Flyers Dominate But Fall in Shootout to Flames, 3-2
Returning home to begin a two-game homestand, the Philadelphia Flyers controlled the play for the decided majority of the game, but found themselves having to to work overtime for the 9th time this season. Excellent goaltending on the other side, a bad turnover in the D-zone, two bounces that went the Calgary Flames' way, and a shootout loss (1-0) combined to cost the Flyers a point in a 3-2 loss.
It never feels good for a team to leave a point on the table in a game -- especially against a fragile opponent, which Calgary epitomized -- that it mostly controlled. There were, however, multiple lines creating pressure and chances, better attention to off-puck detail overall, and a good bounceback game for Hart after an uneven performance on Tuesday in Florida.
Per Naturalstattrick, Flyers generated 29 scoring chances (13 high-danger) to 13 (6 HD) for Calgary. The second period was especially lopsided.
"I liked the way we played tonight. In the first period, some might say we were feeling each other out. I would say there was not a lot of room on the ice. So, you have to play the game that’s in front of you. I thought in the second period, we played extremely well. Had some great looks. The best player on the ice this afternoon was obviously their goaltender. Kept them in, made some big saves. Didn’t permit us to score that second goal [in the second period], which would have been big," Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault said.
"We found a way to get a one goal lead with a little more than three minutes. They took out their goalie on an icing play and we played that 6-5 perfectly. There was nothing getting in the inside; everything was on the outside. They shot the puck and missed the net by a foot. It ended up on the guys stick with an open net. Sometimes that’s going to happen. If you look at our overall game, the way we played it, we played extremely well. Just came out on the wrong side of a shootout."
Jakub Voracek (5th) and Kevin Hayes scored in regulation for the Flyers. Andrew Mangiapane (5th) and Elias Lindholm (11th) answered for Calgary. Matthew Tkachuk's bottom of the second round goal was the lone tally of the skills competition, earning Calgary the extra point.
Hart stopped 22 of 24 shots in regulation, and one more in overtime. He was 1-for-2 in the shootout. David Rittich, who basically stole the game for the Flames with an almost flawless performance (minus a turnover on Philly's second goal) denied 33 of 35 Flyers shots in regulation, plus two more in OT. He went 3-for-3 in the shootout.
The Flyers went 0-for-3 on the power play and 3-for-3 on the penalty kill. Philly won 59 percent of the faceoffs, led by Hayes winning 11 of 14. Ivan Provorov logged a monstrous 28:37 of ice time across 34 shifts, leading both teams.
There were a lot of whistles in the first period, making it hard to get much flow to the play. Shots were 8-8 in the scoreless stanza. Hart made a good save on Mark Jankowski and later two stops in quick succession. Rittich made a tough Flyers power play save on Travis Sanheim with Oskar Lindblom in screening/deflecting position right in front of him.
Joel Farabee showed alert weak side recognition and hustle to force a missed shot. Sean Couturier and Oskar Lindblom turned in outstanding work on Philly's first penalty kill, and Couturier generated a shorthanded scoring chance.
Morgan Frost had a shot right off a Claude Giroux faceoff win (second straight game, but not a goal this time) and then set up a prime scoring chance for the Flyers' captain. Later, Frost led Michael Raffl on a 2-on-1 rush, electing to pass across but could not make connections. If Raffl had hung back a half-stride, it would have been tape-to-tape and a slam dunk for Raffl.
Rather than a 1-0 lead for the Flyers at the second intermission, it easily could have been about 5-1. Apart from a spectacular rush by Andrew Mangiapane around Phil Myers and Hart that hit the post and went into the goalie, the Flyers utterly dominated the middle frame.
Couturier had a second scoring chance. Frost led a second 2-on-1, this time with Giroux joining him, and elected to shoot this time. Rittich came up with both chances, along with 14 other salvos from Philly.
"The first time I definitely forced the play. That wasn’t what I wanted to do then last minute I kind of just hesitated. The second time, I just wanted to get a shot on net, but I kind of fanned on it. Definitely would have liked to have those back," Frost said.
Ivan Provorov painfully blocked a shot, limping to the bench but creating an opportunity the other way for his team. In the attack zone, Couturier fed the puck to Travis Sanheim on the right side. The puck got through Rittich and Jakub Voracek stashed it home from the crease at 13:26.
"I knew it was coming sooner or later. I think as a line we did pretty good. We played most of the night against [Johnny] Gaudreau. I don’t think they did much offensively against us so that’s a good thing. That’s a positive thing to have it. Scored one. It’s too bad we couldn’t another one. We had chances, though," Voracek said.
Calgary got the goal back at 1:01 of the third period. Frost was stripped of the puck in the D-zone circle by Mikael Backlund and a Mangiapane shot a moment later deflected off Phil Myers and re-directed past Hart to tie the game at 1-1. Hart had no chance once the puck changed directions in front of him.
"It was kind of coming to my blocker there and deflected off of him and went in under my arm. It was a tough bounce. It’s kinda the way these games have been going now. The bounces just aren’t going our way. I thought we played really hard the whole game," Hart said.
Calgary generated five of the first seven shots of the third period. After his mistake on the tying Flames goal, Frost set up a chance for Giroux. At the other end, Hart erased a Sanheim turnover. Philly stabilized and came up with a clutch penalty kill after a Konecny delay of game minor. The Flyers then started to take over the game again.
Calgary needlessly iced the puck and paid for it, although there were two faceoffs and a TV timeout in between. Joel Farabee pressured Rittich into a turnover behind the net, and Hayes deposited it into the net for a 2-1 lead at 16:14 of the third period.
The Flyers, alas were unable to seal the deal. Calgary generated a very lengthy 6-on-5 possession with Rittich pulled for an extra attacker. The Flyers collapsed down low, conceding the perimeter. Eventually something bad happened for the Flyers: A far-wide shot by Rasmus Andersson caromed off the end boards and directly to Lindholm on the other side, who tied the game at 2-2 at the 18:37 mark. Nothing Hart could do to stop that one, either.
"The guy shot it just wide of the net there just glove side so I kinda came out just in case and it deflected it into me, so puck just bounces right off the end wall onto the other guy's tape," Hart said.
Scott Laughton returned to the lineup from a broken finger that had sidelined him since late October.
He said of the tying goal by Lindholm, "I think you try to do the same thing [as a PK], honestly. I think we did a pretty good job keeping them on the outside. They got a shot off the end wall and like I said it goes in the back of the net. They didn’t get much before that. I thought we were good in our little dice and run and I think that we didn’t get a chance until that. We continue to build on that and we lose in a shootout, what are you going to do?"
Overtime was fast-paced, and the Flyers had at least two excellent chances to win the game at 3-on-3. Vigneault said after the game that he was going to give Frost a shift in OT but had to bypass him due to a defensive zone faceoff; opting instead for the Giroux-Konecny duo.
In the skills competition, none among Giroux, Farabee or Couturier were able to score. Tkachuk opened up Hart and slipped the puck through the five-hole in the bottom of the second round for what proved to be the winner.
The Flyers (11-7-5) have a complete off-day on Sunday. On Monday, they will host the Vancouver Canucks on Hockey Fights Cancer Night at the Wells Fargo Center.