WRAP: FLYERS CUT DOWN CANES, 4-1
Winning for the eighth straight game, the Philadelphia Flyers skated to a workmanlike 4-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes at the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday. Paired with the Washington Capitals 6-5 overtime road loss to the New York Rangers, the Flyers moved into a points (87) and regulation wins (30) tie atop the Metropolitan Division. Washington remains ahead via the secondary tiebreaker of regulation plus overtime wins (36-35).
The Flyers won the season series with Carolina, going 3-0-1. Overall, Philly improved to 16-4-4 against Metropolitan Division opponents. At home, the Flyers are now 24-5-4 this season.
"Back-to-back games, tough game last night, tough opponent tonight, that was some of the fastest hockey execution-wise I’ve seen in a long time. We knew we were going to need 4 lines and 4 lines playing well. Nate’s line I thought tonight really set a good tempo for us. They were strong on the forecheck, they were strong on their one on ones, they all had some big blocked shots and we needed contribution from our whole group," Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault said.
Coming off a physical and emotional game in Washington on Wednesday, the Flyers faced a potential letdown game against a desperate Carolina team that is struggling to pull itself above the playoff cutoff. The Flyers responded with a strong 200-foot effort, got rock solid goaltending as needed, and had their fourth and third lines step up to deliver not only energy and tight checking but also some offensive contributions as well.
"They were huge," Sean Couturier said of the Nate Thompson and Derek Grant lines. "During this winning streak, what’s been really good is the mindset. Guys are focused every night and it doesn’t matter who the opponent is. That is something that shows maturity in our team and I think we just need to keep rolling. Everyone is going and we just have to keep doing what we are doing."
Once again, Vigneault was able to roll his forward lines and defense pairs. No one skated less thant 11:32 or 16 shifts (rookie Joel Farabee, who was in the middle of several scoring chances with nothing to show for it) or more than 21:53 (Ivan Provorov) and 27 shifts (Provorov and Travis Sanheim).
It was also beneficial for the Flyers, after having to deal with 11 penalty kills over the previous two games, that they didn't have to kill any penalties against Carolina all night. Philly had two power plays, going 0-for-2.
Provorov (13th goal of the season) opened the scoring late in the first period. Michael Raffl (8th) made it a two-goal lead near the midpoint of regulation. Justin Williams (4th) got Carolina back within a goal early in the third period but goals spaced 26 seconds apart by Nicolas Aube-Kubel (7th) and Sean Couturier (22nd) put Philly back in firm control.
Carter Hart earned the win, stoppint 28 of 29 shots. Alex Nedeljkovic took the loss, with 28 saves on 32 shots.
"Moose [Brian Elliott] had a good game last night. He’s been good all year. He is a guy everyone can rely on and for sure we both like to be in the net. I think it is good we have that healthy competition in practice and we both push each other to be better and we get along really well, too. I think that is a bonus. I like playing alongside him," Hart said.
The Flyers defended well throughout the first period but it took a little while to get their passing in synch. With 1:37 left in the period, Scott Laughton took advantage of a Carolina mix-up in the corner. He claimed the puck and fed a pinching Provorov. Nedeljkovic left out a fat rebound, and Provorov went right to the house to claim it and stash the puck in the net. Derek Grant got the secondary assist.
There was some physicality and edginess to the first period. Robert Hà¤gg landed a solid hit on Brock McGinn. The Flyers later took some exception to a bump on Hart by Andrei Svechnikov after Hart covered a puck in the crease. Nate Thompson sacrificed himself to make a tough shot block. First period shots were 9-7 Flyers. Attempts were 16-13 Carolina. High danger scoring chances were 4-2 Flyers.
With the exception of only a sequence or two, the Flyers were virtually airtight in the second period, and Hart took care of the rest. Most breakouts were clean, defensive gaps were tight, and the Flyers had puck possession for most of the period.
"I felt that second period, our execution tonight was one of the best that I’ve seen all year long," Vigneault said.
Added Provorov, "We were getting out of the zone quick; we were breaking up plays in the neutral zone and picking up plays in their zone. They didn’t have the puck and we controlled the play after we put some shots on net."
Philly got a little more going offensively in this period -- Nedeljkovich robbed Farabee and Claude Giroux (power play) -- for his toughest two saves before Raffl scored at 9:34. The Flyers worked a 3-on-2 to perfection for their second goal, with Raffl burying a nice feed from Pitlick. Laughton earned his secon assist of the game.
The Flyers took a 2-0 lead and a 21-14 shot edge (12-7 in the second period) to intermission. Shot attempts were 15-15 (31-28 overall for Carolina). More tellingly, hgh danger chances were 3-0 Flyers per Natural Stat Trick.
Finally, ex-Flyer Williams scored off a broken play, going to the net and getting rewarded at 2:55 of the third period. Some self-made bad puck luck bit the Canes after a horrid giveaway near the net, claimed by Nate Thompson. Aube-Kubel's shot took a fluky bounce into the net.
Just 26 seconds later, Jakub Voracek set up Couturier as the Flyers grabbed a 4-1 stranglehold on the game. Hart made back-to-back big saves with just under 8 minutes left, which had Jaccob Slavin looking skyward in frustration. Later, Hart stopped a tricky deflection.
Final shot totals were 32-29 Flyers. Final attempts were 61-44 Canes. Final high-danger chances were 11-8 Canes (Carolina had nine in the third period, with Hart stopping eight) and the final expected goals were 2.8 Flyers to 2.18 Canes, but those stats really didn't mean much on this night with the Flyers playing from comfortably ahead and Carolina not generating much of significance until the third period.
"Sometimes it’s just easier to start coming off a back-to-back, I think you are still in game-mode a little bit. I think we had a good start and followed it up in the second. They are an extremely dangerous team and Hartsy made a couple of really good saves," Raffl said.
The Flyers (40-20-7) will have an off-day on Friday. On Saturday, they will host the Buffalo Sabres (29-30-8). The Sabres lost at home, 4-2, to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday but the Flyers maintained their three-point lead on the Penguins in the standings. Pittsburgh holds one game in hand.