WRAP: FLYERS STRUCK DOWN BY HURRICANES, 4-1
The Philadelphia Flyers' 12-game point streak was ended with authority by the Carolina Hurricanes at the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday night. The Hurricanes dominated the opening 40 minutes and went on to skate to a 4-1 win over the Flyers.
There was very little the Flyers did right on this night. They were beaten off the walls, beaten to loose pucks, guilty of soft coverage around the net, unable to generate much in the way of offensive zone entries or sustain it once they had it, lost the faceoff battles (27-20 overall in Carolina's favor) and were guilty of double-digit charged giveaways (10-6).
"We didn’t have the puck very much in the offensive zone. They had the the puck more than we did in the offensive zone, we didn’t check it back enough. We were on the outside a lot, even on our shots attempts. I haven’t added it up yet you know 40-45 shot attempts and that’s not going to be enough. I don’t think we were direct enough, at times looking for one more play rather than a direct hard play to the net," Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol said.
"You’re going to have nights where you don’t have the best level of energy, and that was for sure tonight for us. We started slow in the first and second period and we could never really establish it even though we had some spurts. But, we were never really able to simplify our game enough and give a good push.…
Over the first and second periods, the Flyers were outshot by a 28-14 margin, and stared at a 3-0 deficit on the scoreboard. The Flyers made an early push in the third period and got a goal back quickly but, after a few near-miss attempts at getting the game back to a single goal, a missed scoring chance in the Carolina end came back the other way on a counterattack and ended up in the Flyers' net. Third period shots were 8-7 in the Flyers' favor.
The Flyers went 0-for-2 on the power play and give up the fourth goal on the shift immediately following the expiration of their second power play. Officially, the Flyers were 1-for-1 on the penalty kill but the game's first goal was scored one second after the expiration of a careless high sticking penalty on Taylor Leier. The second Carolina goal was scored during a 4-on-4.
Former Flyers forward Justin Williams led the attack for the Hurricanes, scoring his 12th and 13th goals of the season, and assisting (29th of the season) on the game's final goal. Opening the scoring at 4:40 of the first period, Williams' first goal saw him set up in the blue paint behind Brandon Manning and tap in a loose puck that squeaked through Petr Mrazek on a left circle shot by Jeff Skinner. He made it 3-0 at 11:42, nicely re-directing a Brett Pesce (13th assist) shot into the net.
Shortly before the second Williams goal, Teuvo Terà¤và¤inen (17th of the season) beat Robert Hà¤gg off the wall to the net and scored at 4-on-4. Sebastian Aho (23rd) buried the goal that made it 4-1 after setting up the earlier Terà¤và¤inen goal. The final goal was a counterattack play after a Scott Laughton rebound hopped over the stick of Oskar Lindblom in the slot. At the other end, Williams had the puck bounce away from him but it went right to Aho, who rifled a shot from the top of the right circle into the net.
"For the most part, we kept them to the outside, too. Their chances that they got in on us were in the back of the net and ours weren’t. I don’t know, I’m not going to look at it as a negative thing, honestly. We have played such good hockey. We obviously wanted the two points tonight but we can just regroup and keep moving forward," Flyers forward Travis Konecny said.
Cam Ward earned the win in goal, stopping 21 of 22 shots. His best two saves came against Lindblom with back-to-back stops on shots from inside the hash marks; first with the right skate and then with a pad save on a backhander.
The Flyers, who got shut out over 65 minutes in Montreal on Monday but earned a 1-0 shootout win, finally got on the scoreboard at 1:20 of the third period. Konecny (16th goal) blocked a puck high in the defensive zone. Claude Giroux (53rd assist) started a counterrush with a lead pass to Sean Couturier (33rd assist). From the left circle, Couturier delivered a pass to the tape of Konecny's stick as the second-year pro crashed the net and finished it off.
Back in the first period, Konecny had a clear lane to himself on a partial breakaway but opted to pass instead toward Giroux and the play went awry. Couturier, still unable to bag what has proven to be an elusive 30th goal of the season, shortly thereafter had a one-timer attempt set up by Konecny but couldn't finish it. In short, it was a frustrating night for the Flyers' top line until they finally scored one.
Giroux's assist was the 650th point of his career, tying the captain with Tim Kerr for sixth on the Flyers' all-time scoring list. Giroux did it in 720 games, while Kerr accomplished it in 601 games during a higher-scoring era of NHL hockey. Up next on the charts is Eric Lindros (659 points in just 486 games).
Overall, the trio of Nolan Patrick, Lindblom and Jakub Voracek was the Flyers' best line. They generated the most puck possession and scoring chances. Lindblom, still looking for his first NHL point after five games despite numerous scoring chances, had five shot attempts that included hitting the post. One shift after the Konecny goal, Lindblom and Patrick narrowly missed connections on a pass intended for the rookie center. Voracek, who did not have a shot attempt, skated 18:32 of ice time.
“No loss is a good loss. It’s hard to say if you feel it coming. You feel winning, you don’t think about losing the game. When we came into the locker room, we knew if we played good enough we were going to win the game. We didn’t, they played better. You know, move on. Just forget about it," Voracek said.
Mrazek sustained his first loss as a Flyer, falling to 3-1-0 in four starts. He stopped 31 of 35 shots. Overall, he played OK but the goaltending wasn't a savior on this night.
“At the beginning of the game, I felt pretty good. But, the beginning of the game I made a couple of mistakes, a couple of rebounds that I should have had easy and the first shot in and didn’t give out any rebounder. I didn’t like the first goal too, the puck got on the edge a little bit. It went to me and it gave them the momentum to be up 1-0 in our building," Mrazek said.
The Flyers' netminder had no chance on the Terà¤và¤inen or second Williams goals. The first Williams goal was a tap-in from the crease on a puck that slowly trickled loose off the initial perimeter shot by Skinner. The Aho goal that re-established a three-goal lead with 5:37 left in the third period was scored from an area -- above the dot atop the right circle -- that is typically considered a preventable goal. Aho made a good shot on this one, but it wasn't unstoppable.
Early in the first period, Flyers top-pairing defenseman Ivan Provorov went down to block a shot. The puck caught him near his knee. Provorov rolled around in agony but never left the game. He returned to the bench, skated his next shift, and played 20:10 overall (minus-one, four credited hits, two blocks, two shot attempts that Carolina blocked).
"Quite simply, they won more battles. They won more races. They were the better team throughout the 60 minutes. So we got to make sure we give ourselves a boost out of this. It is a quick turnaround time. We have a short work day tomorrow. We get on the plane and head south. That is what it is. This team has handled reality very well all year and that is what we will do again in this case," Hakstol said.
If there was a silver lining to the Flyers' loss was that it came on the same night when every other Metropolitan Division team lost (apart, obviously, from Carolina). The Pittsburgh Penguins were on the wrong end of an 8-4 thumping by the Boston Bruins.The New Jersey Devils lost to the Florida Panthers, 3-2. The Columbus Blue Jackets sustained a 5-2 setback at the hands of the LA Kings.
The Flyers will hold an 11:30 a.m. practice on Friday at the Skate Zone in Voorhees before departing for a weekend road trip to the Sunshine State. On Saturday afternoon, the Flyers face the task of playing the Eastern Conference leading Tampa Bay Lightning. That will be followed up on Sunday -- Philly's third game in less than four nights -- with an afternoon game in Sunrise against the red-hot Panthers.