The Philadelphia Flyers' woes on the road continued on Saturday night in a major way. The team was blown out, 6-2, by the Arizona Coyotes at Gila River Arena. Arizona had 22 shots on goal; six ended up in the Philadelphia net.
The Flyers dropped to 1-4-0 on their current six-game road trip. Once again, a disastrous first period, including two stoppable goals that got past starter Carter Hart, put the Flyers in a huge hole. Special teams and discipline popped up again as problems.
Brad Richardson, Jordan Oesterle and Clayton Keller (power play) built a 3-0 lead for the Coyotes in the first period. Lawson Crouse added a buzzer beater in the final tick of the second period clock.
Tyler Pitlick got the Flyers on the board early in the third, but Keller got the goal right back with his second tally of the game. Justin Braun narrowed the gap to 5-2 on a bank shot from behind the goal line. Derek Stepan closed out the scoring with a shorthanded empty netter.
Flyers starter Carter Hart went just 16:15, giving up three goals on 12 shots before giving way to Brian Elliott. In relief, Elliott stopped 7 of 9.
Coyotes starter Antti Raanta had to leave the game after two periods. He stopped all 17 shots he faced. Adin Hill went the rest of the way, and struggled mightily. Hill stopped eight of 10.
The Flyers effort over the first 12 minutes of the game was a major improvement from the previous three games. The best early chance for either team was one by the Flyers' Tyler Pitlick, taking the puck to the net. Then disaster struck Philadelphia.... again. The Flyers gave up back-to-back funky goals spaced just 57 seconds apart.
A Brad Richardson bouncer and a Jordan Oesterle point shot that changed direction off Matt Niskanen's knee put the Flyers in a 2-0 hole. The deficit then grew to 3-0 on a Clayton Keller power play goal through the five-hole -- the 5th power play goal yielded in Philadelphia's last six penalty kill opportunities. That ended Carter Hart's night. There was nothing he could do about the second goal but the first and third were makeable save.
In the second period, the Flyers had good pressure on the latter part of their second power play of the game and that continued shortly after play returned to even strength. Antti Raanta stepped up during this segment to project his team's three-goal lead.
Otherwise, the second period was rather low event -- for both teams -- as the Coyotes set up a neutral zone trap and clogged the ice. Philly didn't give up much, either. That is, until Lawson Crouse beat Elliott with a rising backhander from near the hash marks in the final second of the period, and the Flyers already cavernous deficit grew to four goals.
With Hill in the game, Pitlick used the D as a screen high in the attack zone,and the puck went off the post and into the net. However, the Coyotes got the goal right back. Shayne Gostisbehere turned the puck over to Nick Schmaltz and Keller buried the pass-out to restore a four-goal margin.
Moments after Keller narrowly missed finishing off a hat trick on a 2-on-1 rush, Braun took a sharp cross-ice pass from Sean Couturier and then scored on a shot from behind the goal line that he banked in off Hill. The night ended with Provorov shanking a shot on a power play attacking 6-on-4 with Elliott pulled and Stepan scoring a long-distance empty net goal.
On Tuesday, the Flyers are in Raleigh to play the Hurricanes.
************
Phantoms Lose, 5-3, in Belleville
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms lost their sixth consecutive game in regulation, dropping a 5-3 decision to the Belleville Senators on Saturday night. Dating back to the start of December, the Phantoms are 2-11-0 over their last 13 games.
Things started well for the Phantoms on Saturday, as they played a solid first period and took a 1-0 lead to intermission. Pascal Laberge scored on a power play one-timer in the slot to complete a nice pass-out from Carsen Twarynski. German Rubtsov got the secondary assist.
Lehigh Valley then built a 2-0 lead at 3:34 of the second period. Exiting the penalty box, Maksim Sushko was sprung on a breakaway by Reece Willcox and finished it off for his fifth goal of the season. The Sens got the goal back quickly, courtesy of Josh Norris on a counterattack.
The Phantoms played with fire repeatedly, ending up shorthanded five times before the game was even halfway through (including back-to-back penalties on Sushko). Finally, with David Kase in the box for slashing, Norris scored again -- this time on the man advantage -- to even up the score at 2-2. Ultimately, the Phantoms went 6-for-7 on the penalty kill and 2-for-7 on the power play.
At roughly the same time that the Flyers were in the midst of giving up three closely spaced goals in the first period in Arizona, the Phantoms found themselves trailing, 3-2, after Morgan Klimchuk put them ahead at 16:40 of the middle frame.
The Phantoms took a power play into the third period. After Morgan Frost generated an entry, he got the puck back from Greg Carey. Frost then centered the puck in front, where Connor Bunnaman swept it home from the lower slot (with David Kase also nearby) to briefly tie the game at 3-3. The Sens soon answered right back at even strength with Michael Carcone putting Belleville ahead again; this time to stay.
Alex Formenton sealed the win for the Senators with an empty net goal. In a losing cause, Alex Lyon stopped 32 of 36 shots for the Phantoms. Filip Gustavsson got the win, making 28 saves on 31 shots.
The Phantoms' three-in-three Canadian road trip ends on Sunday with a game against the Toronto Marlies.
*********
World Junior Championships
Russia prevailed in overtime, 5-4, in a seesaw affair against Sweden on Saturday. Egor Zamula and his teammates will face Team Canada for the gold medal on Sunday at the 2019-20 IIHF World Junior Championships in the Czech Republic.
Sweden, featuring Flyers prospect, Adam Ginning will face Finland for the bronze on Sunday. After beating Team USA, 1-0, in the quarterfinals, the Finns had no answers against Canada in a 5-0 loss in the semis.
Zamula, who has had a very strong all-around tournament, played another strong game for the Russians in the semis. He logged 25:49 of ice time to lead all players on both teams. Junior Crowns team captain Ginning played 11:16 against Russia. The second Russian goal deflected off Ginning directly to goal-scorer Ivan Morozov. It was also Morozov who later netted the game-winner in OT after the Swedes were caught in a line change and defenseman Rasmus Sandin (who scored two goals and assisted on two others for the Swedes) was beaten one-on-one.