FLYERS-BLACKHAWKS WRAPUP: FLYERS WIN IN FOND FAREWELL TO TIMONEN
On a night that will be best remembered for the soon-to-retire Kimmo Timonen's return and farewell game in Philadelphia, the Flyers earned a fast-paced 4-1 win over Timonen's new club, the Chicago Blackhawks, at the Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday night.
The Flyers got goals by Wayne Simmonds, Ryan White, Claude Giroux and Michael Raffl (power play). Steve Mason earned the win with 34 saves on 35 shots. Matt Read and Michael Del Zotto notched two assists apiece, while Jakub Voracek's assist on Giroux's second period goal moved the Czech forward back into a tie atop the NHL's Art Ross Trophy race.
With the victory, the Flyers improved their home record for the season to 21-9-6. Five of their remaining seven games on the schedule will be played on home ice.
Chicago's lone goal was a power play deflection goal by Andrew Shaw early in the third period, temporarily cutting Philadelphia's lead to 3-1. Corey Crawford stopped 31 of 34 shots in a losing cause.
After the game, the Flyers announced that Simmonds (took a puck off his lower left leg on a third period power play) and Andrew MacDonald (hit by a Chicago shot up high in the third period, seemingly on his right hand) will both miss the remainder of the season due to injuries suffered in this game.
1st Period
In a classy gesture by Blackhawks' head coach Joel Quenneville, Timonen's defensive pairing with Brent Seabrook skated the game's first shift with the Jonathan Toews line. The Flyers went with Claude's line and the defense pairing of Mark Streit and Michael Del Zotto.
The Blackhawks generated three quick shots in rapid sequence in the opening minute of play. Mason came up with all three. Shots were 4-1 when Chicago took an icing at 4:49.
Crawford made a sliding save to deny Jakub Voracek from a sharp right-side angle off a nice feed from Del Zotto at 5:57. The Flyers quickly generated two more chances on the ensuing shift, with Nick Cousins unable to bury a shot in close.
The Chicago goalie's puck handling misadventures continued, and a subsequent Chicago turnover by Marian Hossa proved costly at 7:28. Matt Read (21st assist of the season fed the puck to Simmonds, who buried a right circle shot for his 28th goal of the season and 100th regular season goal as a Flyer. Nick Schultz (13th assist) collected the secondary helper for knocking the puck away from Hossa over to Read.
Shortly thereafter, Chicago's Andrew Shaw had a wide open chance from the slot with Mason caught well out of position. Shaw shot wide.
At 9:06, the team ran a lengthy video tribute to Timonen during a television timeout. Flyers and Blackhawks players alike stood up and tapped their sticks and the Wells Fargo Center crowd stood and applauded throughout. At the end, Timonen raised an arm and circled around as he received a standing ovation and chants of "Ki-mmo! Ki-mmo!"
With about four minutes left in the period, Sean Couturier made a slick defensive play to strip Brad Richards of the puck on a dangerous-looking rush for Chicago. Shots remained 11-8 in the Flyers' favor.
The goal chances started coming fast and furious for both teams in the waning minutes.
On the next two shifts, Crawford denied a backhanded attempt by Giroux and the Mason stopped a weak-side shot by an incoming Andrew Desjardins. Next, Mason tracked a tough deflection and made the save. With 2:13 left in the period, Crawford flashed the leather to catch a Couturier shot on a 3-on-1 Flyers rush. Finally, it was Mason's turn to deny a 2-on-1 by Chicago.
Shots on goal in the first period were 13-11 in the Flyers' favor. Faceoffs were 10-5 in the Flyers' favor (Giroux led with a 5-for-7 showing).
2nd Period
Chicago had the better of the play through the first five or six minutes, getting five of the period's first eight shots. Mason made a good blocker save on Toews off the rush to keep the game 1-0.
The Flyers extended their lead to 2-0 at 7:09 after a clean faceoff win by Nick Cousins. Carlo Colaiacovo (sixth assist) received a D-to-D pass from Nicklas Grossmann (seventh assist) and fired a shot on net that White (fifth goal of the season) deflected home. On the next shift, Chicago got a 2-on-1 and Mason came up with a potentially huge momentum save.
As the game and period moved past the midway point, the Hawks gained a 3-on-2 rush. The play got broken up before the Hawks could get off a shot. Two shifts later, Chicago generated extended pressure and several shots deep in Philadelphia territory.
At 12:30, Couturier skated in to claim the rebound of a point shot but wasn't able to pot it from a severe angle as Crawford got part of his glove on the puck.
Philadelphia made it a 3-0 lead at on a nice hookup between Voracek and Giroux. Voracek (53rd assist of the season) controlled on the right half boards and found Giroux skating in to receive the puck and re-direct in past Crawford for his 22nd goal of the season and first even-strength home goal of the 2014-15 campaign. Del Zotto (18th assist) got the secondary assist.
With 4:39 left in the second period, another "Ki-mmo! Ki-mmo!" chant went up in a section of the lower-level crowd during a stoppage of play.
Mason made his 12th save of the period and 23rd of the game with 3:05 remaining in the middle frame. The goalie came up cleanly with a Hossa shot from above the right circle and held on for a stoppage. Save 24 came as Mason snared a Seabrook shot from near the spot of the previous shot in the final minute of the period.
Crawford kept the deficit at three in the final half-minute as he robbed Pierre-Edouard Bellemare on a 2-on-1 rush.
Shots in the second period were 14-8 Chicago (25-22 Chicago through two periods). Faceoffs were 12-6 Chicago (17-16 Hawks through two periods).
3rd Period
The Giroux line started the third period by keeping Chicago hemmed in deep in their end of the ice.
Chicago got the game's first power play at 2:10 on a high sticking minor on Colaiacovo in the defensive zone off a faceoff. At 2:24, the Blackhawks converted it into a goal on their 28th shot of the game. Andrew Shaw (13th goal) deflected a Duncan Keith (34th assist) point shot home to cut the deficit to 3-1. Antoine Vermette (25th assist) got the secondary helper.
With 14:41 left in the third period, a fight broke out between Dan Carcillo and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare. The Frenchman held his own quite well in his second NHL fight.
Chicago went on its second power play at 6:03. The Flyers survived. With 11:53 left in the period, Mason nabbed a high-slot shot by Patrick Sharp.
Philly finally got its own first power play at 8:06. Chicago got nabbed for too many men on the ice. Kris Versteeg served the penalty. The Flyers got nothing going on the man advantage.
At the 11:42 mark, Mason came up with a loose puck in a scramble around the net. Several Flyer laid out to block shots in the sequence. Shortly thereafter, MacDonald took a Chicago shot up high off his right hand. He finished the shift but was in pain returning to the bench.
Brayden Schenn was denied by Crawford on a nice rush, drawing a hooking penalty on Toews at the 14:44 mark. The Flyers went on their second power play of the game. The first power play unit generated some pressure but could not score. Simmonds went limping off to the bench after apparently getting hit in the left leg with friendly fire from Mark Streit. The second unit then stepped up to score.
At 15:55, on the line rush, Raffl got the puck on the tap from Read and fired home his 19th goal of the season from the right side to restore a three-goal lead. Del Zotto got the secondary helper.
Chicago kept pressing with a shift that held Philly in deep. After Keith blasted a shot through traffic, Mason covered up with Sharp lurking nearby.
One final "Ki-mmo! Ki-mmo!" chant went up in the waning seconds as the time ticked down to zero.
Shots in the third period were 11-10 in the Flyers' favor (35-33 Chicago for the game). Faceoffs were 12-9 Chicago (29-25 Chicago for the game).
Postgame Notes and Quotes
* In another fitting final tribute to Kimmo Timonen, the five-time NHL All-Star and five-time Barry Ashbee Trophy winner was chosen as the game's third star of the game. With many fans staying in the stands, he was able to take one final curtain call as fans stood and applauded. Claude Giroux took first-star honors with Wayne Simmonds getting second star. The picks were made by the Bucks County Courier Times' Wayne Fish.
* The Flyers will take a complete off-day on Thursday. They will resume practice on Friday at the Skate Zone in Voorhees, NJ, ahead of Saturday afternoon's game against the San Jose Sharks.
* Entering this season, the two biggest home/road record disparities in Flyers' franchise history were in 1970-71 -- 20-10-9 (.628) at home and 8-23-8 (.308) away -- and 1972-73, when they went 27-8-4 (.744) at home and 10-22-7 (.346) on the road. Currently, the Flyers are 21-9-6 at home and 9-20-10 on the road.
* The win, the Flyers extended their regular season home winning streak over Chicago to 11 games. Their last regular-season loss to Chicago at home came on November 9, 1996. Since the 2010 Stanley Cup Finals, the Hawks have paid three visits to the Wells Fargo Center.
* Since the All-Star break, the Flyers are 8-2-5 against teams currently in Stanley Cup Playoff position, and 3-5-4 against non-playoff teams.
* Flyers general Ron Hextall confirmed that Phantoms rookie defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere will miss the remainder of the season with the torn ACL he suffered in early November. The player is expected to be fine for training camp next season.
* Hextall said more information on Luke Schenn's lower-body injury should be available tomorrow.
* With the win, Steve Mason improved his home record on the season to 14-5-4, raised his save percentage to .938 and lowered his GAA to 1.93; on the road he is 1-12-6 with a 2.64 GAA and .912 save percentage.
* Mason on whether the team's strong home record is at least one source of pride in another disappointing season: "“Yeah. You always want to have a good home record and this building in particular is tough to come into for opposition teams. The guys have fun playing at home and I think their record is a reflection of that but at the same time you can’t just be a home team you have to get it on the road and that’s another thing we need to be better at as well.…
* Flyers head coach Craig Berube on the team's home-road disparity: "You look at goal differential home and road there’s a big difference. Big difference. Gave up too many goals on the road. At times, didn’t score enough. It’s a big difference."
* Berube on whether Claude Giroux has tried to do too much at times this season: "Sure, at times I think he’s tried to do too much. His frustration level has been pretty good I think. He wants to win. He’s a leader, wants to win. He doesn’t worry about the goals so much. He obviously has to produce for us and it’s mind-boggling at times that he only had one goal 5 on 5 at home.…
* Pierre-Edouard Bellemare on his fight with Dan Carcillo: "I don’t know how we ended up in a fight but it took pretty long.…
* Kimmo Timonen on the ovations he received: "I was thinking about it. I’ve gone through a lot of game and things throughout my career. Won a lot of medals and all-star games but that’s one of the coolest things you can as a player experience. So I just want to say thanks to the fans that was awesome.…