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Wrap: Flyers Defeat Florida, 4-1 |
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WRAP: FLYERS DEFEAT FLORIDA, 4-1
Opportunistic offense. Strong forechecking. Willingness to block shots. Contributions from the lower half of the forward lineup. Two goals from the defense. Important saves to erase mistakes. Miscues by the opposition. These were the keys to victory, as the Philadelphia Flyers earned a 4-1 win over the Florida Panthers at the Wells Fargo Center on Monday night.
The Flyers trailed early in the game but shrugged it off to grab an overall puck possession advantage. The game was a little too wide open at times against a Florida team that usually thrives off trading chances, but many of the best Florida chances ended up going awry at the last moment or shot attempts missed the net. Flyers All-Star right winger Travis Konecny blocked five shots -- several rather painfully -- and Philly closed out the game in the third period without being in serious jeopardy of a Panthers comeback.
"At the end of the day, we gave up a lot of odd man rushes tonight, which we haven’t done in a while. So that part of our game, I feel we need to clean up a little bit. They had some real good looks tonight. Carter made some big saves and on a couple of occasions we were fortunate that they did not execute," Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault said.
"At the end of the day, both teams got a lot of looks. It was a pretty entertaining game from that aspect. That is a skilled team on the other side with a lot of great 1 on 1 players. We were good tonight in the sense that we made a couple good defensive plays, got some big saves and capitalized on a few of our looks."
In his first game back after missing nine games with an abdominal muscle strain, Carter Hart needed some time to get settled in early but soon did. He earned the win with 30 saves on 31 shots. Ex-Flyer Sergei Bobrovsky absorbed the loss. He stopped 30 of 33 shots.
"I think I went through all the situations in practice beforehand to make sure it’s time to play and not to worry about anything that’s negative or anything like that. Just worried about that in practice and went through all these different scenarios that I could to make sure that I’m on hunded percent ready. You get a couple early, gets you settled into the game and you just go from there," Hart said.
Mackenzie Weegar (4th) goal of the season opened the scoring early in the first period. Ivan Provorov (10th) got it back to send the teams to the first intermission tied at 1-1.
In the second period, James van Riemsdyk (16th) finished off a transitional rush led by Jakub Voracek, starting near the attack blueline. Travis Sanheim (8th) scored in a late-period scramble around the net to build a 3-1 lead.
Claude Giroux tallied a long-distance empty-net shorthanded goal (15th) to ice the win.
The Flyers went 0-for-5 on the power play but had their share of good looks at the net and several near goals. Philly was 5-for-5 on the penalty kill and Giroux collected the late shorthanded goal.
Coming off a three-plus week absence and nine games missed, Hart needed about 10 minutes to start looking settled in his net. Thereafter, he was fine. The second shot of the game found its way into the net; an Aaron Ekblad point shot that was blocked in front and went to Weegar at the top of the left circle, who beat Hart between the pads on a stoppable shot. Hart continued to scuffle a bit with tracking and reaction until getting settled in over the latter half of the opening period.
There were some other early jittery miscues -- a Morgan Frost turnover in the neutral zone and puck fumble in the O-zone were two examples -- but the team eventually started to pull things together as they started to settle into their structure as the opening stanza progressed.
A head-up pass by Matt Niskanen and a filthy rising shot from between the tops of the circles by Provorov knotted the game at 1-1 at the 13:58 mark of the first period.The Flyers never trailed again.
"I saw, I think, their D broke his stick and so I think [Aleksander] Barkov handed off his stick to him. One of their D, we made a play and after Nisky passed it to me I saw he had no stick and I wanted to take advantage of that and use him as a screen and that’s what happened," Provorov said.
On the Flyers' first power play of the game, both units generated good scoring chances but could not forge ahead. Bobrovsky caught a break at the start of the kill as a deflected puck very nearly dribbled over the line. First period shots were 11-10 in the Flyers' favor.
The Flyers' fourth line was outstanding in the second period, dominating possession on several successive shifts. The third line also generated some good shifts. But it was Voracek, on a partial line change, who turned a routine play in the neutral zone into a suddenly dangerous 2-on-1 and fed JVR for the go-ahead goal at 5:24. Justin Braun, who played a pretty airtight defensive game and got this play started with the puck in the neutral zone, picked up the secondary assist.
The lead grew to 3-1 at 19:08 of the third period. After Scott Laughton twisted a pass in front, JVR had a crack at scoring. The puck rattled around in front before a pinching Sanheim, who alertly stopped at the net, potted it.
"It looked like they were going to get a chance the other way. I tried to read that, I think it was Hoffman opened up for a one timer, tried to make a read to step up and cut if off. Countered it the other way. Tried to jump up, I think I saw an odd man rush the other way, and we ended up getting it at the net and found the net," Sanheim said.
Hart made a few tough saves -- most notably off a 2-on-1 rush -- in the middle frame. Florida also missed the net on some of their better opportunities as the teams traded chances. It worked out well on the scoreboard this period but is not usually the ideal way to play Florida..
Konecny had a tough period from a physical standpoint, painfully blocking a couple shots and later getting rattled on a hit. He stayed in the game. Second period shots were 13-10 in the Flyers' favor.
The teams traded off penalties in the third period; a couple of which were questionable calls by Steve Kozari. Hart made a vital breakaway save to preserve their two-goal lead. The Flyers continued to generate solid possession, and Hart stepped up as needed when things did break down.
With 3:55 left, Frost made a tape-to-tape feed to spring Myers, who was slashed in desperation by Frank Vatrano to create a Flyers' power play. The Flyers didn't expand their lead but two more minutes ticked off the clock.
Laughton was called for slashing with 1:28 left in the game. On Florida's late 6-on-4 power play, Huberdeau missed a seeming tap-in and Giroux scored the long-range empty netter. Third period shots were 11-10 Florida (34-31 overall in Philly's favor).
On Tuesday night, the Flyers will be back in action for the third time in four nights when they visit the New York Islanders in Brooklyn. The Islanders defeated the host Washington Capitals, 5-3, on on Monday. Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference playoff race, the Tampa Bay Lightning earned a 2-1 overtime win against Columbus.
Entering Tuesday, the Flyers will be in lower wildcard position with 69 points in 59 games. They are two points ahead of Carolina (idle on Monday), who hold a game in hand. Since both teams have 22 regulation wins, one has to look at the secondary tiebreaker of regulation plus overtime wins (ROW) in the event of a points tie, which Carolina leads, 27-26.
The Flyers are currently one point behind Columbus for the upper wildcard. The Blue Jackets have played one more game than Philly but have a 23-22 regulation win edge as well.
In the battle for third place in the Metro, the Flyers are one point behind the Islanders. The Islanders hold two games in hand over the Flyers and three on Columbus. New York has only 21 regulation wins, so they currently are at tiebreaker disadvantages if the points are tied once the games played equalize.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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