The Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Boston Bruins in overtime, 3-2, at TD Garden on Thursday night. The victory was the Flyers' sixth in a row and seventh in their last eight games. Philly never led at any point in regulation but, after a rough start, outplayed the Bruins over much of the game and the efforts eventually reaped dividends.
TD Garden has been a house of horrors for the Philadelphia Flyers in recent years. The Boston Bruins had been 10-0-1 in their last 11 home-ice meetings with the Flyers entering Thursday game. This time around, the Flyers outplayed Boston's 2nd through 4th lines, got some clutch performances and were finally the ones who got a little puck luck when they needed it.
Playing in his 100th NHL game, Travis Sanheim scored the overtime-winning goal (5th) on a screened shot from the top of the left circle with on one second remaining on a 4-on-3 power play. Sanheim also got a secondary assist (12th) on a game-tying power play deflection goal by Oskar Lindblom (7th) midway through the third period.
Back in the first period, Claude Giroux converted a breakaway opportunity with a glove-side wrister to send the game to intermission tied at 1-1. Jakub Voracek had two helpers (his 30th and 31st assists), getting primary assists on both the Giroux and Lindblom goals.
Travis Konecny, who drew an overtime tripping penalty on Brad Marchand that created the 4-on-3 power play that eventually produced the winning goal by Sanheim, also assisted on the Sanheim goal (16th) assist. Sean Couturier got the primary assist (22nd) on the winner.
Flyers rookie netminder Carter Hart had another strong game in goal for the team. He had no chance on either goal he allowed -- an unstoppable power play one-timer tally (29th) by Bruins All-Star sniper David Pastrnak (29th) in the first period and, later, a wicked deflection by Pastrnak (30th) on a Patrice Bergeron shot. Along the way, Hart stepped up big numerous times. He got lucky a time or two but was very good overall in stopping 23 of 25 shots.
Returning from a concussion sustained on Jan. 19, Tuukka Rask was excellent in goal for Boston as well, denying 38 of 41 shots including a third-period penalty shot opportunity for the Flyers' Scott Laughton. On the penalty shot, attempted at 6:42 of the third period, Rask did not commit early as Laughton approached and tried a blocker side.
Every power play opportunity in the game wound up producing a goal. The Bruins went 1-for-1 and the Flyers went 2-for-2.
After Pastrnak flubbed a one-timer, Torey Krug (29th assist) threaded a pass directly through the middle of the Flyers' PK box and Pastrnak made no mistake the second time around. Boston had 1-0 lead just 3:05 into the game.
Giroux's breakaway goal tied the game at 19:16 of the first period. The Flyers were outshot in the opening stanza, 10-8, but went to the dressing room with the score knotted and having gotten the better of puck possession over the latter part of the period, which was largely played whistle-free until the Giroux goal.
The Flyers were up on their skates in the second period and put a 17-7 shot blitz on Boston. However the period's only goal belonged to the Bruins. Zdeno Chara (4th assist) had a nice keep at the left point and passed to Bergeron (28th assist). From the netfront slot, Pastrnak made a difficult deflection of the Bergeron shot look easy and the airborne puck eventually went over the goal line for a 2-1 Boston lead.
Philly kept pressing and pushing the attack but was stymied until Lindblom's seeing-eye redirect found its way through Rask's pads and into the net at 10:36 of the third period. The Bruins had a late-period surge (the Flyers, however, held an overall 11-8 shot edge). Hart came up big a couple of times and also got lucky when he was down and out of the play and Danton Heinen had a gaping net staring at him from the slot but the puck hopped over his stick.
In overtime, Giroux was unable to finish off a 2-on-1 opportunity off a Marchand turnover. Shortly thereafter, Marchand tripped Konecny to take a penalty and Konecny moved to the inside and started to skate past him over the middle. Rask made a couple of tough saves on the Flyers' power play. Finally, Sanheim took a pass up high from Couturier, circling to his left from center point to the area above the left faceoff dot and fired off a wrist shot through traffic that Rask didn't see until it was too late.
Sanheim skated 23:53 of ice time, getting all four of his shot attempts in the game on net. He also blocked three shots. Defensive partner Ivan Provorov (logging a massive 30:20 of ice time) enjoyed his third straight excellent all-around game since the All-Star break. In the third period, Provorov made a good stick-on-puck play on Pastrnak to thrwart a developing scoring chance. Provorov had one block, three shots on goal (in five attempts) and was credited with one takeaway.
The Flyers will practice at the Skate Zone in Voorhees on Friday, with a rare scheduled 1 p.m. on-ice time. The next afternoon, they will go for seven wins in a row when the Edmonton Oilers pay a 1 p.m. matinee visit to the Wells Fargo Center.