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Wrapup: Flyers Defeat Avalanche, 6-3; Phantoms Beat Bears, 3-0 |
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Wrap: Flyers Defeat Avalanche, 6-3
It was nerve-racking at various junctures but the Philadelphia Flyers never trailed and went on to defeat the Colorado Avalanche, 6-3, at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday night. Outstanding goaltending by Alex Lyon, goals on both ends of special teams by Kevin Hayes, three assists and strong two-way work by Sean Couturier and two goals by Joel Farabee led the way for Philadelphia.
Crucially, the Flyers held superstar Avalance center Nathan MacKinnon off the scoresheet on this night (he ended up being out for three Flyers goals and also took a costly first period high-sticking double minor. Linemates Mikko Rantanen scored a power play goal and Gabriel Landeskog had one assist but the Flyers sufficiently contained the damage the trio did on this night: something that has not often happened in most of the recent bi-yearly games against the Avalanche.
Tonight is a sign that back-to-back games are not easy. This team, they had a long break but they had 2 full practices and a morning skate. We had one practice and played yesterday and there’s no doubt that the difference in this game is Alex," Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault said.
"We had a hard time defending and we had a hard time making plays with the puck in the first period and he kept us in. just shows the importance of goaltending, he made some big saves at the beginning of the game when we made that bad read and gave that 2 on 1, he made a great save which I think gave him confidence but also should’ve given us confidence right away but we let him make 6 or 7 big saves to really get our confidence going but we were much better in the second period even though they outscored us 2-1. I thought we competed better and made better plays and in the third period it was pretty entertaining from both ends, they had some great looks, we had some looks and we were able to get the job done."
The Flyers improved to 18-4-4 at home this season. The Avalanche dropped to 14-9-2 on the road.
With the win, the Flyers helped themselves in the Eastern Conference playoff race on a day where both the Columbus Blue Jackets and New York Islanders trailed in games but eventually rescued one point in OT losses. The Carolina Hurricanes were idle on Saturday and will host the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday.
As of the end of Saturday night, the Flyers sit in the lower wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference, tied in points with Columbus (63 apiece but trailing 21-19 in the regulation wins tiebreaker). The Flyers are two points ahead of Carolina, who hold a game in hand plus a 21-19 tiebreaker edge in the event of a points tie. Philly has moved to within one point plus a 26-23 regulation plus overtime wins secondary tiebreaker with the two teams presently tied with 19 regulation wins apiece.
The Flyers' advancement in the standings was made possible by virtue of claiming three of four possible points on the weekend. They came back from a 3-1 defict to earn a point in Pittsburgh from a 4-3 overtime loss and then found a way to beat Colorado.
On Saturday, goals by Matt Niskanen (6th) and Hayes (power play, 15th) gave the Flyers a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes. The second period saw Valeri Nichushkin (9th) get a goal back early in the second period but Farabee (6th) quickly restored a two-goal margin. On Colorado's first power play of the game, Rantanen buried a right-circle blast (16th) off a Nazem Kadri feed to bring the Avs to within 3-2.
In the third period, Farabee struck again for his second tally of the game (7th of the season). Andre Burakovsky got Colorado back to 4-3 before Hayes notched shorthanded goal (16th) for breathing room. Scott Laughton added an empty netter (8th).
Lyon was excellent in goal for the Flyers, stopping 28 of 31 shots.He had little chance on any of the ones that went in, and was severely tested multiple times. Lyon outplayed, Philipp Grubauer, who stopped 22 of 27.
"Extremely personally gratifying," Lyon said. "I think it’s such a mental battle. The physical side of the game is not the challenging aspect for a goalie coming from the American League to the NHL. It’s the mental side, but it’s on each man. If somebody doesn’t have confidence, everybody knows it’s no secret. I try to just execute confidence and have belief in myself. I’ve done it a million times, done it in a million different games. It’s easy here. We've got a really good group of guys."
The Flyers got outplayed significantly in the first half of the opening period. Lyon stepped up big to keep the game scoreless, including a 2-on-1 save on Matt Calvert on the game's first shift and a later one on a wide-open Tyson Jost from the slot. In all, he made 11 saves and gave his team time to get going.
In basically a reversal of the second period of the teams' previous meeting in Denverm the Flyers took a two-goal lead to the first intermission despite Colorado outplaying them. Over the latter part of the period, the Flyers got going.
A Niskanen point shot deflected off Colorado defenseman and into the net at 13:45. The goal was initially credited to Sean Couturier but changed after the period. Couturier and Jakub Voracek drew assists. Then, in the waning seconds of the period, Philly made Colorado pay for Nathan MacKinnon's high-sticking double minor on the forecheck against Niskanen. Hayes made a nifty tip of a James van Riemsdyk setup to make it a 2-0 lead with 4.5 seconds left in the frame.
"There were some hairy moments in that game. I think obviously it’s a really good team over there. They were going to come in spurts for sure and obviously it is great we found a way to win and score some timely goals," van Riemsdyk said.
The second period was an entertaining one with great scoring chances at both ends among a combined 23 shots on goal (14 for the Flyers, nine for Colorado). The Flyers forechecking pressure was much better through much this period than the first.
Nichuskin scored a deflection goal of a Nikita Zadorov point shot. Couturier made a gorgeous saucer pass and Farabee showed soft hands to receive the puck cleanly and slam-dunk it before Grubauer had a chance at a save. No goalie was stopping that one, nor Rantanen's one-timer on the power play from his lower right circle sweet spot.
Both Lyon and Grubauer shined at times in the second period as well. The Flyers were unable to capitalize on a 4-on-3 power play and carryover 5-on-4 after what looked like a kneeing penalty on Andre Burakovsky was instead called a tripping minor. As the teams returned to full strength, James van Riemsdyk was unable to go upstairs over Grubauer's desperately outstretched glove. At the other end, Lyon robbed Matt Nieto on the toughest of his seven saves in the stanza.
The Flyers started the third period with a power play drawn by Phil Myers exiting the penalty box on a breakway. The Flyers didn't score but the second power play unit created a couple good looks.
At 7:32, after a keep by Niskanen and an Avs giveaway to Couturier, No. 14 made a good pass to Farabee, who buried his second goal of the game into the back of the net for an insurance marker.
"I think if you stick anyone with Coots you are going to find chemistry with him. He is a really good player," Farabee said. "On that second goal, I have no idea how he saw me. He is unbelievable. He is a huge part of our team. We just keep rolling like this, we are going to be happy in the end."
The Avs struck back at 9:09 as Burakovsky finished a chance from close range on a delayed penalty on the Flyers. Shortly thereafter, Lyon made a breakaway save on J.T. Compher to keep the Flyers ahead, 4-3.
Hayes then made a huge play to jump on the puck, start a 2-on-1, and then extend the lead to 5-3 on his rush up the left wing and goal from the circle at 16:33.
"I was thinking pass all the way, and I might have fanned on it a little bit, but it worked out," Hayes said with a grin.
The Avalanche pulled Grubauer for an extra attacker. Laughton added a long-distance empty netter to seal the final margin of victory.
The Flyers will have an off-day on Sunday. On Monday,they will complete the current 3-in-4 set of road-home-road games with a game against the woeful Detroit Red Wings; one in which Philly absolutely cannot fall into the trap of playing down to the opposition letting the NHL's basement dwelling team hang around until they can sense a chance to win.
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Phantoms Blank Bears, 3-0
A highlight reel insurance goal late in the third period by David Kase and an 18-save shutout by J-F Berube helped lifted the road win starved Lehigh Valley Phantoms to a 3-0 victory over the host Hershey Bears on Saturday night.
Chris Stewart scored his first goal of the season -- NHL or AHL -- early in the first period. Morgan Frost passed to Maksim Sushko, whose shot from up high in the zone was deflected by Stewart past Vitek Vanecek at 4:11.
The Phantoms retained the slim margin until Kase scored a spectacular goal at 17:43 of the third period. On the play, Kase stole the puck along the right boards and found himself outnumbered 1-on-3. Nevertheless, he turned on the jets and fired the puck over Vanecek's glove to make it a 2-0 lead for Lehigh Valley. Kase has six points (2g, 4a) over his last six games played.
Hershey pulled Vanecek for an extra attacker. On the 5-on-6, Mikhail Vorobyev (9th) scored ane mpty netter from the blue line. Sushko earned his second assist of the game on the play, and Reese Willcox also picked up a helper.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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