Wrap: Flyers Can't Put Away Sharks, Lose 4-3 in OT
Three separate one-goal leads were not enough for the Philadelphia Flyers as they fell, 4-3, in overtime to the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday night. The Flyers (6-7-1) fell to 2-0-1 on their four-game road trip, which ends on Monday against the Arizona Coyotes.
Timo Meier (10th and 11th) scored two goals for San Jose, including the OT winner on the opening shift. Joe Pavelski (power play, 6th) and Joe Thornton (1st) also scored for the Sharks. Martin Jones earned the win with 22 saves on 25 shots.
Nolan Patrick (4th), Jordan Weal (2nd) and Jakub Voracek (4th) scored for the Flyers while Oskar Lindblom picked up two assists. Cal Pickard got the start in goal for the Flyers. He stopped 31 of 35 shots.
The Flyers were outplayed for much of the opening period -- they were outshot 16-9 and were guilty of numerous turnovers -- but went to the locker room with a 2-1 lead at the first intermission.
In the opening minute of the first period, a 3-on-2 counterrush by the Flyers led to a tic-tac-toe passing sequence from Lindblom to Travis Konecny to Patrick, which Patrick finished off near the net for a 1-0 lead at the 37-second mark. The Sharks quickly took over control and knotted the game at 1-1 as Meier went to the net and quickly steered a Tomas Hertl feed past Pickard.
Philly survived the game's first penalty, courtesy of two clutch saves by Pickard on Evander Kane. Finally, with 3:20 left, the Flyers retook the lead at 2-1. The sequence started off the rush with a great scoring chance that Simmonds tipped just over the net. Simmonds then quickly retrieved his miss behind the net and fed Weal in the left circle. With Dale Weise screening Jones in front, Weal wristed a rising shot over Jones.
The lead held until 10:32 of the second period. With Claude Giroux in the penalty box for hooking, a nice cross-ice pass through a seam from Kevin Labanc to Pavelski found Pavelski open to the left of the net. Pickard had no chance to make the save.
In the final half-minute of the second period, Philly got its third one-goal lead at 3-2. On a 2-on-2 rush, Ivan Provorov had Brent Burns beaten. Burns took a penalty to lessen Provorov's scoring chance. However, on the delayed penalty, Lindblom pounced on the puck and feathered a perfect centering feed to Voracek in the slot. Voracek buried it with 30 seconds left in the second period. Second period shots were 10-9 in San Jose's favor.
The Sharks pushed the attack for most the third period, including during a Flyers power play.
Finally, on a broken play off the rush, Konency ended up with a wide open scoring chance. He hit the post (for the fourth time this season). Very shortly thereafter, at 15:03, Thornton's left circle shot beat Pickard over the glove into the top right corner of the net to tie the game at 3-3.
The Flyers nursed the game to OT, barely. A sloppy play off the opening faceoff and Voracek getting outworked by Logan Couture as he tried to skate back to his own blueline to retrieve the puck created a 2-on-1 for the Sharks. Couture fed Meier, who buried his second goal of the game to win the game at the 13-second mark.
The Flyers lost to fourth-line center Jori Lehterठto an apparent upper-body injury on a shot block in the first period. In the second period, Christian Folin hit Tomas Hertl with a check in open ice. Hertl left the game but returned for the third period.