Wrap: Flyers Beat Blackhawks, 4-3
It was sloppy. It was feisty. It was entertaining despite the teams' lowly places in their respective conference standings. It was also a win.
The Philadelphia Flyers prevailed, 4-3, in a seesaw game at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday afternoon. The Flyers led 1-0, trailed 2-1 and 3-2. In the third period, the Flyers pulled even and then went ahead to stay.
"It wasn't a perfect game, no question. Set it off in the second period and we talked about a winning attitude and just kind of recognize that we are down a goal and at home here. I liked the way we came out in the third, that's for sure. So positive stuff," Flyers interim head coach Mike Yeo said.
Two goals by Flyers right winger Cam Atkinson led the way for the Flyers. Dylan Strome tallied twice for the Blackhawks.
Oskar Lindblom (9th goal of the season) gave the Flyers an early 1-0 lead. Alex DeBrincat (31st) tied the game on a snipe off a faceoff in the opening half-minute of the second period. Strome (10th) gave the Blackhawks a 2-1 lead at 12:39. Atkinson (19th) briefly drew the Flyers even at 2-2 but Strome (11th) scored again shortly thereafter to put the Blackhawks ahead again. 3-2.
In the third period, Derick Brassard (5th) re-tied the score, making it 3-3 at 3:09. Atkinson (20th) notched his second of the game five-plus minutes later to put the Flyers back in the driver's seat with a 4-3 lead. The Flyers have had significant issues with closing out games but were able to accomplish it this time.
Martin Jones stopped 26 of 29 shots to earn the victory. Kevin Lankinen absorbed the loss with 23 saves on 27 shots.
The Flyers went 0-for-4 on the power play. Chicago went 0-for-1.
Kevin Hayes returned to the Flyers' lineup for the first time since Jan. 17. He had a scoring chance on his first shift of the game and later contributed an assist. Hayes, who underwent core muscle surgeries in May and September of 2021, subsequently developed a severe infection that spread throughout his groin and required a cleanout procedure. He now reports being pain-free, and his skating appears to be much less labored.
"This is night and day compared to how I felt the previous, I don't know, 15 games I played," Hayes said. "It felt pretty good. I was lucky enough to get a few chances right away and get my confidence back. It is nice when you are getting Grade A’s right away and playing with good players."
By today's NHL standards, Saturday's game more after-the-whistle scrums and physicality between the whistles than a typical game but no full-blown fights. Emotions nevertheless ran high by the third period. Chicago forward Kirby Dach could face supplemental discipline from the NHL's Department of Player Safety for leading with his elbow on a retaliatory hit on Flyers defenseman Kevin Connauton behind the play in the third period. Connauton's head was driven into the plexiglass above the boards, and he needed assistance off the ice.
The Blackhawks remain winless in regular season road games against the Flyers since defeating the home team on Nov. 9, 1996. Since then, the Flyers have gone 17-0-0 at home against Chicago in the regular season. Including playoff games, the Flyers are 19-0-1 against the Blackhawks at home in the last 25-plus years. However, the one blemish was monumental: the overtime sixth game of the 2010 Stanley Cup Final.
For a complete synopsis, analysis and highlights from Saturday's game, see the
Postgame Five on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com.
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Phantoms Suffer Weekend Sweep by Charlotte
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms entered this week with an opportunity to make up significant ground in the chase for a playoff spot in the American Hockey League's Atlantic Division. Six teams will make the postseason in the division, and the Phantoms had a chance to start making a push during a three-game homestand.
Instead, the Phantoms sustained three straight losses -- all in regulation -- and got outscored by a cumulative 15-7. On both Friday and Saturday, Lehigh Valley absorbed 5-2 losses to the Charlotte Checkers. Charlotte won six of their eight games against the Phantoms this season.
Although all three games took on differing complexions, there were five common themes that contributed to the Phantoms' undoing:
1) A struggling power play that repeatedly came away empty. At times, Lehigh Valley generated good puck movement and looks at the net but no one could finish. At other times, the Phantoms had problems gaining entries or getting set up.
2) Pedestrian goaltending by Pat Nagle and Felix Sandström across all three games. In all three games, there was at least one -- sometimes more than one -- stoppable opportunities that ended up in the net. There was also a lack of timely saves.
3) The Phantoms never had multiple forward lines consistently going well on the same night. Morgan Frost had an outstanding performance (despite not getting a point) on Wednesday, playing at his quickest pace and generating a slew of scoring chances. Matthew Strome stepped up to score twice on Friday, and Isaac Ratcliffe also had a strong performance in the first game against Charlotte. Charlie Gerard created havoc and Tanner Laczynski (who missed Friday's game due to illness) had a couple scoring chances. Cam York had stretches in all three games where he made good plays with the puck. Overall, though, there were never multiple lines rolling momentum across extended stretches.
4) The Phantoms PK had been a major strength over the previous six weeks or so but it sprung a leak this past week and never got on track. Paired with their own inability to score on power plays, the Phantoms' special teams were a key factor in why they came away pointless from the week.
5) The Phantoms had various surges in all three games, but they also had lulls, especially in the two games against Charlotte. Friday's second period was an abomination and put the Phantoms out of the game. Almost inevitably this week, the Phantoms got scored on (often multiple times) during the ebbs in energy and focus.
The Phantoms missed Hayden Hodgson -- who is both an energy sparkplug and has emerged as the AHL club's top goal-scorer -- as he served the first two games of a three-game suspension by the league for a high hit away from the puck in the third period of Wednesday's game.
Head coach Ian Laperriere made multiple lineup changes on Saturday, benching several players with whom he was particularly displeased in Friday's 5-2 loss. Among others, Maksim Sushko and German Rubtsov were yanked from the lineup and sat out on Saturday as healthy scratches.
Saturday's game was a strange one in that Lehigh Valley overall did a good job in taking away time and space from Charlotte. Charlotte was held to 19 shots for the game (to 35 for the Phantoms). However, when the Phantoms had a breakdown, they tended to be glaring: plays where the blueline was given up too easily, and attackers had free reign to skate right down Broadway with little resistance. Almost every time, the puck ended up in the Phantoms' net.
On Saturday, the Phantoms found themselves in a 4-0 hole. They trailed 2-0 in the first and then gave up two closely spaced goals in the second stanza. Laczynski (playing right wing) set up O'Reilly for an early third period goal. The tally broke a seven-game point drought for future AHL Hall of Fame candidate O'Reilly. Later in the third period, Frost scored a deflection goal from off to the left side of the post. However, the Phantoms never got any closer than three goals down.
There was also a very scary event in Saturday's game. Early in the second period, Phantoms forward Jackson Cates fired off a shot on a shorthanded scoring opportunity. Knocked off balance, he careened heavily, head-first into the lower part of the end board. Cates could move his arms but had blood in his mouth and needed to be immobilized, placed on a stretcher and taken to a waiting ambulance for transport to a local hospital. Cates, who still had his gloves on, gave a slight thumbs gesture to reassure teammates and the fans as he was wheeled toward the Zamboni gate on the stretcher.
Whether it was due to Lehigh Valley players being preoccupied by concern for Cates' well-being and struggling to refocus or simply a matter of paying the price for a few minutes of loose play, the score quicky went from 2-0 to 4-0 in Charlotte's favor after Cates was carted off the ice. Nagle was pulled after the third Charlotte goal (the third he'd allowed on just five shots) but Sandström was greeted with a goal on the first shot he faced. In general, too many Charlotte goals this weekend were scored from the deep slot; a couple with no vision obstruction.
Wade Allison was activated off injured reserve by the Flyers on Saturday morning and assigned to the Phantoms. However, he has not been a full practice participant since suffering an MCL sprain in his first game this season for the Flyers and has been limited to a combined eight games between the Phantoms and Flyers. Thus, the Phantoms will wait a bit until Allison gets into a few practices before he returns to game action. Allison did not play Saturday and is also unlikely to be ready for Tuesday's road game in Hershey.
Linus Sandin returned from an injury-related absence the Phantoms' lineup on Friday night. He was way off his game. On Saturday, he was out again and is officially day-to-day with a lower-body injury. One positive is that, in Friday's game, he longer needed the face cage he'd been wearing following early season surgery for a fractured orbital bone.
The Phantoms are now winless in their last five games (0-4-1). The team had climbed all the way back to "hockey .500" after winning just four of their first 19 games and had gotten within shouting distance of the final playoff spot in the division. Now the team has dropped back into last place in the Atlantic, at 18-23-10 overall. This week, the Phantoms squandered two of the three games in hand they had on sixth-place Wilkes-Barre/Scranton while remaining six standings points behind the Pens.
Lastly, since Charlotte's Owen Tippett and Aleksi Heponiemi have had their names come up in trade rumors involving the Flyers and Florida Panthers, it is worth noting that both players did damage to the Phantoms this weekend. Tippett was a force in portions of Saturday's game and finished with a goal and two assists over the two matches, Heponiemi made several clever passes over the two games (collecting a pair of assists on Friday) and is very smooth on his skates. He did get knocked off the puck a few times in the two games.
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