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Flyers Gameday: 4/25/21 vs NJ; Phantoms Defeat Binghamton Again |
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GAME 48: FLYERS vs. DEVILS
Alain Vigneault's Philadelphia Flyers (21-19-7) are home on Sunday to take on Lindy Ruff's New Jersey Devils (14-27-6). Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 6 p.m. EDT. The game will be televised on NBCSP.
The two teams will be facing off all week. For the first time in the Flyers' regular season history, there will be four straight games against the same team. The Flyers and Devils will play games 4, 5, 6 and 7 of their eight-game season series between today and next Saturday. The teams will oppose each other at the Prudential Center on Tuesday and Thursday and then return to the Wells Fargo Center on May 1. The season series will conclude in Philadelphia on May 10; the final game of the season for both teams.
The Flyers are 2-1-0 against the Devils this season. Philadelphia earned 5-3 and 3-1 victories at the Prudential Center on January 26 and 28. The Devils skated to a 4-3 win at the Wells Fargo Center on March 23 as a late rally by the Flyers fell short.
Flyers Outlook
The Flyers split two road games with the New York Rangers on Thursday and Friday, winning 3-2 and losing 4-1. Oskar Lindblom notched the lone Flyers' goal in the latter game.
The Flyers will have a morning skate in Voorhees on Sunday morning. Lineups will be updated along with the status of injured goaltender Carter Hart (knee sprain) and injured forward Tanner Laczynski (hip).
Nolan Patrick exited the lineup on Friday following a one-game return for Thursday's game. Jackson Cates made his NHL debut in Patrick's spot, centering Lindblom and Nicolas Aube-Kubel on the fourth line.
The status of Shayne Gostisbehere, who appeared to get injured in Friday's game, is unclear as of this writing.
Devils Outlook
The Devils have been a better road team (10-10-3) than at home (4-17-3) this season. The club brings a nine-game losing streak overall into this match. Every loss has come in regulation.
New Jersey's last win was a 6-3 verdict over the Buffalo Sabres at the Prudential Center on April 8. Since then, in succession, the Devils lose back-to-back home games against the Pittsburgh Penguins (6-4 and 5-2), four in a row (home, road, road, home) to the New York Rangers by scores of 3-0, 4-0, 6-3 and 5-3, and then three in a row on the road against Pittsburgh (7-6, 4-1 and 5-2).
Both teams are playing for the third time in four nights. The only difference is that the Devils played the Penguins on Thursday and Saturday, while the Flyers had an off-day on Saturday following the back-to-back with the Rangers.
Projected lineups
FLYERS
28 Claude Giroux -14 Sean Couturier - 93 Jakub Voracek
86 Joel Farabee - 13 Kevin Hayes - 11 Travis Konecny
25 James van Riemsdyk - 21 Scott Laughton - 57 Wade Allison
23 Oskar Lindblom - 59 Jackson Cates - 19 Nolan Patrick
9 Ivan Provorov - 61 Justin Braun
6 Travis Sanheim - 8 Robert Hägg
55 Samuel Morin - 5 Phil Myers
37 Brian Elliott
[34 Alex Lyon]
PP1: Giroux, Couturier, Allison, Voracek, Gostisbehere
PP2: Hayes, Farabee, JVR, Konecny, Provorov
Scratches: 62 Nicolas Aube-Kubel (healthy), 53 Shayne Gostisbehere (MCL sprain, out 7-10 days from April 25), 79 Carter Hart (lower body), 58 Tanner Laczynski (hip).
Injured reserve: 48 Morgan Frost (shoulder surgery).
COVID-19 protocol: None.
DEVILS
11 Andreas Johnsson - 86 Jack Hughes - 17 Yegor Sharangovich
37 Pavel Zacha - 13 Nico Hischier - 63 Jesper Bratt
59 Janne Kuokkanen- 90 Jesper Boqvist - 39 Nick Merkley
44 Miles Wood - 20 Michael McLeod - 14 Nathan Bastian
22 Ryan Murray - 28 Damon Severson
8 Will Butcher - 5 Connor Carrick
2 Colton White - 7 Matt Tennyson
29 Mackenzie Blackwood
[41 Scott Wedgewood]
PP1: Hischier, Zacha, Hughes Merkley, Butcher
PP2: Jesper Bratt, Studenic/Kuokkanen, Sharangovich, Wood, Severson
Scratches: 67 Marian Studenic (healthy), 71 Jonas Siegenthaler (healthy), 23 Mikhail Maltsev (healthy), 47 Aaron Dell (healthy).
Injured reserve: 24 Ty Smith (upper body, doubtful).
COVID-19 protocol: 76 P.K. Subban (day-to-day).
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Sandström Backstops Phantoms Past Binghamton, 3-2
One night after the Lehigh Valley Phantoms captured a 4-2 road victory over the Binghamton Devils that was more dominant than the final score would suggest, the venue switched to the PPL Center in Allentown. This time, the Phantoms built a 3-0 lead and held on for a 3-2 victory but it was Binghamton that dictated the play and dominated puck possession for long stretches.
The difference in Saturday night's game was Phantoms goaltender Felix Sandström (37 saves on 39 shots). The 24-year-old Swedish netminder, who has largely struggled in his two seasons in North America, was outstanding on this evening. He made a slew of tough saves, particularly with his glove, with his net under siege in segments of the first period and for nearly the entire the third period.
The Phantoms took a 2-0 lead to the first intermission, despite getting outshot by an 11-6 margin and having to kill two penalties. Isaac Ratcliffe (1st goal of the season) made it 1-0 just 2:34 into the game when he blocked a shot near the blueline, went off on a breakaway and beat Mareks Mitens (19 saves on 22 shots). At 18:54, rookie right winger Tyson Foerster (9th) went to the net and poked home a loose puck after teammate Cal O'Reilly put the puck at the net.
O'Reilly's assist was the 497th of his AHL career, putting him in sole possession of 10th place in league history in that category.
The second period was a seesaw affair with the Phantoms outshooting the Devils by a 12-10 margin. Lehigh Valley had the better of the play in the opening half of the period but Binghamton came on as the frame progressed.
Several Phantoms players including Ryan Fitzgerald and rookie power forward Zayde Wisdom are still out of the lineup on the other side of a COVID-19 issue on the roster. Others such as Maksim Sushko are out with injuries. Meanwhile, Wade Allison and the injured Tanner Laczynski are on NHL recall to the Flyers. This has meant additional playing opportunities in Lehigh Valley for players such as Ralph Cuddemi, Brendan Saulnier and Tanner MacMaster.
At 6:57 of the second period, Cuddemi potted a rebound goal to build a 3-0 lead for the Phantoms. For the 27-year-old Cuddemi, who has spent most of his pro career in the ECHL, it was his first goal as a Phantom in seven games played and his third career AHL goal. The assists went to Saulnier (three points in eight games since joining Lehigh Valley from the ECHL's Rapid City Rush) and former Quinnipiac and Toronto Marlies forward MacMaster (two points in 11 games for the Phantoms).
Rookie defenseman Egor Zamula showed off his mobility and reach several times during Saturday's game, perhaps most notably in recovering after getting beaten to foil a breakaway attempt. Zamula also got a secondary assist on the Foerster goal.
Fellow rookie Cam York, the Flyers' first round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, has looked better in each of the last two games following a rough AHL debut against Hershey (in fairness, York had hardly skated in several weeks since his sophomore collegiate season ended abruptly with Michigan withdrawing from the Frozen Four tournament). York activated in the offensive zone several times on Saturday although he did not get a shot on goal.
At 10:24 of the second period, the Devils got on the scoreboard. Fabian Zetterlund won an offensive zone faceoff, and now-former Penn State forward Aarnie Talvitie claimed a Reilly Walsh rebound and scored to make it a 3-1 game.
The first career AHL goal by the 22-year-old Talvitie (the New Jersey Devils' sixth-round pick in the 2017 NHL Draft) seemed to energize the Devils. Sandström withstood a late period surge by Binghamton to get the game to the third period with the Phantoms leading by two goals.
In the third period, the Devils picked up -- and built upon -- where they left off. There was a lengthy stoppage of play for a repair to Sandström's mask. When play resumed, Binghamton scored immediately off the ensuing right circle faceoff between the Devils' Travis St. Denis and the Phantoms' O'Reilly.
O'Reilly tried to knock the puck forward and out of the defensive zone but, instead, put it right on the stick of Graeme Clarke (6th goal of the season). Clarke immediately fired off a shot that beat Sandström at 1:13. St. Denis was credited with the lone assist but the play probably should have been scored as an unassisted goal because it looked like the last player to touch the puck before Clarke was O'Reilly.
For the rest of the game, the Phantoms seemed to be hanging by a thread. Lehigh Valley rarely got the puck over the red line and their few offensive zone forays were one-and-done in nature. Meanwhile, Sandström was swarmed with waves of attack from Binghamton and had to fend off multiple quality scoring chances. In total, he made 17 saves on 18 shots in the final period to nail down the win. The Phantoms mustered just four shots in the final 20 minutes.
The Phantoms penalty kill, prior to a 16-day COVID-19 stoppage with four postponed games had been ranked No. 1 in the AHL with an 89-plus percent success rate. That ranking took a nosedive in Wednesday and Friday's games as Lehigh Valley gave up six PPGs in the two matches (Hershey went 3-for-7, Binghamton was 2-for-4). On Saturday, the Phantoms were 3-for-3 on the penalty kill but there were a few times where Sandström had to be his team's best PKer.
With the victory, the Phantoms improved to 14-4-3 on the season; it's a shame there won't be any Calder Cup playoffs played this season (although there's still a slim chance of divisional playoff setup). Binghamton dropped to 5-13-6.
The Phantoms and Devils will face off for a third straight game on Monday, with the venue switching back to the Barnabas Hockey House inside the Prudential Center in Newark. The is rescheduled game for the one that was halted after one period (tied at 1-1) on March 10, when it was learned that a Devils player in the starting lineup had tested positive for COVID-19. Originally, only the final 40 minutes were to played on April 26. However, it was subsequently decided to play a 60-minute game with the stats from the one-period game counting separately in both individual and team stats for the season.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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