Wrap: Flyers Lose to Penguins, 5-1
The game was more competitive than the final score would make it seem -- at least the first 54-plus minutes -- but the Pittsburgh Penguins ultimately scored three goals over the final six minutes to skate off with a 5-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers at PPG Paints Arena on Saturday afternoon.
The game was a microcosm of many issues that are the Flyers' repeated undoing:
Start with the inability to score. Since the All-Star break, the Flyers are dead last offensively in the NHL with a meager 1.73 goals per game. Travis Konecny, who got injured on Feb. 20 and has missed eight games and counting is still tied for third on the team in scoring (3g, 2a, 5 points in seven games played) since the break.
This is the Flyers' scoring leaderboard in the 15 games since the All-Star break: Scott Laughton (3g, 4a, 7 points), Owen Tippett (4g, 2a, 6 points), Konecny, Morgan Frost (2g, 3a, 5 points), Noah Cates (2g, 3a, 5 points), Rasmus Ristolainen (0g, 5a, 5 points), Nicolas Deslauriers (3g, 1a, 4 points), Kevin Hayes (2g, 2a, 4 points), Tony DeAngelo (1g, 3a, 4 points in 13 games), and Ivan Provorov (1g, 2a, 3 points).
Since the break, James van Riemsdyk has produced only one goal and one assist in 14 games. Now mired in a 25-game goalless drought, Joel Farabee has two points (0g, 2a) since the break. So does Cam York (0g, 2a) who was initially credited with a goal in the Tampa Bay game on Tuesday, but it was subsequently changed to Brendan Lemieux's tally on a deflection.
On Saturday in Pittsburgh, the Flyers' lone goal came off the stick of Kieffer Bellows (2nd goal of the season). The puck had a lot of movement on it and went under Casey DeSmith's blocker but over his pad. However, this must also be said: It was an unscreened shot from considerable distance above the right circle. The vast majority of the time, it would be a fairly routine save. It never hurts to shoot the puck, especially when you can shoot like Bellows (his one outstanding skill), but it's hardly something the Flyers as a team can hang their hats on when they scored a grand total of three goals (one apiece for Frost, Lemieux and Bellows) for the entire three-game road trip.
Carter Hart played well for two-plus periods but the game-winning goal by Jason Zucker off a faceoff win by Evgeni Malkin leaked through the pads. The final goal, scored by Mikael Granlund in the final minute (preceded by a Jake Guentzel empty-netter), was a pretty non-competitive sequence from all of the Flyers on the ice. Philly was playing out the string at that point, and the Penguins were playing to the final buzzer.
Hart allowed four goals on 31 shots. DeSmith earned the win with 30 saves on 31 shots.
Special teams were once again fruitless for the Flyers. Heading into the All-Star break, the PK had been a relative bright spot and ranked in the middle of the NHL pack. Since then, the penalty kill has sprung a leak and plummeted down near the bottom of the league. The power play, which has been a trouble spot for several seasons, has fallen back into the bottom ranking leaguewide.
On Saturday, a Sidney Crosby one-timer on a four-minute power play in the second period proved to be the game-winning goal for Pittsburgh. The Penguins were 1-for-4 on the power play for the game. Meanwhile, the Flyers generated better puck movement than they have in quite a few games and put 10 shots on net, but still took a 0-for-3 collar on the man advantage.
How bad has the Flyers' power play been since the All-Star break? So bad that they've actually allowed more opposing shorthanded goals (four) than they've scored power play goals (three PPG on 30 opportunities). The 10 percent overall power play success rate since the break is bad enough but to actually have a negative net goal differential on your own power plays in a 15-game sample is downright humiliating. (No, the fact that three of the four opposing ENGs were late-game empty netters with the Flyers skating 6-on-4 is not an acceptable reason).
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Phantoms Earn 4-3 OT Win
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms captured their fourth straight win as they claimed a 4-3 overtime win against the Belleville Senators at the PPL Center on Saturday evening.
Cooper Marody figured in all the scoring for the Phantoms, registering a hat trick in regulation (goals 9, 10 and 11 in an injury-plagued season). The third goal came in the final minute of the third period and forced OT. In 3-on-3 sudden death, Marody and Adam Brooks set up defenseman Ronnie Attard (10th) for the game winner. On Marody's game-tying goal at 19:12 of the third period, Egor Zamula and Bobby Brink earned the helpers. For Brink, it was his 11th assist and 18th point in 27 games since returning from offseason hip surgery.
Samuel Ersson, who also started in Friday's win over W-B/S, improved his season record to 19-11-1. On Saturday, he stopped 15 of 18 shots.
The Phantoms (30-23-6) remain in fifth place in the Atlantic Divison, two points behind the fourth-place Springfield Thunderbirds and four points ahead of the sixth-place Bridgeport Islanders. The top six teams in the division will qualify for postseason play. Lehigh Valley now holds a seven-point edge over the seventh-place Hartford Wolf Pack with the last place Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins effectively out of the race (seven points behind Bridgeport, 11 points behind the Phantoms).
Lehigh Valley will now look to go 3-for-3 this weekend. It won't be easy, as Sunday's opponent, the Utica Comets (29-20-8 overall, 6-0-1 in their last seven games) will be in Allentown for a 4:05 p.m. tilt. Rather than having Ersson play three on three straight days with the last one being a late afternoon game following a night game, 22-year-old rookie Nolan Maier may get his seventh appearance for the Phantoms this season. In six games to date, he's 3-1-2 with a 2.75 goals against average and .889 save percentage.