Wrap: Flyers Earn 3-2 Shootout Win vs Rangers
The Philadelphia Flyers are 3-1-0 under interim head coach Scott Gordon. In the team's final game before the NHL's league-wide Christmas break, the Flyers received excellent goaltending from Michal Neuvirth and prevailed over the host New York Rangers in a shootout, 3-2, at Madison Square Garden on Sunday evening.
Neuvirth had been having an especially rough season, between injuries and ineffective performances in his only two starts (excluding one rehab start in the AHL) of the season. On Sunday, Neuvirth was in top form. He made a host of key saves and had little to no chance of stopping either of the two goals that got past him on 34 shots. In the shootout, Neuvirth went 4-for-4. Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist stopped 29 of 31 shots during regulation and overtime and then went 3-for-4 in the skills competition.
The Flyers got goals from three players who were in dire need of something to go right for them with a scoring opportunity: Michael Raffl (1st of the season), Wayne Simmonds (a much-needed Flyers power play goal for his 11th goal of the season) and the shootout winner by Nolan Patrick.
The Flyers trailed 1-0 at the first intermission. At 10:05 of the first period, a puck got poked past Ivan Provorov at the left point in the offensive zone and Kevin Hayes led a 2-on-1 rush the other way. Travis Sanheim skated diagonally on the backcheck to challenge Hayes, with the other side of the ice exposed once Hayes completed a pass across to Chris Kreider. The Rangers' leading goal-scorer snapped a shot from the slot past Neuvirth.
Philly tied the game early in the second period. Raffl took a pass from Sanheim moved up the ice and beat Lundqvist from the right slot at 1:46.
The Flyers took a very short-lived lead at 5:01 of the second period, scoring moments after the start of a power play. Claude Giroux won the faceoff and the Flyers moved the puck around to Jakub Voracek on the right side. Voracek set up Sean Couturier for a scoring chance from the middle slot. Simmonds followed it up for a 2-1 lead.
New York tied the game on the next shift. Sanheim went behind the net into the corner to retrieve the puck. Lias Andersson body-checked Sanheim off the puck and down to the ice. Andersson then claimed the puck and centered puck past Provorov to a wide open Boo Nieves in the opposite slot. From point-blank range, Nieves scored to tie the game at 2-2 at 5:23.
Overall, the first two periods were fairly even. The third period was a different story. Although both teams were playing the second half of a back-to-back set, the Flyers were playing for the third time in four night and fourth time in six nights whereas the Rangers had a three-night break in the schedule before the weekend back-to-back. Unsurprisingly, the Rangers had fresher legs in the third period and most of overtime, outshooting Philly by a combined 15-8 margin and forcing Neuvirth to come up multiple times.
Neither team was able to score in the first three rounds of the shootout. In the fourth round, Patrick decided to attack with speed and, from inside the left hash marks, snapped a wrist shot upstairs over Lundqvist. In the Rangers' half of the fourth round, Hayes tucked a backhanded attempt wide of the net.
The Flyers (15-16-4 through 35 games) enter the Christmas break eight points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins for third place in the Metropolitan Division and nine points behind the Montreal Canadiens for the lower wildcard seed in the Eastern Conference.
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Seven Flyers Prospects to Compete at World Junior Championships
On Sunday, USA Hockey announced the final Team USA roster for the 2018-19 IIHF Under-20 World Championship (AKA World Junior Championships) in British Columbia. Flyers forward prospects Joel Farabee, Jay O'Brien and Noah Cates all made the team, as did defense prospect Jack St. Ivany. Additionally, local product defenseman Mattias Samuelsson (Kjell's son) and goaltender Cayden Primeau (Keith's son) also made the final squad.
Morgan Frost is on Team Canada, albeit as a third line left wing who is not a main part of the team's power play plan. He is playing on a line with Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds (OHL) teammate Barrett Hayton as well as Jack Studnicka. When Frost and Hayton are periodically placed on the same line with the Greyhounds, it is typically Frost who remains at center and Hayton who patrols the wing. Team Canada coach Tim Hunter had other ideas.
On Team Sweden, Adam Ginning will play a third-pairing defense role at age 18. Samuel Ersson is a backup goaltender on the roster.
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FLYERS NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
As is a Christmas Eve Day tradition here at HockeyBuzz, we present the 1984 edition of the Flyers Night Before Christmas. Rest in peace, Pelle Lindbergh, Brad McCrimmon, Ilkka Sinisalo, Peter Zezel, Miro Dvorak, E.J. McGuire, and Bill Delaney.