The Philadelphia Flyers saw their nine-game winning streak come to an end on Tuesday night as they fell, 2-0, to the Boston Bruins in a hard-fought game the Wells Fargo Center.
After 38-plus minutes of Flyers-controlled by scoreless hockey, Boston defenseman Matt Grzelczyk scored a power play goal (4th goal of the season) for a 1-0 Bruins lead. Patrice Bergeron added insurance (31st) with 5:20 left in the third period.
Carter Hart took a rare loss on home ice. He stopped 27 of 29 shots. Tuukka Rask was outstanding at the other end, earning a 36-save shutout.
The Flyers went 0-for-3 on the power play. They were 1-for-2 on the penalty kill.
In the first period, the Flyers came out with good pace, and set a physical tone across their early shifts. The proces was strong, but there was no payoff in the opening 20 minutes. Good work by Shayne Gostisbehere created the game's first power play. Rask made an excellent glove save to rob Travis Konecny point-blank off a feed from Jakub Voracek. The Flyers had each of the game's first two power plays but were unable to score against the NHL's 3rd-ranked PK. First period shots were 12-8 in the Flyers' favor. Attempts were 22-14 Flyers.
Apart from one mishandled puck that nearly proved costly, Hart was sharp in the first period. He made a tough save before the buzzer as Boston had 10 seconds of power play time to end the first period. The Bruins took 1:50 of carryover time into the second period.
The Flyers had three separate shorthanded 2-on-1 chances, including back-to-back ones on the same early second period kill. Rask made a tough save on Kevin Hayes on the second. The other two did not make connections.
Philly continued to press hard in the second period, building a 12-6 shot edge. With Justin Braun in the penalty box for interference, Grzelcyk's point shot through heavy traffic found the net at 18:39 for a Boston power play goal.
Leading up to the goal, the Flyers had a glorious chance to score on a shorthanded 2-on-1 rush; their third such opportunity of the second period. Scott Laughton passed up an open shot, and the play was broken up. The Bruins moved the other way and got set up, hemming the Flyers in their zone. Finally, Grzelczyk's shot through a layered screen broke the scoreless deadlock late in the second period.
Boston did an excellent close-out job in the third period, outplaying the Flyers over most of the final 20 minutes. Hart came up with several good saves to keep the deficit at 1-0.
Rask then stepped up to make a 10-bell pad save on Ivan Provorov from the slot. Finally, with 5:20 left in the third period, Bergeron's shot from well above the circles over the middle was accidentally deflected by Travis Sanheim and beat Hart up high. With Hart pulled for an extra attacker, the Flyers had a couple of good looks at the net but hit the post on one and Rask denied the other.