WRAPUP: FLYERS COUGH UP ANOTHER POINT, LOSE 5-4 OT VERDICT IN PITTSBURGH
On Monday night at PPG Paints Arena, the mentally fragile Philadelphia Flyers blew yet another multi-goal lead in the third period. Not even the potential lifeline of a clutch late-game go-ahead goal on a great individual rush by Michael Raffl could save them from yet another night of settling for one point when two were on the table.
In the end, the Flyers lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins in overtime, 5-4.
Philadelphia is now winless in its last eight games (0-3-5). That's the team's longest since they dropped 10 in a row from Feb. 6 to 23, 2008 (0-8-2). After the Flyers lost a 4-2 third period lead and went on to sustain a 5-4 overtime loss to the New York Islanders on Friday, Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol tried to put a positive spin on things by saying the team had points in seven of its last 10 games. The notion rang that much hollower as the stretch became 8-for-11.
Monday's game was a bizarre one, as Flyers games against the Penguins often seem to be.
It was a game of momentum runs and wide open play. Philly controlled the first five minutes or so of the opening period before Pittsburgh took over the majority of the opening stanza. The Flyers attacked Pittsburgh frequently in the middle frame, scoring three times and hitting the post on four other shots that cleanly beat the Pittsburgh goalies. The third period was pretty much all Penguins apart from the Raffl goal. Philly killed off a 4-on-3 penalty in overtime but yielded the game-winning goal right after it expired.
Overall, the Flyers got outshot by a 52-32 margin and out-attempted by an 82-56 margin.
Sidney Crosby scored the winning goal (10th of the season) at 1:48 of overtime, completing a three-point game. Jake Guentzel (10th and 11th goals, one assist), Patric Hörnqvist (power play, 8th) and Bryan Rust (4th) also scored for the Penguins.
Matt Murray (20 saves on 22 shots) got the start in goal, but had to leave at 15:39 of the 2nd period after he was injured in a collision at the net with Jakub Voracek as the Flyers' right winger crashed the net and lost an edge as the tried to stuff home a puck. Tristan Jarry went the rest of the way, stopping eight of 10 shots and getting credited with the win.
For the Flyers, Shayne Gostisbehere (5-on-3 power play goal, 3rd), Travis Konecny (3rd), Sean Couturier (14th) and Raffl (2nd) scored the goals. Claude Giroux had a pair of assists (16th and 17th), Nolan Patrick (4th) Ivan Provorov (9th), Brandon Manning (3rd) and Raffl (1st) collected one helper apiece. Brian Elliott stopped 47 of 52 shots.
During a second period onslaught that saw the teams combine for 30 shots on goal (16 for Philly, 14 for Pittsburgh), Robert Hà¤gg, Patrick, Danick Martel and Provorov all hit the post.
Pittsburgh took a 1-0 lead at 16:03 of the first period. Guentzel attacked up the right side on the rush, defended by Manning and then unleashed a nicely placed wrist shot to the long side that looked similar to many of Hall of Fame forward Mark Recchi's goals over the years. While it was a great shot, Elliott over-committed himself to the short side and left more room than Guentzel actually needed. The assists went to Justin Schultz and goaltender Murray (the second straight game a Penguins goalie has been credited with an assist).
Gostisbehere tied the game at 1-1 on a 5-on-3 power play goal at 3:40, pinching into the deep left slot to take a pass from Patrick and find the net. Giroux got the secondary assist.
The Flyers grabbed a 2-1 edge at 15:05. Konency broke his 14-game goalless drought as he set up shop in front of the net and a Manning point shot deflected off Konency's body into the net. Raffl got his first assist of the season.
Couturier sniped a shot upstairs against Jarry on a bang-bang play at 19:28 to give the Flyers an ill-fated 3-1 lead heading into the third period. Provorov and Giroux earned the assists.
The Flyers needed very little time to cough up the lead in the third period. Andrew MacDonald, returning to the Philadelphia lineup after a 15-game absence, was sent to the penalty box for tripping at the 40-second mark.
Seventeen game play seconds and two lengthy replay delays later, it was a 3-2 game on a rebound that Hörnqvist played into the net. The situation room in Toronto upheld the good-goal call on the ice, saying it was played legally into the net. Hakstol then challenged the call, claiming goaltender inteference due to Hörnqvist's skate making contact with Elliott's pad in the blue paint. The on-ice officials then upheld their own ruling, and the Flyers were charged with their timeout.
A mere 39 seconds after play resumed, the Penguins tied the game at 3-3. Rust blocked a Gostisbehere shot attempt at the point and countered the other way. With Gostisbehere unable to stop him from behind, Rust's partial breakaway attempt was denied by Elliott but the player immediately followed up his own rebound as it popped right back up toward him.
Reeling and making a series of mental, communication and physical errors in response to their latest dose of heavy adversity, the Flyers relied heavily on Elliott to nurse them through much of the period. A Philadelphia power play was unsuccessful along the way.
Finally, at the 16:19 mark, Raffl put Philadelphia back on top, 4-3, on what should have been an uplifting unassisted goal. As he does about once or twice each season, Raffl scored on an eye-popping solo rush in which he cut to the inside, outmaneuvered the goalie and deposited the puck in the net. Usually when he's pulled off a similar play, Raffl has done in from the right side. This time, he attacked on left wing and cut to the right.
The Penguins went right back to the attack, though, keeping the Flyers hemmed deep in their own zone. With Jarry pulled for a 6-on-5 attack, the Penguins made it a 4-4 game at 18:56 after winning an offensive zone draw. Guentzel got to the net and a Schultz shot rebounded off the Pens' forward and into the net for another bit of self-made puck luck. There was a marginal case to claim goalie interference via incidental contact on this one, too, but the Flyers no longer had a timeout by which to activate a challenge. Schultz and Crosby received the assists on the game-tying goal.
Pittsburgh continued to pressure heavily and the Flyers seemed overwhelmed. With 15 seconds left in regulation, Voracek flipped the puck over the glass from the defensive zone incurring an automatic delay of game penalty that carried over into a 4-on-3 in OT -- but not before the Pens narrowly missed a buzzer-beating regulation winner.
In OT, the Flyers just got through killing the 4-on-3 as Letang's point shot was re-directed home by Crosby to end the game at 1:48. Letang and Phil Kessel got the assists.
The Flyers went 1-for-4 on the power play and 4-for-5 on the penalty kill.
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GAME 25 PREVIEW: FLYERS VS SHARKS
Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (8-9-7) host Peter DeBoer's San Jose Sharks (12-8-2) at the Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday night. Game time is 7 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on NBCSP.
This is the second and final meeting of the season between the inter-conference clubs and the lone game in Philadelphia. On Oct. 4, the Flyers opened the 2017-18 regular season with a 5-3 win in San Jose led by a Wayne Simmonds hat trick and goals by Claude Giroux and Jordan Weal (power play).
One of the NHL's biggest and heaviest teams, the Sharks have often posed problems for the Flyers but Philly outskated and outworked them on opening night. Philly has won each of its last meetings with the Sharks, dating back to a 2-1 overtime win (Simmonds notched the deciding goal) at the Wells Fargo Center on Feb. 11, 2017. Before that, however, the Flyers were 1-10-5 over their previous 16 meetings with the Sharks.
FLYERS OUTLOOK
Tuesday's game marks the end of the Flyers' November schedule. The team is 2-4-6 to date for the month, winless in eight, and coming off three straight OT losses. Tuesday's game will be Philadelphia's fifth game in eight nights. They will be off thereafter until hosting Boston on Saturday afternoon.
Veteran defenseman Radko Gudas will serve the sixth game of his 10-game NHL suspension for a slashing incident against Winnipeg Jets' forward Mathieu Perrault on Nov. 16.
Michal Neuvirth will likely get the start in goal; his first since getting pulled in the second period of last Tuesday's debacle against the Vancouver Canucks. To date, Neuvirth has made seven starts. He's posted a 2-4-1 record, 2.59 GAA, .916 save percentage and one shutout.
SHARKS OUTLOOK
The Sharks are 5-2-1 on the road thus far and 6-3-2 overall for the month of November. San Jose recently navigated a very busy stretch of hockey, playing six times in 10 nights (2-3-1) but closing it out with a 4-0 shutout home win against Winnipeg on Saturday.
San Jose may or may not be without No. 1 goaltender Martin Jones. He is day-to-day with a lower-body injury and did practice on Monday. Melker Karlsson (upper-body) is questionable.
PROJECTED LINEUPS (Subject to change, will be updated)
Flyers
28 Claude Giroux - 14 Sean Couturier - 93 Jakub Voracek 70 Danick Martel - 19 Nolan Patrick - 17 Wayne Simmonds 12 Michael Raffl - 51 Valtteri Filppula - 11 Travis Konecny 15 Jori Lehterठ- 21 Scott Laughton - 22 Dale Weise
9 Ivan Provorov - 47 Andrew MacDonald 53 Shayne Gostisbehere - 8 Robert Hà¤gg 6 Travis Sanheim - 23 Brandon Manning
30 Michal Neuvirth [37 Brian Elliott]
Scratches: Jordan Weal (healthy), Taylor Leier (healthy), Radko Gudas (NHL suspension, game 6 of 10).
Sharks
28 Timo Meier - 19 Joe Thornton - 8 Joe Pavelski 27 Joonas Donskoi - 39 Logan Couture - 48 Tomas Hertl 36 Jannick Hansen - 50 Chris Tierney - 65 Daniel O'Regan 89 Mikkel Boedker - 62 Kevin Labanc - 42 Joel Ward…‹
47 Joakim Ryan - 88 Bret Burns 44 Marc-Edouard Vlasic - 61 Justin Braun 4 Brenden Dillon - 74 Dylan Demelo…‹
30 Aaron Dell [34 Antoine Bibeau] …‹ Injuries: Ryan Carpenter (healthy), Martin Jones (lower body, questionable), Melker Karlsson (questionable, upper body), Barclay Goodrow (IR, upper body), Paul Martin (IR, ankle).