|
Flyers Clobber Columbus, 5-1, in 1st Half of Home-and-Home |
|
|
|
|
|
Wrap: Flyers Clobber Columbus, 5-1
In the front half of a vital home-and-home set, the Philadelphia Flyers dispatched the Columbus Blue Jackets, 5-1, at the Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday night. The Flyers set a franchise record for the fewest shots required to score five goals.
Kevin Hayes (18th of the season) and Sean Couturier (18th) got the Flyers off to a quick 2-0 lead. Phil Myers (4th) opened a 3-0 lead in the second period before Oliver Björkstrand (20th) got a goal back on a power play to cut the gap to 3-1. A tip-in by Travis Konecny (20th) and.Jakub Voracek power play goal (12th) created a 5-1 final.
Joel Farabee earned a pair of assists. Konecny, who has 16 points in 15 career games against Columbus had a three-point game. Claude Giroux (two assists) became the Flyers' all-time franchise leader in power play assists (235), surpassing Hockey Hall of Famer Bobby Clarke.
Hayes, as well as several other Flyers, was happy with how the team played defensively (at least over the first half of the game) but was not happy with the club putting just 15 shots on the Columbus net. He said that the team will need to do better in that department in the home-and-home rematch in Columbus.
"Honestly, I don’t think it was one of our best games. Obviously, the score doesn’t say that. We should be better next game. I know we scored five goals but I think we definitely didn’t have our A-game [offensively]. Got some puck luck and it’s a huge two points," Hayes said.
"We knew they were in it the whole time. We knew we had to bring our best all 60 minutes. We played the right way defensively. They had a pretty good amount of shots, but I don’t think they had a lot of Grade-A’s. When they did, our team played great."
Tuesday's game was one of the most complete games of the season for Travis Sanheim. Good gaps, canceled out guys on the boards, showed poise and made a nice play in assisting on the Myers goal sequence. All three defense pairs have been stable and contributing in different ways in recent weeks.
In goal, Carter Hart earned the win for the Flyers. He stopped 28 of 29 shots. Hart was scarcely tested in the first 28-plus minutes of the game, and then was tested plently over the latter half the game.
For Columbus, Elvis Merzlikins stopped just eight of 12 shots before he was pulled at 3:40 of the third period. Countryman Matiss Kivlenieks went the rest of the way, stopping two of three shots.
"Tonight, we were able to capitalize on a couple of opportunities. We came into this knowing that we were playing against a real strong checking team, and we'd have to make plays with the puck," Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault said.
"Unfortunately, there's a couple times there where we didn't make the right play. It didn't lead to tremendous amount of opportunities, but we knew that there was still a better play to be made. But, at the end of the day you’re going to capitalize or get bounces on a couple of looks which we did and were able to, at the beginning of the third there to put that game away."
The Flyers scored goals on each of the game's first two shots, spaced just 1:02 apart. The Flyers had some self-made puck luck on both goals.
On the first, after strong forechecking work by Joel Farabee, Hayes banked a shot from behind the goal line off a skate and then off back of Merzlikins' mask and into the net at 3:28. Hayes was attempting a pass to Konecny and got a bonus.
At 4:30, Giroux sprung Couturier on a breakaway down the middle. Moving to his right, Couturier lost the handle as he tried to pull the puck to his backhand. But the partial flub produced a changeup that slid through Merzlikins' pads.
"It's 2-0 at the 15-minute [remaining] mark in the first period. We started fast playing the right way. We got pucks in behind their D. They play some of those top guys in the beginning and if we can get on them and wear them down early it makes the difference in the game," Konecny said.
The Flyers brought excellent puck pressure, especially on the back check throughout the first period. First period shots were 6-3 Flyers. Shot attempts were 13-13. High danger chances were 2-1 Flyers.
During the first period, the Flyers dodged a bullet when Ivan Provorov went down after a painful blocked shot. He was on the ice for quite awhile but returned to the bench and didn't miss a shift. On his next shift, the Flyers had a would-be Provorov goal overturned on a coach's challenge by John Tortorella for goaltender interference by Joel Farabee at 15:08.
Officials in Toronto ruled on replay that Farabee initiated contact with Merzlins rather than Vladislav Gavrikov bumping the Flyers into the Columbus goaltender. The overturn wiped a beautiful give-and-go sequence by the Hayes line off the scoreboard.
The Flyers had some issues on clearing opportunities in the second period, and ended up hemmed in a few times. Uncharacteristically, near the midpoint of regulation, Couturier had a couple turnovers on the same shift. Hart, for the first time, was asked to come up big several times. He did.
Hart, however, had little chance of stopping Björkstrand's point-blank power play goal after excellent puck movement by Columbus. Shots were 12-5 Columbus, high danger chances were 2-2.
Andrew Peeke had a first two periods for Columbus, even apart from being on the ice for all three Philadelphia goals. The Myers goal appeared to bounce in off the Columbus defenseman. Peeke also had the puck bounce off him on the first goal sequence and was the defenseman beaten on the Couturier breakaway goal.
At 3:40 of the third period, a no-frills goal -- Hayes winning a left circle draw, Farabee getting it back to the left point, Robert Hägg putting a simple shot on net from the point and Konecny getting the re-direct into the net -- made it 4-1 at 3:40 of the third period. It also ended Merzlikins' night. A tic (Giroux) - tac (Konecny) - toe (Voracek) power play marker not only opened a 5-1 lead for the Flyers.
Third period shots -- almost completely a product of score effect -- were 11-4 Blue Jackets. Likewise the cumulative 1.84 expected Columbus goals to 1.11 for the Flyers was by no means an accurate assessment of how this game went apart from the Flyers not generating all that much offense once they got up by several goals.
"They have obviously a couple more shots in the third but there weren't a lot of chances or shot opportunities for both teams in the first two periods, I thought we did a good job defensively. When we did have a breakdown, Carter made a couple big saves at the right time. And, you look at the goals that we got tonight, you gotta go to the net, we went to the net, puck found a way to go in. Some nights it's harder. Tonight, the puck was able to find ways to go in," Vigneault said.
With the win, the Flyers at least temporarily jumped up two spots in the playoff race, going from the lower wildcard spot to third place in the Metro Division. The Flyers are now one point ahead of Columbus (72-71), with a tiebreaker advantage (24 regulation wins to 23) and a game in hand (60 GP to 61 GP). The Blue Jackets at least temporarily fell below the playoff line, as the injury-riddled team is winless in its last six games (0-3-3).
The Flyers also moved one point ahead of the New York Islanders, who were idle on Tuesday. The Islanders hold two games in hand on the Flyers (60 GP to 58 GP) but Philly presently has a regulation wins tiebreaker edge (24-22). The Carolina Hurricanes, who took care of their own business on the road on Tuesday in defeating Nashville, 4-1, bumped up into lower wildcard position. As with the Blue Jackets and Islanders, Columbus has 71 points. They also hold one game in hand on the Flyers (60 GP vs. 59 GP). Philly and Carolina each have 24 regulation wins but Carolina owns the secondary tiebreaker (29 ROW to 28).
The Flyers were originally slated to have a noon practice on Wednesday before traveling to Columbus at 2 p.m. ET. However, Vigneault elected to give the team a bit of rest ahead of the rematch in Columbus and canceled the practice.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
Join the Discussion:
»