WRAPUP: FLYERS STEP UP BIG IN 5-3 WIN IN TAMPA
The consistently inconsistent Philadelphia Flyers concluded the December portion of their 2017-18 season with a 5-3 win over the NHL leading Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday night. The Lighting, who had won three in a row, nine of their last 10 and came into the game with a 16-2-1 home record led 1-0 after an evenly played first period, but the Flyers were the better team the rest of the way on this night. A three-goal outburst in the second period put the Flyers in control.
There was adversity to overcome along the way -- trailing after the first period, giving up a late second period goal that tied the game at 2-2, yielding a third period shorthanded goal after a broken stick in the offensive zone led to a counterattack tally could have caused Philly to unravel -- but the Flyers competed all the way and got rewarded.
In games such as these, a team's best players have to be exactly that. The Flyers nucleus group backboned this win and the club also got some timely supporting cast contributions.
Wayne Simmonds (power play goal, 12th of the season), Shayne Gostisbehere (power play, 8th), Sean Couturier (18th), Brandon Manning (4th) and Valtteri Filppula (empty net, 9th) scored for the Flyers.
Couturier also picked up his 17th and 18th assists of the season, including a picturesque backhanded saucer pass across the crease to Simmonds on the Flyers' first goal. Additionally, Couturier won eight of 10 faceoffs and was plus-one at even strength.
Team captain Claude Giroux picked up three assists (31st, 32nd, 33rd of the season). Jakub Voracek chipped in his 37th and 38th assists of the season to reach 400 points for his Flyers career (19th player in franchise history to reach that mark). Travis Konecny got his 8th and 9th assists of the season.
Brian Elliott, who started every game the Flyers played in December, earned the win with 24 saves on 27 shots in his 13th straight start. One of his most timely saves was an early third period glove save on the deadly Nikita Kucherov from the bottom of the right circle and the Flyers leading 3-2. Shortly thereafter, the Flyers scored to take a two-goal lead.
With Tampa playing the second half of back-to-back games after the Christmas break, backup goalie Peter Budaj got the start rather than star netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy. Budaj stopped 29 of 33 shots in 50:26 to absorb the loss. Vasilevskiy played 8:09 and stopped all four shots he faced.
Steven Stamkos (power play, 16th goal of the season), Brayden Point (16th) and Tyler Johnson (shorthanded, 10th) scored for Tampa. Art Ross Trophy race leader Kucherov earned his 29th and 30th assists of the season. Victor Hedman (23rd assist) and Ondrej Palat (17th) also picked up helpers in a losing cause.
The Flyers went 2-for-6 on the penalty kill but yielded their sixth opposing shorthanded goal of the season and second in as many nights. Philly went 2-for-3 on the penalty kill against the Lightning's deadly power play.
Philly blocked 21 shots (led by a half dozen by Ivan Provorov) to 12 by Tampa and won the faceoffs battle by a 35-27 margin. Manning led the Flyers with four credited hits.
Head coach Dave Hakstol made two lineup changes for this game, attempting to go with a heavier, more physical and more experienced look to the lineup at the expense of some speed and youth. After Manning was activated off injured reserve, he returned to the starting lineup. Rookie defenseman Travis Sanheim sat out as a healthy scratch. Veteran forward Jori Lehterठwas reinserted in the lineup, while rookie Taylor Leier was a healthy scratch.
The Flyers outshot the Lightning in the first period, 9-6, but Tampa claimed the only goal.
With Voracek in the box for tripping, the Bolts made quick work of their first power play of the game as they scored 19 seconds later. From the left circle, Stamkos one-timed home a pass from Kucherov at 7:27. Hedman got the secondary assist.
The Philadelphia power play struck back twice in the second period to turn the 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead. At 6:56, Couturier's cross-crease saucer pass on the backhand provided Simmonds with a tap-in goal and Voracek with a secondary assist. At 10:03, Gostisbehere pinched down to the right hash marks to accept the puck as Simmonds collected a Giroux rebound and slid it over to his open teammate. Gostisbehere took care of the rest.
Tampa got the game back to 2-2 at 15:37 of the middle frame, taking advantage of a neutral zone turnover by Provorov and the Flyers inability to get coverage set in recovery. Point's middle slot shot was a bit of a knuckleball but sailed into the net. Palat and Kucherov drew the assists.
The Flyers scored a vital goal at 19:48 to take a 3-2 lead into the second intermission. With ex-Flyer Braydon Coburn out on the left circle to challenge Giroux, Couturier planted himself in front of the net. He then dug out the rebound of Giroux's shot ahead of Hedman and deposited it into the net. Giroux and Konecny got the assists.
Shortly after Elliott's clutch save on Kucherov kept the Flyers ahead early in the third period, a pinching Manning took a pass from Giroux and then claimed the rebound of his own shot from the bottom of the left circle. Seeing a clear lane, Manning swooped around behind the net and scored on the wraparound at 1:53 before Budaj could get over to cover. Giroux and Konecny again earned assists.
Tampa took the only two penalties of the third period, but the first could have been a backbreaker for the Flyers. Provorov broke his stick on an attempted center point shot and the puck went directly to Johnson. He skated up ice one-on-one with the stickless Provorov and, from mid-slot, beat Elliott to cut the Flyers lead to 4-3 at 8:58.
To their credit, the Flyers did not wilt after the Johnson goal. They went on to earn a 14-7 shot advantage for the final stanza and close out the game in strong fashion.
Tampa benefited from a gifted icing call on a playable puck that Hedman skated back at 1/4 speed to ensure crept over the goal line. With a 6-on-5 attack, and Stamkos getting a respite, Stamkos won an offensive zone draw against Filppula and the Tampa controlled the puck in the Philly zone. However, the Flyers stepped up for several blocked shots and two vital zone clears.
Finally, Couturier won a battle in the neutral zone and threaded a pass over to Voracek. Seeing Filppula with smooth sailing ahead, Voracek delivered a tape-to-tape pass. That left Filppula with an easy empty netter to seal his former team's defeat on this night.
The Flyers (16-14-8) finished their four-game road trip with a 1-2-1 mark and concluded December with an 8-4-1 record. The team will take an off-day on Saturday and then practice at the Skate Zone in Voorhees, NJ, on Sunday at 11 a.m. and Monday at 10:30 a.m. ET. On Tuesday, the Flyers will start a four-game homestand with a meeting against the arch-rival Pittsburgh Penguins.
Philly got a little help on the out-of-town scoreboard on Friday night coupled with their own win in Tampa. The Flyers are five points (factoring an 18-16 ROW tiebreaker disadvantage) behind the New York Islanders for the lower wildcard seed in the Eastern Conference and six points (including an 18-16 ROW disadvantage) off the pace behind the New York Rangers for the higher wildcard seed. Although the Flyers are in last place in the brutally tough Metropolitan Division, there's only a 10-point gap from first (Columbus) to last.
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PHANTOMS EARN 3-1 HOME WIN AGAINST CHARLOTTE; FACE OFF AGAIN ON SAT
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms claimed an important divisional regulation win on Friday night as they downed the Charlotte Checkers at the PPL Center in Allentown, 3-1. Based on points, the Phantoms (21-9-4) top the Atlantic Division with 46 points.
However, the Providence Bruins, who won on Friday night and hold three games in hand on the Phantoms (34 to 31 games played to date) are in first place based on the AHL's system of prioritizing points percentage (Providence has 44 points in 31 games) above points. The Phantoms' win on Friday solidified their hold on second place over Charlotte (41 points in 33 games) before the team's rematch again in Allentown on Saturday.
The Phantoms are 5-0-1 over their last six games. The club is still missing the injured Samuel Morin, Mikhail Vorobyev, team captain Colin McDonald, Matt Read and Cole Bardreau from the lineup but is slowly starting to get back to a semblance of its intended lineup.
Making his return to the Phantoms after spending much of December with the Flyers backing up Brian Elliott, Alex Lyon was strong in his first game action since Dec. 1. Lyon turned back 28 of 29 shots to earn the win, and flirted with a shutout for 50-plus minutes. The Phantoms were outshot by a 7-3 margin in the third period.
The Phantoms got first period goals from Greg Carey (17th), Oskar Lindblom (power play, 10th), and a late second period goal by veteran defenseman T.J. Brennan (4th) to take a 3-0 lead into the final stanza. Brennan's goal marked his 400th career point (138 goals, 262 assists) in the American Hockey League, making him just the 10th defenseman in league history to reach the milestone.
Lindblom has surged in December as he's gotten fully acclimated to the AHL style game. In his last 11 games, the rookie left winger has six goals and 11 points. In the meantime, rookie defenseman Philippe Myers, hopefully finally healthy after battling a nagging injury that took him out of the lineup for several prolonged stretches, was plus-one with two shots on goal.
Carey posted two assists on Friday in addition to his goal, to complete a three-point night and figure in every Phantoms tally. Phil Varone and Tyrell Goulbourne also had two assists apiece.
The Phantoms opened the scoring at 6:01 of the first period on a counterattacking rush. Carey pounced on the puck near the net to finish off the play. Goulbourne and Varone earned the assists on the even-strength goal.
Lindblom made it a 2-0 game at 9:15 of the opening period. He powered to the net and rammed the puck home. Carey and Varone collected apples. After starting out the season pointless through the first six games, the 21-year-old Lindblom has 10 goals and 23 points in the team's last 27 games.
The 2-0 lead held until Brennan added additional insurance at 19:49 of the middle frame. Brennan roamed up-ice on the right side and then found the five-hole on Charlotte netminder Jeremy Smith (25 saves on 28 shots). Carey and Goulbourne got the assists. The Phantoms outshot the Checkers, 25-22, through two periods.
Lyon carried his shutout bid through 50:53 before the Checkers finally got on the board midway through the final period. With the Lehigh Valley fourth line on the ice, a turnover just inside the defensive blueline quickly proved costly as Andrew Miller fed Warren Foegele for his 16th goal of the season.
The Phantoms held the fort the rest of the way to claim the first half of the back-to-back home games against Charlotte. The teams will go at again on Saturday in the Phantoms' final game of the 2017 calendar year.
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WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS UPDATES
* Battling frigid temperatures and snowy conditions that made game play exceptionally tough, Team USA battled back from deficits of 2-0 after the first period and 3-1 after the second period to claim a 4-3 shootout win over Team Canada in an outdoor game at New Era Field on Friday. Flyers goaltending prospect Carter Hart stopped 33 of 36 shots in regulation and overtime -- the first USA goal was on a 5-on-3 power play, the second on a 5-on-4 and the third on the next shift that followed -- but was just 1-for-3 in the shootout.
* Team Russia defeated Belarus, 5-2, on Tuesday. Flyers 2016 first-round pick German Rubtsov scored a first-period goal off the rush and later added a third-period assist. He finished with four shots on goal and a plus-two at even strength. Belarusian right winger Maksim Sushko was one of his team's most effective players through the first two periods of the game, although he did not get on the scoresheet. Sushko finished with three shots on goal and a minus-one in a massive 24:04 of ice time.
* On Saturday, there are four preliminary round games at the WJC:
Noon ET: Czech Republic vs. Belarus (Sushko) 2:00 p.m. ET: Sweden (Linus Högberg) vs Switzerland 4:00 p.m. ET: Finland vs. Slovakia 8:00 p.m. ET: Canada (Hart, if he starts) vs. Denmark
* Over on the Flyers' official website, I take a look at current Flyers' players recollections of their own World Junior Championship experiences. Among players on the current Flyers roster, 14 are alumni of the WJC tournament: forwards Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek, Sean Couturier, Wayne Simmonds, Valtteri Filppula, Travis Konecny, Scott Laughton and Taylor Leier, defensemen Ivan Provorov, Shayne Gostisbehere, Robert Hagg, Radko Gudas and Travis Sanheim as well as goaltender Michal Neuvirth.
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CHL AND NCAA PROSPECT UPDATES
* OHL: It wasn't pretty and it was far from easy, but the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds pulled out a 6-5 home win over the lowly Flint Firebirds on Friday night to extend their winning streak to 22 games. Flyers 2017 first-round pick Morgan Frost had a pair of primary assists in the third period, including on the game winning goal by 2018 NHL Draft candidate Barrett Hayton with just 16 ticks left on the clock. Hayton's game-winner capped a seesaw third period that started with the teams tied at 2-2 after Flint took a 2-0 lead to the first intermission.
Frost was plus-three on the night with three shots on goal and a 10-for-18 night on faceoffs in addition to his two assists. He extended his current point streak to 13 games (nine goals, 21 assists, 30 points). Over his last 22 games, Frost has averaged two points per game (16 goals, 28 assists, 44 points).
Here are Frost's updated season totals and OHL rankings: 35 games played, 20 goals (tied for 6th), 38 assists (2nd in the league; one behind Jordan Kyrou), 58 points (tied with Kyrou for the league lead), plus-46 (1st in OHL, +13 ahead of teammate Boris Katchouk, who is playing at the WJC for Team Canada).
The Greyhounds (31-3-2) now face a scenario of playing for the third time in three nights. On Saturday, they host Isaac Ratcliffe and the Guelph Storm (18-13-3). Although the Soo earned a 7-1 blowout road win in Guelph on Dec. 16 (Frost led the way with two goals and two assists), the Storm were idle on Friday night. It will be a tough test for the Greyhounds to forge a 23-game winning streak.
* OHL: While no player or team in any of the CHL leagues has been on a tear over the last month quite on the order of Frost and his Sault Ste. Marie club, Kitchener Rangers captain Connor Bunnaman is among multiple Flyers prospects in the OHL who have been on a midseason roll.
On Friday night, Bunnaman took first-star honors as Kitchener earned a 4-3 home win over the Erie Otters. Bunnaman scored a go-ahead goal late in the second period to highlight a night that also saw him finish plus-two and go 4-for-7 on faceoffs. Bunnaman has an active seven-game point streak (three goals, seven assists, 10 points) to move over a point-per-game on the season (17 goals, 35 points in 33 games).
With the win, Kitchener (23-11-2) opened up a nine-point cushion over Guelph for first place in the Midwest Division. Guelph has two games in hand. The Rangers return to action on Monday, visiting the Peterborough Petes.
* NCAA: Ohio State pulled out a 3-2 win over pesky Niagara on Friday night, as Flyers prospect Tanner Laczynski scored the game-winning goal with 6.3 seconds remaining on the third period clock. He finished the night with three shots on goal and plus-one. The teams rematch on Saturday.
For the season, the 20-year-old sophomore has 24 points (nine goals, 15 assists) in 19 games played. Laczynski's 1.26 points per game average is tied for 16th nationally.
* WHL: Carsen Twarynski did not record a point on Friday night but had five shots on goal. Teammate Kole Lind's hat trick lifted the Rockets to a 3-0 shutout road win over the Kamloops Blazers. The 20-year-old Twarynski has 24 goals and 39 points in 33 games to date.