Wrap: Flyers' 3-Goal Comeback Nets One Point in Tampa
A familiar scenario between the Philadelphia Flyers and Tampa Bay Lightning unfolded on Thursday night at Amalie Arena: a strong start by Philly, multiple surgical strikes by Tampa that left the Flyers down by three goals, a dramatic third-period comeback by the Flyers to force overtime and, finally, a Philadelphia miscue and Tampa goal on the opening shift of OT to send the Lightning to a 6-5 victory.
The same set of circumstances arose and final score resulted on Nov. 17 when the teams met at the Wells Fargo Center. At the time, the Flyers dropped to 9-9-2 on the season while Tampa improved to 14-5-1. Since then, the Flyers have gone 6-7-3. Tampa is 14-2-1 including a 12-0-1 run since Nov. 29.
In Thursday's game, the Flyers got goals from Michael Raffl (2nd), Claude Giroux (13th goal, 31st assist), Dale Weise (5th), Robert Hà¤gg (4th) and Ivan Provorov (4th). James van Riemsdyk had two assists (7th and 8th assists) while Scott Laughton (6th assist), Travis Sanheim (9th assist), Andrew MacDonald (5th assist), Radko Gudas (8th assist), and Sean Couturier (14th assist) chipped in one helper apiece.
Michal Neuvirth got his second straight start in goal. He stopped 31 of 37 shots in a losing cause.
Nolan Patrick had his first NHL career regular season fight late in the first period, dropping the gloves with Anthony Cirelli late in the first period. He later left the game with an upper-body injury and did not return in the third period. Overall, he skated 7:03 in 10 shifts.
The Flyers penalty kill had been on 37-for-42 run heading into the Christmas break but proved to be overmatched by Tampa's machine-like power play, which entered the game at 28.9 percent efficiency and went 2-for-3. The Lightning also scored 6-on-5 on a delayed penalty in the waning seconds of the second period.
Meanwhile, the Flyers' power play went 0-for-2. Tampa goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy made a highlight reel save on Wayne Simmonds -- a double pad save, in which made an initial save with his pad and then kicked up his leg to make a second save as the puck popped up in the air and was headed for the net -- to prevent the Flyers from taking an early 1-0 lead. Later, Simmonds steered the puck through the crease with an open net staring at him.
Ultimately, Vasilevskiy finished with 28 saves on 33 shots to earn the win. Offensively, most of the Tampa arsenal unloaded on the Flyers over the course of the game.
Nikita Kucherov (17th goal, 42nd, 43rd and 44th assists) racked up four points to take over the lead in the Art Ross Trophy race. Steven Stamkos (21st and 22nd goals, 21st assist) had two goals and three points. Brayden Point (22nd goal, 27th assist) had two points. Tyler Johnson (17th goal, 12th assist) also had a multi-point game. Alex Killorn (10th) scored the game winner in OT, becoming the sixth Tampa player to hit double-digit goals before the midpoint of the season.
Victor Hedman recorded his 17th assist of the season and was plus-four on the evening. Hedman has seven points in his last eight games.
Following is a brief synposis of the goals:
1-0 Flyers (10:50 1st period): Moving a stride left from the right point, Sanheim wristed a shot toward the net and it double-deflected into the net. First, Laughton got a piece of the puck and then Raffl re-directed it over Vasilevskiy's left shoulder.
1-1 Tampa (13:56 1st period): Tampa scored off the rush as Provorov was left with two attackers to attempt to cover. Kucherov received a cross-ice feed from Johnson and, from near the right hash marks, fired an unstoppable one-timer upstairs to tie the game.
1-2 Tampa (19:12 1st period): On the Flyers' first penalty kill of the game (Sanheim in the box for hooking), Neuvirth authored several big saves but the Flyers could not get a stoppage or a clear. Finally, a persistent Point claimed a puck in the slot and scored. Yanni Gourde (20th assist) and Stamkos got the assists as Tampa took a 2-1 lead to intermission.
2-2 Flyers (4:46 2nd period): A stellar individual effort by Flyers captain Giroux created his goal. He stickhandled and weaved through layers of Tampa stick checking, made a quick cut to his right and slipped the puck past Vasilevskiy. Assists went to MacDonald and Gudas but this goal, in reality, was all Giroux. Tampa challenged the goal, claiming offside, but the goal was upheld and Tampa received a delay of game penalty.
2-3 Tampa (12:23 2nd period): The Flyers skaters, collectively, were spectators in the defensive zone. The deadly Stamkos had a wide open lane the slot, moving past an unaware and flat-footed Laughton, to pick a spot and score. Neuvirth had no prayer of stopping this one. The lone assist went to Kucherov.
2-4 Tampa (14:54 2nd period): On the power play, Stamkos stationed himself from his favorite shooting spot near the left dot. Tampa moved the puck around at will. Kucherov's cross-ice pass to Stamkos was not on the tape but Stamkos seamlessly adjusted how he received the puck and still blasted home a one-timer before Neuvirth could get over. Hedman got a secondary assist.
2-5 Tampa (19:51 2nd period): On a delayed Flyers penalty, Johnson moved netfront and tipped the puck past Neuvirth. The assists went to Kucherov and Stamkos.
3-5 Flyers (1:33 3rd period): The Flyers had short ice after a Tampa turnover. Weise skated to the net as van Riemsdyk threaded the puck toward him. The puck went off Weise's skate but then he got his stick on it before it directed past Vasilevskiy. The Lightning initially complained that the puck had been directed in with a kicking motion, but the goal was legal and stood.
4-5 Flyers (4:21 3rd period): On a low-to-high play, Giroux won a positional battle against Ryan McDonagh and sent the puck out to Hà¤gg as the defenseman moved to the top of the left circle. Hà¤gg didn't really get all of the puck but he had traffic in front and the fluttering knuckleball of a shot found its way past a screened Vasilevskiy. If Tampa had not already burned its challenge on the earlier offside claim, they stood a good chance to get this one overturned for incidental contact in the blue paint between Travis Konecny and Vasilevskiy. Instead, the Flyers were back within a goal. James van Riemsdyk got the secondary assist.
5-5 Flyers (8:38 3rd period): Giroux won a right circle faceoff in the offensive zone with some help from Sean Couturier. Couturier dug the puck over to Voracek, who found Provorov moving to the left slot. Provorov wristed a shot over the Tampa netminder to tie the game.
5-6 Tampa (0:18 overtime): On the opening shift of OT, Shayne Gostisbehere fired a lead pass from the defensive zone on the mark to Giroux in the neutral zone. Giroux then turned back toward his defensive zone and was stripped of the puck by Cirelli. Everything unraveled from there. Killorn received the puck from Cirelli and, taking advantage of a high screen, fired off a rising shot past Neuvirth to end the game.
The Flyers are in Sunrise, FL on Saturday to take on Florida Panthers.
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Phantoms Extend Huffman Coaching Tenure, Bring Back Murray
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms were idle on Thursday but made news with two coaching-related announcements. Rather than being "acting head coach" until a replacement for Scott Gordon (now the Flyers' interim head coach) could be found, Kerry Huffman will carry the interim head coach title for the rest of the 2018-19 season. Additionally, the Flyers organization has rehired Terry Murray to be the Phantoms assistant coach for the remainder of the season.
Huffman, who will turn 51 on Jan. 3, is a very popular figure among Phantoms and former Phantoms players alike, especially the younger players. His appointment as acting head coach received an enthusiastic response -- if a somewhat surprised one, because Huffman is very much the "good cop" type who primarily coaches through positive reinforcement and an emphasis on showing patience through growing pains.
Phantoms second-year defenseman Mark Friedman recently said of Huffman, "We all love Huffer. We're going to go to battle for him and we'd love to help him stay for 10 years if he could."
Thus far at least, the team has collectively been going all out and sacrificing their bodies to demonstrate their united support behind Huffman as the new voice behind the bench. The club is 3-0-1 under Huffman and easily could be 4-0-0 if not for running into hot goaltending in a shootout loss.
As a result, Flyers management decided to stick by Huffman for the rest of this season and then reassess the coaching situation after the campaign. Even at the time Gordon was moved up to the parent team, the word from the Flyers was that "Gordo" would be with the parent team for the rest of the season, most likely carrying the interim head coach title for the duration (although no guarantees of such were made, nor exist even now).
Murray, 68, will be in his fourth coaching tenure in the Flyers' organization, including previous stints as Flyers and Phantoms head coach as well as an assistant coaching tenure with the Flyers. He had hoped to be named assistant coach to Dave Hakstol after Hakstol's hiring from the University of North Dakota but now-former Flyers GM Ron Hextall (who reportedly had differences with Murray during "Murph's" final season as Phantoms head coach) was not interested in that arrangement. Murray then went to the Buffalo Sabres for two seasons as an assistant coach.
Murray is widely regarded as one of the best "teaching coaches" in the game, both of young players and a mentor to young coaches. A soft-spoken, intelligent and kindly gentleman away from the ice, he is demanding and rather aloof with his players as a coach. More important, he is also one whom players (regardless of how they felt about him at the time they played for him) inevitably look back upon as having taught them much about what it takes to be a pro and to play a responsible two-way game.
As Flyers head coach from 1994-95, Murray's .627 points percentage in the regular season ranked 5th among the franchise's 20 coaching tenures (Bob McCammon had two tenures) to date. Murray's .609 winning percentage in playoff games actually ranks 1st in franchise history, although he was let go as head coach after the team was swept by the Detroit Red Wings in the 1997 Stanley Cup Final and Murray said the club was in "a choking situation" after getting blown out in Game 3 of the series (Games 1, 2 and 4 were all competitive).
The Phantoms (18-9-3) return to action on Friday, hosting the Providence Bruins (13-13-5) at the PPL Center on Friday night. Game time is 7:00 p.m. ET.
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World Junior Championships Update: Day 2 Roundup
Canada 3 - Switzerland 2: One night after shredding Denmark, 14-0, Team Canada scored in the opening minute of the game but otherwise had a much tougher time dealing with a structured and defensively sound Swiss team. Ultimately, the Canadians emerged with a 3-2 victory to improve to 2-0-0 in the preliminary round. After racking up a hat trick and two primary assists in the rout of Denmark, Flyers 2017 first-round pick Morgan Frost did not record a point against Switzerland. He appeared to be shaken up at one point of the game but was OK. He skated 15:15 overall across 23 shifts, and did not record a shot on goal. The Canadian squad is idle on Friday before taking on the Czech Republic on Saturday.
Sweden 3 - Slovakia 2: Samuel Ersson was rewarded for his excellent performance against Finland in the tournament opener with a second straight start. He improved to 2-0-0 as he stopped 20 of 22 shots. One of the Slovak goals was a power play tally scored on a rising shot from the circle to the short side. The latter was actually a Swedish own goal, as forward Filip Sveningsson unwisely tried to pass the puck across the front of the net from behind and accidentally put it between the startled goalie's right skate and the post. Flyers defense prospect Adam Ginning skated 13:56 across 20 shifts on the third defense pairing. The Swedish team is idle on Friday. On Saturday, they face a big test against Team USA.
Team USA idle on Friday: Team USA is 1-0-0 after riding a strong third period to defeat a game Slovakia, 2-1, in the tournament opener. The American side plays Kazakhstan on Friday (10:30 PM, ET, NHL Network) and then Sweden on Saturday (10:30 PM ET). Team USA features Flyers prospects Joel Farabee, Jay O'Brien, Noah Cates and Jack St. Ivany.