down low, and Gudas got the assists. Chris VandeVelde also turned in good work around the net. The goal was Lyubimov's fourth of the season.
At the other end, Neuvirth came out to challenge Kadri and came up with a big save on a blast from near the left dot. Shortly thereafter a puck bounced over the net.
After Voracek occupied the puck deep in Toronto territory for a good 20 seconds, the Leafs pulled McElhinney for an extra attacker. In the dying seconds, Kadri had Neuvirth dead to rights in front but tucked the puck wide of the left post. Time expired.
“We dominated the third period tonight, I don’t think it was not playing with fire by any means at all. In the back half of the year you are going to have to win games 2-0. The goals kind of dry up and it becomes a really greasy and I think in the last two games it’s been some good effort. As a result we have come out with four points," Simmonds said.
Shots in the third period were 15-9 Flyers (34-28 Flyers overall).
Simmonds is the lone Flyer participating in the All-Star Game in Los Angeles. Following the All-Star Break, the Flyers will practice on Monday afternoon. On Tuesday, they have a road game against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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