WRAPUP: BAD START, LATE MISTAKES DOOM FLYERS
The Philadelphia Flyers' point streak ended at nine games as they dropped a 5-2 decision to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center. The Flyers remained six points behind the idle Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference wildcard race.
A poor first period in the first game back from a four-game road trip put the Flyers in position to have to chase the game. Even after a dominant second period that saw Philly control the play and fight back to tie the game at 2-2, the Flyers had no margin for error in the third period. Philly generated significant pressure in the third period but cracked first.
An awful turnover by Vincent Lecavalier and a bad rebound allowed by Emery ended up the Flyers' net as Columbus re-took a commanding lead at 4-2. The final goal was an empty netter.
Wayne Simmonds and Michael Del Zotto (two-point game) scored for the Flyers during the second-period rally. Ray Emery made a couple of excellent saves but also had some letdowns in allowing four goals on 20 shots.
The Flyers' top line continued its post-All-Star break scuffle for points but chances were abundant in this game -- often the first step to a breakout after a dry spell. This was especially true for Jakub Voracek. Unfortunately, the club really could have used a goal from its top line or top power play unit in this game.
Craig Berube made a lineup change after the first period, shifting Michael Raffl from third line center to his previous spot on the top line left wing and rotating Brayden Schenn from top line left wing to third-line center. The play of the entire team, including the top line, picked up markedly after the opening period.
Matt Calvert netted a pair of goals for Columbus, scoring both the game-winner and the empty-netter. Brandon Dubinsky and Ryan Johansen each had a goal and an assist. James Wisniewski opened the scoring with a power play goal. Winning goalie Curtis McElhinney left out his fair share of monstrous rebounds but came up with numerous excellent saves in close to finish with 42 saves on 44 shots.
The Flyers went 0-for-2 on the power play, despite generating a lot of pressure and extensive offensive zone time. Columbus was 1-for-1 on the power play, needing just eight seconds to turn an undisciplined offensive zone penalty by Brayden Schenn into the game's first goal.
1ST PERIOD
Sean Couturier's line generated the first extended pressure of the game -- including a scoring chance from the right slot for Matt Read -- a little more than two minutes into the game.
At the 4:43 mark, Brayden Schenn an offensive zone interference penalty. The Blue Jackets made quick work of it, winning the left circle faceoff and generating an open weak-side chance for James Wisniewski, buried his seventh goal of the season at 4:51. Alexander Wennberg and Scott Hartnell got the assists.
With the goal, a Flyers streak of not trailing at any point of a non-sudden death situation ended at 466:40.
At 6:39, the Blue Jackets opened up a 2-0 lead. A right point shot by David Savard pinballed off Corey Tropp and then off Johansen near the opposite side post for his 21st goal of the season.
McElhinney denied Pierre-Edouard Bellemare twice on the doorstep off a centering feed from Vincent Lecavalier. The goalie held on for the stoppage at 9:58.
The Flyers survived a bad turnover by Nicklas Grossmann with about five minutes left. With 3:45 remaining, R.J. Umberger was stopped in close. He didn't get much on the shot.
Shots in the first period were 10-7 Flyers. The Flyers won 14 of 19 faceoffs (Claude Giroux was 8-for-8).
2ND PERIOD
Michael Raffl started the second period on the left wing of the Giroux line. Brayden Schenn centered the third line.The Flyer had the better of the play in the first five minutes, putting some pucks behind the Columbus defense and generating forechecking pressure.
At 5:50, Fedor Tyutin got a boarding minor for shoving Couturier from behind near the end boards. The Flyers got their first power play. Philly generated good pressure in the first half of the man advantage but wasn't able to pot a goal.
The Flyers went on their second power play at 14:56. Brandon Dubinsky went off for hooking. The Flyers had all sorts of offensive zone time as Columbus couldn't clear it. With 19 seconds left, Voracek got robbed from point blank range.
With 2:35 left in the period, the Flyers finally got rewarded for their work. Scoring his 22nd goal of the season, Simmonds deflected home a Michael Del Zotto shot. Luke Schenn got the other assist at 17:25.
The Flyers went back to work on the forecheck. As time ticked down below the final minute of the period, Umberger threw a sharp-angle shot across the goal mouth. The puck went out to a pinching Del Zotto, who ripped a howitzer of a shot -- albeit from along the half boards -- that beat McElhinney for his 6th goal of the season. Umberger and Ryan White earned the assists at 19:08.
Shots in the second period were 20-6 Flyers (two period total of 30-13 Flyers). Faceoffs were 9-7 Columbus (21-14 Flyers through two periods).
3RD PERIOD
Columbus came out getting the better of the play in the first few minutes. However, the best early chance belonged to Voracek, who got picked from the left circle by McElhinney's at 4:13.
Emery and Bellemare bailed the team out of a heap of trouble but then a bad turnover by Lecavalier three seconds later turned into a 2-on-1 down low and a Matt Calvert tap-in goal (8th goal of the season) to make it 3-2 Columbus. Atkinson and Dubinsky got the assists at 9:54.
Voracek had another great chance in front during extended pressure in the Columbus end of the ice with about nine minutes left in the third period. He wasn't able to get anything on a backhander near the crease.
With 6:32 left, Emery left out a bad rebound on the doorstep a shot by Scott Hartnell. Dubinsky rammed in the rebound for his sixth goal of the season. Moments earlier, veteran linesman Scott Driscoll inadvertently got in the way of an attempted Voracek pass into the right faceoff circle area, creating a break the other way.
Emery was pulled for an extra attacker with about 2:30 left in the third period. The Flyers called timeout with 1:54 remaining. Calvert won a race with Voracek and scored into the empty net at 19:04 to make it a 5-2 game. Wennberg and Johansen got the assists.
Shots in the third period were 14-12 Flyers (44-25 Flyers for the game). Faceoffs were 11-10 Flyers (32-24 Flyers for the game).
POSTGAME NOTES AND QUOTES
* Former Flyers center Scott Hartnell received a warm ovation during a first-period stoppage of play as his longtime team congratulated him for achieving the coveted 1,000-game milestone. The Flyers' organization donated $10,000 to the Hartnell Down Foundation in recognition of his milestone.
* Ryan White was credited with a game-high 10 hits in 11:56 of ice time. He also earned an assist on the second Flyers goal and went 3-for-3 on faceoffs. As a team, the Flyers were credited with 49 hits to 39 credited to Columbus.
* Claude Giroux won 13 of 21 faceoffs for the game (62 percent) after going 8-for-8 in the opening period.
* The Flyers attempted 85 shots (44 on net, 22 blocked, 19 missed) to 38 attempted by Columbus (25 on net, five blocked, eight missed). Fedor Tyutin was credited with a game-high six for Columbus.
* Every Flyers skater received at least 11:51 of ice time (R.J. Umberger had the team low). Mark Streit led all Flyers skaters with 23:49 of ice time.
* The Flyers will hold a noon practice at the Skate Zone in Voorhees on Wednesday.
* Ray Emery on the rebound he allowed on the Brandon Dubinsky goal: "I wanted to corral that last one there, but sometimes that happens.…
* Wayne Simmonds on the team's back-breaking lapses: "Hockey is a game of mistakes and the team that makes less mistakes normally wins the game. I thought we played a good game, a solid forty. We made a couple mistakes in the first and it bit us in the butt.…
* Craig Berube on whether the Flyers have trouble matching up against Columbus: “I didn’t see really see that tonight. To start we took a penalty. Didn’t need to take that penalty. They got a break on a fanned shot in the slot. Went to their guy. He put it in. one, nothing. I thought that put us behind the eight ball. We didn’t really didn’t recover from that goal in the first period in my opinion. Second period, we dominated the period. Tied the game up and made two mistakes in the third period. “
* Berube on the third period: "I thought we were fine. We were playing. Getting some shots. Getting some chances. Gave up an odd man rush on the first goal. Ray makes a spectacular save. Then we turn the puck over. Inexcusable turnover and it’s in our net.…
* Berube on what Lecavalier should have done on the play that resulted in the outcome-altering turnover: "Put it off the wall. We talked about keeping the puck out of the middle of the ice against this team and that cost us.…
* Lecavalier on the giveaway: "I thought they were going two-on-one. I didn’t see that guy [Dubinsky], obviously, that picked up the puck. Ray made a big save right before that, but obviously I’d like to get that back.…
* Lecavalier on the Flyers' struggles in beating Columbus the last two seasons: "We got 40-something shots tonight. When you’re on the road for eight or nine days, sometimes you’re a little flat in that first period like we were tonight. We came back in the second and played a great second period. Third period, we made a few mistakes and it ended up in our net.… * Jakub Voracek on his assessment of his line's play since the All-Star break: "It’s up and down. I think the first two games after the All-Star break it was good, and after the game against the Islanders and Toronto it wasn’t very good. I mean when you don’t score you kind of overwork things instead of keeping them simple. You try so hard and sometimes it’s even worse. We’ve got to start producing to win a game like this. I think if we scored a goal today we win the game.… * Michael Raffl on the need to put this game in the rear-view mirror and get back on the winning track: "I think it’s like playoff hockey right now. What happens, happens. If you lose then you’ve got to keep on going, look forward to the next game and try to win that one.…