Wrap: Flyers Earn 5-4 Comeback Win in Minnesota
It wasn't as well-played overall as the previous night but, on the heels of Monday's home loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Philadelphia Flyers needed a win by any means when they took on the Minnesota Wild at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on Tuesday. Philly got what it needed, with a 5-4 win in comeback fashion.
The Flyers scored first but dug themselves a 3-1 hole by the first intermission. The second period did not start especially well, either, but Philly hung in the game and eventually clawed their way back to get the score tied at 3-3. In the third period, the Flyers fell behind yet again before rallying for back-to-back goals and nailing down a regulation victory.
James van Riemsdyk, who had been struggling in recent games, broke loose for a pair of power play goals (14th and 15th), including the game-winner on a rebound goal at 15:31 of the third period. Flyers captain Claude Giroux tied the game at 4-4 at 6:30 of the third period with a tracer of a goal (17th) off a drop pass from Jakub Voracek (35th assist). Back in the second period, after JVR was credited with a double deflection power play goal that was also tipped by Wayne Simmonds (9th assist) off an initial Shayne Gostisbehere shot (19th assist), it was Sean Couturier who tied the game at 3-3 on his 26th goal as he finished off a brilliant rush to the net by Travis Sanheim (15th assist; he later had the secondary helper on the Giroux goal for his 16th).
Back in the first period, a seeing-eye shot through traffic by Ivan Provorov (5th goal) opened the scoring at 2:54. The goal was initially credited to Justin Bailey, who was skating the first shift of his Flyers debut, but the scoring was changed shortly thereafter. The lone helper was credited to Phil Varone (3rd assist).
Anthony Stolarz would have liked at least one of the Minnesota goals back, but came up big when he needed to and made 35 saves on 39 shots to earn the win. Minnesota counterpart Devan Dubnyk, who stopped just 21 of 26 shots, was not particularly sharp in either of his outings against the Flyers this season after shutting Philly out in back-to-back games last season.
The Flyers went 2-for-4 on the power play and 5-for-6 on the penalty kill. The team survived an egregious four-minute high sticking double minor called against defenseman Robert Hà¤gg on a play where Minnesota forward Jason Zucker was accidentally clipped by teammate Jordan Greenway's stick.
Provorov logged a monstrous 30:19 of ice time for the Flyers, while Sanheim skated 24:45. Partially due to ineffective play and partially because of all the penalties the Flyers had to kill on this night, Shayne Gostisbehere skated just 11:24 across 16 shifts, while Travis Konecny played 10:25. Bailey skated 4:44 over six shifts, while Mikhail Vorobyev was a healthy scratch.
After Zach Parise (23rd goal) scored from in close on the power play to tie the game at 1-1 at 8:58 of the first period, Luke Kunin tallied a pair of goals (3rd and 4th) to put the Wild ahead by two goals. The first was scored directly off a giveaway by Gostisbehere. The later took advantage of some loose coverage.
After the Flyers battled back in the second period to tie the game, Jared Spurgeon (11th goal) temporarily restored a lead to the Wild at 2:06 of the third period on a goal that went over Stolarz's shoulder to the short-side. With Stolarz attempting to seal off the post, he lifted the net off its peg on the other side and the puck momentarily gave the illusion of having flown across -- but not over -- the goal line until replays quickly confirmed what actually happened. Four minutes later, Giroux scored high to the short side over Dubnyk's shoulder, and the Flyers never trailed again on this night.
The Flyers were playing for the third time in four nights and in the second half of a back-to-back. The team will now have three nights off, including a total off-ice day on Wednesday, before playing a weekend home-and-home set with the Detroit Red Wings. On Wednesday's night, the Flyers will be rooting for the Edmonton Oilers to do them a favor and win a road game in Pittsburgh, where Evgeni Malkin will serve a one-game suspension for his deliberate one-handed stick swing at the head of the Flyers' forward Michael Raffl during the third period of Monday's game.
On Tuesday, the Flyers recalled veteran goaltender Mike McKenna from his 14-day conditioning stint with the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The same day, the team sent veteran goaltender Brian Elliott on a six-day injury rehab conditioning stint to the Phantoms.