The Philadelphia Flyers extended their winning streak to eight consecutive games with a 2-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks at the Wells Fargo Center on Monday night. With the win, the Flyers moved two points above statistical .500 for the first time since they were 9-8-1 through their first 18 games.
Two major franchise milestones were reached in this game: the Flyers earned the 2,000th win in team history. They became the first non "Original Six" franchise to accomplish the feat and the second-fastest in NHL history. Philly did it in their 4,017th game. Only the Montreal Canadiens (3,767 games) did it sooner.
In addition, Flyers captain Claude Giroux played his 791st regular season game as a Flyer, moving him past Brian Propp into third place all-time in franchise history. Up next: Bill Barber (903). Giroux's next milestone within reach in the near future is career goal No. 232, which will tie him with Hockey Hall of Famer Mark Recchi and power forward Rick Tocchet for 11th in franchise history. With 230 career goals, Giroux needs two goals to tie them, and five to tie Rod Brind'Amour (235) and move into the top 10.
Monday night, however, belonged to Flyers rookie goaltender Carter Hart. The 20-year-old was sensational in net, making 41 saves on 42 shots. He authored a host of brilliant saves, but none better than a 10-bell arm save on Nikolay Goldobin with the Flyers on the penalty kill and clinging to a one-goal lead. Hart made 18 saves in the third period alone.
"I just sort of saw the play bounce out to my guy on the side and just dove across and was hoping it hit me and it did," Hart said.
Throughout the game, Hart's puck tracking was nothing short of outstanding. He was so locked in that he didn't hear the chants of "Car-ter! Car-ter! Car-ter!" going on in the stands and was seemingly imperious to traffic, screens, and chaos around the net.
"It’s just trying to focus on one play at a time and battle as much as I can, some plays there are loose pucks and everything, but the guys did a good job of boxing guys out and putting pucks in the corner, got a couple of key blocks there at the end. So, I’m really just trying to compete," Hart said with a shrug.
Hart, who will back up Anthony Stolarz on Thursday against the LA Kings, recorded his seventh consecutive victory (7-0-0, 2.26 GAA, .934 SV%) amid the team's eight-game winning streak. He becomes just the fourth goaltender age 20 or younger to post a winning streak of seven or more games. The others: Carey Price (7 games, March-April 2008), Tom Barrasso (7 games, Dec 1984 – Jan. 1985) and Jocelyn Thibault (8 games, March 1995).
In his 16-game NHL career to date, Hart has earned 1st-star honors five times. He's also had one second-star selection and three third-star selection.
"Every team that is successful has a goaltender that is going to give you a lift at some point. Obviously him being 20 years old is even more substantial, I don’t want to say we’re expecting him to fail, you just find it hard to believe that someone his age can come in and do what he’s been able to do so far," Flyers interim head coach Scott Gordon said.
The Flyers went 1-for-3 on the power play and 3-for-3 on the penalty kill on Monday. The team is 7 for its last 10 on the power play over its last three games.
Philly received goals from Sean Couturier (power play, 21st) and Jakub Voracek (12th) in building a 2-1 lead over the first 23:20 of the game. Travis Konecny (17th assist), Nolan Patrick (9th assist) and Phil Varone (1st assist as a Flyer) earned a helper apiece. Brock Boeser (18th) scored the lone Vancouver goal, narrowing the gap to 2-1 shortly after Voracek scored on a breakaway.
Jacob Markström was solid in goal for Vancouver (28 saves on 30 shots) in a losing cause. Most notably, he stopped a 3-on-0 in close just before the Boeser goal.
The Flyers went 1-for-2 on the power play and are now 7-for-9 on the man advantage in their last three games. They have scored seven of their last 10 goals on the power play.
Vancouver had eight of the first 11 shots in the game through the first half of the opening period. Right off the bat, Hart made a save -- off his mask -- on Brandon Sutter from point blank range. With the Flyers on the game's first penalty kill, he stopped the dangerous Boeser from the slot. On one of the most dangerous chances, after a Travis Konecny giveaway, Jake Virtanen hit the post on a breakaway (officially a missed shot).
Thereafter, the Flyers started to take over the game, generating 11 of the next 12 shots and getting on the board first. The Flyers' second power play unit did the damage, as Couturier took a Konecny pass in the left slot and fired a shot over Markström's pads and just under his glove. Patrick received the secondary helper. Patrick had an outstanding all-around game, and was unlucky to have only one point on the night (including hitting a post with Markström beaten).
"He was excellent tonight," Gordon said of Patrick. "He’s starting to do more and more with the puck and playing with it and making plays under pressure and finding people. A simple thing in the third period, we talked about our centermen making sure that when we’re breaking out of our zone coming underneath the puck and not anticipating the chip out, but anticipating that the puck is going to come back to you from the winger in our zone and if it doesn’t and if it turns over, you’re in good position defensively. He did that in the third period and it was a great play by him and Simmer and for me. That’s a baby step to being a better defensive player, just recognizing that situation."
Couturier's goal gave him 41 points (18 goals, 23 assists) over his last 40 games. He extended a point streak to four straight games.
The Flyers, who finished the first period with a 14-10 shot edge, came out with a lot of pace in the second period. They extended the lead to 2-0 at 3:20. After Andrew MacDonald cleared a puck in front of the net to the boards, Vancouver turned it over. Varone sprang Voracek on a breakaway. Cutting sharply to his left as he powered to the net, Voracek tucked the puck between Markström's skate and the post. Voracek has a four-game point streak, with seven points (one goal, six assists) in that span.
"I think we’re just skating better. That comes with preparation, comes with confidence, especially on the forecheck, when you skate better you can take more chances and I think that’s what we’re doing right now," Voracek said of the team's overall recent play.
A turning point in the momentum happened after the Flyers were unable to finish their 3-on-0 chance in close to the Vancouver net. The puck went all the way down the ice and Hart ranged far out of his net to prevent a Sutter breakaway from the right circle in. Hart got to the puck first and attempted to chip it off the wall and out of the zone. Instead, Boeser swooped in and intercepted, and then fired the puck past Travis Sanheim into the vacated net at 5:14 for an unassisted goal.
Hart reset immediately. He went on to make 13 saves in the second period. Although many of the shots came from the outside, the quantity and quality of chances increased as the period went on.
The third period saw the Canucks attack in waves, especially over the latter portion of the period. Hart remained locked in the puck and extremely poised whether shots were coming from high through screens, from the circles or there were scrambles around the net. Any goaltender would be hard-pressed to make a better save than Hart's diving arm save on Goldobin from the bottom of the left circle at 14:25 with Couturier in the penalty box.
"He's making some miracles out there. It’s nice to have him back there. You know he can steal one," Couturier said of Hart.
The pressure kept up -- at one point, the Canucks Virtanen had four whacks at the puck on the doorstep and finally forced it over the line but the "intent to blow the whistle" rule saved the Flyers a tying goal. The Canucks pulled Markström for a 6-on-5 attack in the final two minutes but Hart and company held them at bay until the final buzzer.
"I thought we had a great first period. I thought the second period we were getting away from getting above the puck and the offensive zone and making it easy for them to get out of their zone. Nothing bad happened from it, they got a couple chances. That’s something that we haven’t done; given up chances like that. So, I thought in the third period we were really good at not giving up those types of chances or those easy exits for Vancouver. Up until they got the power play, I didn’t think at any point that we were going to be holding on for dear life. Obviously, they got the power play and for the most part, we did a pretty good job killing it. They did get the one chance," Gordon said.
"It just comes back to making sure that we’re just living in the moment here and take care of the game that’s at hand. We play L.A. on Thursday and we can’t think about, ‘we win this game and then we got to win this game and then we got to win this game and then we’re in’, which type of thing. We’ve got a long way to go here and one win tonight isn’t going to put us in the playoffs. The mindset’s got to stay with just the game at hand."
In addition to Vancouver's 42 shots on goal and 11 missed shots, the Flyers blocked 30 Canucks attempts. Travis Sanheim and Ivan Provorov were credited with six blocks apiece, while Radko Gudas had five. Gudas was also credited with five of the Flyers’ 17 hits.
There was a terrifying moment at 9:38 of the third period: Alex Edler got tangled up with Voracek and the Canucks' defenseman face-planted on the ice. Canucks and Flyers players immediately motioned for the trainers to come out to tend to the heavily bleeding Vancouver player. A stretcher took him off the ice. Edler was alert as he was taken for medical attention.
The Flyers will have a CBA-mandated total off-day on Tuesday. The team will practice in Voorhees on Wednesday before the LA Kings pay a visit to the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday night.