Quick Hits: March 28, 2021
1) The Philadelphia Flyers still have a pretty significant hole to climb out of in the East Division playoff standings. Nevertheless, the team's 2-1 home win on Saturday afternoon against the New York Rangers was one of the season's more gratifying performances amid what has been a disastrous month of March.
First and foremost, Sam Morin's first career NHL goal could hardly have come at a more opportune or dramatic moment. He had just been on the ice for nearly two minutes due to a seemingly eternal sequence that saw the Flyers get hemmed in deep, have a scoring chance on a Jakub Voracek counterattack and then ice the puck twice in quick succession. His next shift out lasted just eight seconds as he ripped a shot from the point that beat Igor Sheshterkin and put the Flyers ahead to stay.
After all Morin has been through in missing the better part of three straight seasons due to core muscle issues during the 2017-18 regular season followed by two successive ACL tears during the 2018 Calder Cup playoffs and early in the 2019-20 season, his story would be a compelling one of perseverance. That, on top of it, he is an eminently likeable young man off the ice -- always smiling, optimistic, and approachable -- makes it even easier to pull for his success.
Last May, during the NHL pause for the COVID-19 pandemic, I interviewed Morin for an article for the Flyers website entitled "Still Driven by a Dream". At the time, Morin was rehabbing daily at the Skate Zone in Voorhees.
"I still have the passion for hockey. I want to play in the NHL. I want to play for the Flyers. They drafted me. I have played a few games, but I want to give myself a chance to play more. That's still my goal," he said. "If something [happens again injury-wise] and I have to do something else, I want to know that I gave it everything I had. So, yeah, I have a lot of motivation."
Yesterday's game-winning goal was a big one in the immediate term for the team as a whole but a moment that Morin himself will never forget for the rest of his life. His teammates' ecstatic celebration showed they understood just how much that moment meant for Morin.
Says it all....
— Bill Meltzer (@billmeltzer) March 27, 2021
Photo courtesy Zack Hill/@NHLFlyers pic.twitter.com/a3TWXxzHy9
As for the game itself, coming on the heels of receiving 9-0 and 8-3 trouncings from the Rangers and giving up an astounding 64 goals across 14 previous games in March, there were three main factors that set the stage for Morin's late-game heroics:
* The Flyers' strong response after the Mika Zibanejad power play goal in the first period; his seventh goal and 13th point against the Flyers in their last three meetings. There was reason to be concerned after Zibanejad's slam-dunk goal. The Flyers have become such a fragile team, especially of late, with things quite often rapidly snowballing downhill after giving up a goal. Not this time. Philly was the better team the rest of the first period, and built on it in the second period as well.
* Unlike virtually the entire month of March, the Flyers got some bail-out saves from their goaltending when there were Philadelphia breakdowns and/or plays made by the Rangers. Brian Elliott didn't see a ton of rubber in terms of quantity but he had to make several vital saves to prevent a second Rangers' goal.
* If the Flyers had let their 5-on-3 (1:17 worth of it) and remaining 5-on-4 power play time go to waste in the second period, the air might have gone out of their balloon. Shayne Gostisbehere's excellent keep at the point, nice deflectable shot and Nolan Patrick's tip-in past a razor sharp Sheshterkin was huge both for the team and for the two players. It tied the game at 1-1 and kept the momentum on the Philly side that period.
For Gostisbehere, it was the type of play he used to make with frequency but has largely struggled to generate -- over and above injury and defensive issues -- for a couple years. Formerly a 50-assist player during the 2017-18 season, "Ghost" only had 12 assists in his previous 65 games dating back to the start of last season. The successive plays he made on the Patrick goal were the type that he used to make with regularity. Philly needs a lot more of that from him. If he can do so, the Flyers power play will have a missing dimension added back into it. For Patrick, points of any kind have been a struggle since posting five points in the first seven games this season. He only had one point (a goal) since that time heading into yesterday's game. Despite drawing the 6th most power play time among Flyers' forwards, he had gone without a single power play point since he scored a deflection goal on a first-period power play in the regular season opener against Pittsburgh. Very quietly, though, Patrick had started to get more involved offensively recently -- one of the few bright spots -- but nothing was going in the net. Whether yesterday's goal was a stepping stone or a mirage on a production desert remains to be seen. But it was a big play at the time.
For more on yesterday's victory, see the Postgame 5 on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com.
2) The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (10-3-2) continued their winning way on Saturday as they doubled up the Binghamton Devils (3-7-4) by a 6-3 score at the PPL Center in Allentown. The Phantoms, who rode a Tanner Laczynski hat trick to a 3-2 win over the Devils in Newark one night earlier, scored a season high in goals on this night.
Flyers power forward prospect Wade Allison (1g, 2a) and the recently signed Max Willman (1g, 2a) led the way for Lehigh Valley on Saturday with three-point games apiece. Meanwhile, Laczynski scored his seventh goal of the week. Ryan Fitzgerald scored his 7th and 8th goals of the season to take over the team goal-scoring lead. Making his third straight start in goal this week, Alex Lyon stopped 22 of 25 shots.
The Phantoms lineup in both the Friday and Saturday games was as follows:
13 Ryan Fitzgerald - 9 Cal O'Reilly - 14 Zayde Wisdom 20 20 Max Willman - 10 Tanner Laczynski - 11 Wade Allison 19 Isaac Ratcliffe - 38 David Kase - 71 Tyson Foerster 49 Garrett Wilson - 86 Chris Mueller - 21 Linus Sandin
5 Tyler Wotherspoon - 51 Derrick Pouliot 8 Mason Millman - 22 Logan Day 6 Linus Högberg - Chris 27 Bigras
34 Alex Lyon [35 Eamon McAdam]
Scratches: 4 Egor Zamula (injury), 28 Wyatte Wylie (injury), 15 Maksim Sushko, 7 Tanner MacMaster, 16 Matthew Strome, 24 Ralph Cuddemi, 26 Brennan Saulnier, 29 Pascal Laberge.
3) NCAA Frozen Four Tournament: Flyers prospects Noah Cates (Minnesota Duluth) and Gavin Hain (North Dakota) participated in the longest game in NCAA hockey history last night as former national champion Minnesota Duluth downed top-ranked North Dakota in five overtimes, 3-2, in the NCAA Midwest Regional Final in Fargo, ND.
Earlier in the day, Flyers 2018 first-round pick Jay O'Brien's season came to an end as Boston University lost to St. Cloud State, 6-2, in the NCAA Northeast Regional Semifinal in Albany, NY. O'Brien had two scoring chances and set up another but did not get on the scoresheet and finished the game at minus-two. Today, Jack St. Ivany and his Boston College team take on St. Cloud State in the Northeast Regional Final.
Also today, Bryce Brodzinski and the Minnesota Golden Gophers take on Minnesota State in the NCAA West Regional Final in Loveland, CO.