The Philadelphia Flyers rescued a point against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning before falling via shootout, 4-3 (2-0), at the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday evening.
Claude Giroux (6th goal of the season) and Travis Konecny (5th) gave the Flyers a 2-0 lead in the first period. Goals by Brayden Point (power play, 7th) and Mathieu Joseph (3rd) evened the score at 2-2 in the second period. Late in the third period, a severe angle goal by Steven Stamkos (9th) was canceled out by Giroux's second goal of the game (7th) in the final nine ticks of regulation. Neither team was able to score in a fast-and-furious shootout.
Carter Hart gave up one severe angle goal to Stamkos late in the game but finished with 29 saves on 32 shots. Andrei Vasilevskiy denied 27 of 30 Flyers shots. According to Hart, it was a fluky goal.
"I wouldn’t play that any different. Just kind of an equipment malfunction there. I’m on my post, I’m not leaning over too far. I mean those pads I’ve only used 4 times, so they’re pretty new. You expect that from older sets. Just kind of fluky and something I’ll look into with my gear. The puck just slid under my pad between my shin and toe. That usually doesn’t happen. It usually should be sealed on the ice," Hart said.
The Stamkos goal was only Tampa's third shot in the third period (to 12 shots by Philadelphia). In the final 10 seconds, on a 6-on-5 situation, Derick Brassard won an offensive left circle faceoff cleanly back to Giroux, who wristed a seeing-eye shot through traffic that found the net.
Overtime was played at a breakneck pace with good scoring chances for both teams. At one point, Cam Atkinson had the potential winning goal on his stick. In the shootout:
Round 1: Sean Couturier shot first. He shot a wrister into the pads. Stamkos scored over Hart's right shoulder for a 1-0 Tampa lead.
Round 2: Giroux was stopped on a backhander. Point beat Hart with a snap shot to end the game.
The Flyers went 0-for-2 on the power play. Tampa went 1-for-3.
Kevin Hayes was unable to play in this game. Max Willman joined the NHL team on an emergency recall from the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Head coach Alain Vigneault said after the game that he'd know more about the prognosis for Hayes in the next 48 to 72 hours.
For a full game recap, highlights and analysis, see the Postgame 5 on the Flyers official website: click here.