Wrap: Flyers Earn 5-4 SO Win vs Leafs, Stave off Mathematical Elimination
The Philadelphia Flyers temporarily staved off mathematical elimination from the Stanley Cup playoffs on Wednesday with a 5-4 shootout win over the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Wells Fargo Center. It was a wild game that saw the Flyers trailed 2-0 at the first intermission, take a 3-2 lead into the third period and then cough up a pair of one-goal leads before killing off a late regulation penalty to force overtime.
In OT, the Leafs dominated early. Later, the Flyers should have won the game on a Travis Sanheim goal in a scramble around the net but the goal was disallowed by a too-hasty "intent to blow the whistle" from referee Brian Pochmara behind the net as the puck was going into the net. In the waning seconds of OT, Sanheim set up a James van Riemsdyk scoring chance on a 2-on-1 rush in which the Flyers defenseman elected to shoot.
A shootout ensued; Toronto's first of the 2018-19 season. Flyers goalie Carter Hart, who stopped 38 of 42 shots in regulation and OT (three OT saves), had to face a virtual Murderers Row of shooters: Mitchell Marner, Auston Matthews, John Tavares (who fumbled the puck away to end his attempt abruptly) and William Nylander followed first round shooter Tyler Ennis. Hart officially went 5-for-5 in the first shootout of his NHL career.
It was nice the first shooter was one of my buddies from back home, Tyler Ennis. I’ve been skating with him in the summer since I was like 16. I kind of knew a little bit of his tendencies," Hart said.
"I kind of laughed a little bit when I saw him come up. I was like, ‘first shooter is Ennis?’ That was pretty cool....Luckily,I didn’t have to stop Tavares. He’s a very good player–they have a lot of very good players on that team. It’s a good hockey club. That’s a good win for us tonight."
Travis Konecny (23rd), Radko Gudas (4th) Sean Coutier (32nd) and Ryan Hartman (12th overall, 2nd as a Flyer) scored in regulation for the Flyers. Travis Sanheim (23rd and 24th assists), Scott Laughton (17th and 18th) and Corban Knight (1st and 2nd) collected two assists apiece for the Flyers, while Robert Hà¤gg (15th) and Ivan Provorov (19th) had one apiece.
Toronto got its goals from Connor Brown (7th), Nazem Kadri (16th), Matthews (36th) and Nylander (6th). Matthews set up the Nylander goal. Ennis (6th assist), Frederik Gauthier (10th assist), and Brown (20th) each had one helper. Tavares (one shot on goal, three missed shots) and Marner (four shots on goal, four blocked attempts) were held off the scoreboard.
Frederik Andersen got the start in goal for the Leafs, stopping 40 of 44 shots in regulation and overtime. He went 4-for-5 in the shootout. Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek, Nolan Patrick and James van Riemsdyk were unsuccessful on their attempts. In the fifth round, Couturier made a move and scored on the forehand from near the net. Hart then made one final save to end the game.
Couturier, who had entered the game 2-for-20 in his career in shootouts, scored on a move with which he'd had previous success against Andersen.
"I beat with that move a few years ago when he was with Anaheim. I wondered if he remembered me. Fortunately, it worked again," Couturier said.
The Flyers went 0-for-1 on the power play. They were 2-for-2 on the penalty kill, including a successful kill that precisely spanned the final two minutes of regulation.
The Flyers got off to a decent start over the first five minutes, including a scoring chance in close for Laughton off a nice pass from Travis Konecny and a JVR shot that hit the post. But Toronto scored first on a backdoor goal by Connor Brown off a weak-side coverage breakdown at 5:03.
Nazem Kadri made it 2-0 at 12:02. Couturier was unable to clear a puck under pressure, starting the goal sequence. Carter Hart got over for a save attempt but the puck got through a gap over his pad and under his glove.
With 4:35 left in the opening stanza, Frederik Andersen made a point-blank save on Konecny. First period shots were 11-10 in Toronto's favor. As the period developed, apart from the first five minutes, Toronto dictated the majority of the play.
Back in the locker room at intermission, the Flyers were unhappy with their sloppiness in the first period. They knew they had to bear down, trailing 2-0, and went to stage a strong second period that turned the tide of the game.
"Whether you’re trying to get a playoff spot or you’re going to finish out the season you have to manage the puck to have success, it’s not just for the team, but as an individual. So, a lot of the good work that we did in the first half of the period was negated because we were down 2-0 and pucks were in the back of our net for one reason," Flyers interim head coach Scott Gordon said.
Hartman did not get an assist on the play (Sanheim and Laughton did) but he was pivotal in Philly's first goal. Hartman and Konecny created a mini 2-on-1 within the rush and Hartman took the D toward the net, creating time and space for Konecny. A perfect shot from the circle later by Konecny and it was a 2-1 game at 3:39 of the second period.
At 6:07 of the second period, Andersen made a great save on Hartman from point-blank range and Konency was unable to score on a followup attempt. Philly got the game knotted at 18:15, however, as a Gudas right point shot off a D-to-D pass from Hà¤gg found its way through traffic and into the net. Hartman attempted to deflect the puck but did not get his stick on it, and the puck went in cleanly past Andersen.
The Flyers dominated the next few shifts after the Gudas goal. However, Toronto regained equilibrium over the latter portion the second period. A good defensive stop by Nolan Patrick over the middle and a clutch save with no rebound by Hart on Jake Muzzin kept the game tied at 2-2.
Shortly thereafter, strong board work by Couturier and an eventual nice re-direct by Couturier of a Sanheim shot gave the Flyers a 3-2 lead and Couturier his 32nd goal of the season.
Second period shots ended up 18-13 in Philly's favor.
At 1:43 of the third period, the deadly Auston Matthews buried his own rebound with a short-side high shot from the left circle. There was room upstairs and Matthews didn't miss.
The Flyers went back ahead midway through the frame. Denied twice earlier, there was no stopping a wide-open Ryan Hartman from giving Philly a 4-3 lead at the 9:00 mark. A great feed by Laughton out of the corner set up the scoring chance.
The Leafs pulled even again at 11:33 of the third period. A Gostisbehere turnover to Matthews and a feed to Nylander in the slot quickly turned into a tie game. Moments earlier, Hart had made a beautiful save coming out to cut down the angle, but the Flyers were unable to break out up the ice.
There were some anxious moments with Sanheim in the penalty box for the final two minutes of regulation. A lost faceoff and several failed cleared forced Philly to do a lot of extra work but they eventually got a successful clear and killed off the rest of the penalty in good shape to force OT. Shots through the end of regulation were 39-39 (15-11 in Toronto's favor in the third period).
Toronto dominated puck possession through the first 1:30 of OT. Hart made two saves. Finally at the other end with 2:26 left, Sanheim jammed home the puck in a scramble around the net. The old "intent to blow the whistle" rule cost the Flyers a game-winner as the goal was disallowed.
"It is what it is. We’re disappointed it didn’t count, but at the same time there’s still some hockey left. We got to get that extra point. Thought we just played it out [well]. Played it the rest of the game," Couturier said.
In the final 10 seconds, Sanheim passed up a chance to take the puck to the net and instead dropped the puck to JVR. Andersen made the save. Final shots were 44-42 Flyers (5-3 Flyers in OT) as the game moved to a shootout.
Neither team scored in the first four rounds. Finally, Sean Couturier tallied on his attempt and Hart stoned William Nylander to end the game.
Samuel Morin, who has spent the season rehabbing a torn ACL and dressed in his first NHL game of the campaign (he had a two-game AHL conditioning assignment with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms) dressed as one of seven defensemen for Philly. He skated 8:09 of ice time across 13 shifts.
"It was awesome. Obviously, it was fun getting back in to it. I didn’t play as many minutes as I did in Allentown when I was down there. But it was great, liked the pace was so much better. I think I was following it pretty good," Morin said.