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Wrap: Flyers Fall Short vs. Tampa, 5-2

February 19, 2019, 11:01 PM ET [361 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Wrap: Flyers Fall Short vs. Tampa, 5-2

A disastrous start to the game, failed power play opportunities, some undisciplined penalties in the third period and a controversial late goaltender interference ruling that wiped out an apparent goal that would have cut a 4-2 deficit to 4-3 at 19:13 of the third period combined to send the Philadelphia Flyers down to a 5-2 defeat at the hands of the President's Trophy shoo-in Tampa Bay Lightning at the Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday night.

The Flyers trailed 3-0 in the first 10:23 of the game, and spent the rest of the game battling uphill. Philly played well overall in the final 40 minutes of the game, but it wasn't enough against the best team in the NHL, even without Tampa having the services of injured No. 1 defenseman Victor Hedman, dynamic center Brayden Point (a healthy scratch for an internal disciplinary reason alleged to be missing a team meeting) and with star goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy getting the night off.

Mikhail Sergechev (4th), Alex Killorn (13th), J.T. Miller (10th), Yanni Gourde (power play, 17th) and Ryan McDonagh (empty net, 6th) scored for Tampa. Steven Stamkos (40th assist), Ondrej Palat (19th), Anthony Cirelli (13th), Adam Erne (9th), Miller (24th) and McDonagh (25th) had an assist apiece. Nikita Kucherov will have to wait at least one more game to reach 100 points on the season, as he did not record a point on this night.

Louis Domingue got the start in goal for Tampa. Some of his saves were unorthodox and he got the benefit of what looked to be an erroneous goaltender interference ruling but the Tampa backup was solid overall in turning back 28 of 30 shots.

The Flyers got goals from Oskar Lindblom (11th) and Travis Konecny (18th). Sean Couturier set up both goals, and would have been the goal-scorer on the wiped-out 3rd goal. Michael Raffl (8th) and Travis Sanheim (18th) each had a secondary assist.

Carter Hart was not at the top of his game in his brief outing but hardly the main culprit in why he was pulled after giving up three goals on nine shots in 10:23 of action. Each of the first two goals deflected on the way to the net. The third was a 2-on-1 (albeit a stoppable shot). All three goals involved lost battles and/or giveaways in front of him.

After he was taken out, Flyers interim head coach Scott Gordon told Hart that his own play was not the primary reason for the switch in net. Hart, however, said after the game that he needed to be better. He got lucky on the game's first shift on a rebound that Cedric Paquette was unable to stash into the net. Hart was also unhappy with his reaction to Miller's shot from the top of the right circle on the third goal.

"I mean, 3 goals on 9 shots, that’s on me. I gotta be better and it sucks, but you put it behind you. Games like these happen and it’s going to happen every once in a while and that’s the game of hockey. Just put it behind you and get ready to work tomorrow," Hart said.

Veteran goaltender Brian Elliott, activated on Tuesday after spending roughly three months on injured reserve and getting in two conditioning assignment starts with the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms, relieved Hart. Elliott stopped 22 of 23 shots, and was solid except for a leaky power play goal by Gourde that hit Elliott (who was playing without a stick) in the palm and then dribbled through into the short side of the net to put the Flyers down 4-1.

Sergachev made it 1-0 at 2:22 of the first period. The sequence started with an overly conservative play in the offensive zone by Andrew MacDonald that gave Tampa a breakout. It continued with MacDonald losing a puck battle in the defensive corner. Finally, Sergachev's shot from atop the left circle deflected off the skate of Shayne Gostisbehere (who may have also had Hart partially screened) and re-directed into the net.

Tampa built a 2-0 lead at 5:13 of the opening stanza. This sequence started with a Gostisbehere giveaway. An Erne shot was deflected by Cirelli in the high slot and hit the post behind Hart. With MacDonald in no position to tie up Killorn, the Tampa forward claimed the loose puck and tapped it into the right side of the net.

Hart's night ended at 10:23 of the first period. Miller took the puck away from a pinching Provorov in the Tampa end, claiming the puck and leading a 2-on-1 rush with Travis Sanheim back to defend. Miller's shot from the top of the right circle beat Hart over the glove to the short side for an unassisted goal.

"Turnovers, a lot of turnovers," Gordon said in response to a question about the number one thing that went wrong for his team in the first period.

"We didn’t give Carter a chance tonight to be able to help us win the game, so him getting pulled had nothing to do with him as much as it was, I want him to be ready for Thursday. At that point it’s 3-0, we don’t know which way it’s going to go, and I thought it was an opportunity also to get Moose in there, get some NHL action he hasn’t had in a while."

The Flyers had late first period and early second period power play opportunities but the top unit struggled on entries and was outpaced by the second unit. A third power play chance in the middle frame was also unsuccessful. At five-on-five, however, the Flyers had numerous scoring chances with the trio of Lindblom, Couturier and Jakub Voracek arguably the most effective Philadelphia line. However, despite a 14-8 shot edge and a clear advantage in scoring chances, the Flyers were unable to make a dent in their 3-0 deficit.

At 1:03 of the third period, the Flyers finally got on the board. Lindblom went to the net and finished off a nice passing sequence from Raffl to Couturier to the goal scorer, who has three goals in the team's last two games.

"Just trying to get to the net. Today, I got an open net. I just have to be there and do my thing. We were close to getting back, but it wasn’t enough," Lindblom said.

Philly had some chances to get the deficit down further but got thwarted at 4-on-4 and 5-on-5. Wayne Simmonds took an unnecessary hooking penalty with the team pressuring in the offensive zone at 5:43. That ended up being costly on the Gourde power play goal that dribbled through Elliott at 7:42, with one second left on the Tampa advantage. Up until that point, it had been a strong kill for Philly.

"It bruised my palm. I don’t even know how it squeezed through, but it hit me right in the palm," Elliott said.

To their credit, the Flyers kept plugging. At 10:51, the gap narrowed to 4-2 as Konecny zipped a tight-angle goal past Domingue off a feed from Couturier. Sanheim, who had a good bounceback game in 21:36 of ice time (two shots on goal on six attempts, four blocked shots), got a secondary assist for starting the passing sequence.

The Flyers shot themselves in the foot with back-to-back penalties -- Phil Varone was called for tripping Domingue behind the net as the Tampa goalie went to play a puck and then Gudas was called on a clear-cut high sticking penalty against Kucherov -- that left them on a lengthy 5-on-3 penalty kill. The PKers, especially Scott Laughton and Elliott, stepped up but there was less than two minutes left in regulation by the time the penalties were over.

At 19:13 of the final stanza, with Elliott pulled for a 6-on-5 attack, the Flyers appeared to have gotten the game to 4-3 in a scramble around the net. The puck dribbled behind Domingue, who was flat on his backside, as Couturier poked twice at the loose puck. The puck was jammed into the back on the net before Domingue himself slid backward into the net and before the whistle went.

Skating in from the left corner toward the net, referee Jake Brenk waved no goal, ruling goaltender interference on the basis of Couturier forcing Domingue into the net. The Flyers challenged the ruling. The NHL's Situation Room in Toronto upheld Brenk's decision: "After reviewing all available replays and consulting with the Referee, the Situation Room confirmed that Philadelphia’s Sean Couturier pushed Lightning goaltender Louis Domingue into the net together with the puck."

Couturier's response: "He just said classic goalie interference. I mean, I don’t know what to say. I saw it after again, and there’s a loose puck, I hit it, I give a second whack. The goalie was already on his ass, and the puck is already in the back of the net by the second time I hit it. I really don’t know what the explanation is, you’ll have to ask the NHL for that one and I don’t know what goalie interference is anymore. I mean, this was tough."

When play resumed, with Philly still attacking 6-on-5, McDonagh iced the game with a long-distance empty netter to make it 5-2 at 19:23.

An enraged Simmonds said the magic words to the officials and was dumped on a game misconduct before play resumed. After the final horn, Giroux talked with the officials.

Final shots were 33-30 in the Flyers' favor. Philly went 0-for-3 on the power play and 3-for-4 on the penalty kill.

The loss was a costly one for the Flyers, as both Pittsburgh and Montreal won on Tuesday night. The Flyers will have an optional practice in Voorhees on Wednesday before leaving for Montreal. Hart will be in net against the Habs on Thursday, per Gordon.
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