|
Wrap: Flyers Ground Jets, 3-1 |
|
|
|
|
|
Wrap: Flyers Ground Jets, 3-1
The Philadelphia Flyers started the post All-Star break portion of their schedule with a workmanlike 3-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets at the Wells Fargo Center on Monday night. The win was Philly's fourth in a row and fifth in their last six games (5-1-0).
With both teams coming off their bye week and the All-Star break, a sluggish start for both teams was to be expected. The Flyers got better as the game progressed and did an especially strong job in closing out the game in the third period before eventually getting an insurance marker.
"We’re confident in the way we’re playing, a lot of details and that third goal was huge, you don’t want to only be one goal up against a team like that and I think everybody did a good job tonight," Flyers captain Claude Giroux said.
Phil Varone (2nd), Travis Konecny (13th) and James van Riemsdyk (13th) scored for the Flyers. Michael Raffl (6th), Christian Folin (2nd), Andrew MacDonald (6th) and Konecny (15th) collected an assist apiece. Konency, selected the game's second star, was playing in his 200th NHL regular season game.
Carter Hart was outstanding in goal again for the Flyers. He stopped 31 of 32 shots to claim first-star honors. Hart was fluid and square to the shooters all game. His best stops came during a late first period power play for Winnipeg.
"We had an unbelievable third period, we didn’t give up much at all. To get some support like that in the third period is huge. In a crucial part of the game like that, we battled hard and we competed," Hart said.
Jack Roslovic (power play, 3rd) scored for the Jets. Jacob Trouba (20th) and Bryan Little (19th) earned assists.
Laurent Brossoit started in goal for Winnipeg. He played well and kept his team in the game when the Flyers started to take over in the 2nd and 3rd periods. Nevertheless, he was tagged for the loss with 28 saves on 31 shots.
The Flyers went 2-for-3 on the penalty kill and 0-for-2 on the power play.
Philly blocked 21 shots (Robert Hägg led with five) and were credited with 21 hits (Hägg led with four). Both halves of the top defensive pair of Ivan Provorov (28:03 TOI, two shots on goal, 3 hits, 3 blocks, 1 giveaway) and Travis Sanheim (21:33 TOI, two shots including a Grade A scoring chance, one hit, one block) played well.
At practice on Sunday, the Flyers did a video session and some on-ice work on their neutral zone forecheck. The Jets did a decent job of navigating the 1-2-2 neutral zone forecheck during junctures of the first period but neither team generated much inside the perimeter in the first period except after some early failed clears by the Flyers. Shots were 3-2 in Winnipeg's favor over a sloppy opening 10 minutes of the game with both teams exiting their bye week and the NHL All-Star break.
The teams traded off latter first period power plays. The Flyers were unable to generate entries or get set for most of the two minutes but did have an early chance for James van Riemsdyk moving across crease after a pass from Claude Giroux. Hart was tested much more frequently on Philly's first kill but authored tough saves on Mark Scheifele and Patrik Laine to keep the game scoreless with the Jets taking 56 seconds of carryover 5-on-4 time into the second period.
Shots in the scoreless first period were 11-8 in the Jets' favor.
Play opened up more in the second period. Overall shots for the middle frame were 7-4 in Winnipeg's favor through the first 8:30 of the period.
Finally, the Flyers' fourth line delivered a hard-working shift that produced the game's first goal at 9:47 of the middle frame. Parked on the doorstep, Phl Varone swept home a rebound of a Raffl deflection for his 2nd goal as a Flyer. The secondary assist went to Christian Folin for his shot from the point, but it was Mikhail Vorobyev who got the sequence started with a nice pass out of the corner.
"Foles made a great play in the middle in the neutral zone. Sometimes you just try to get to the net and good things will happen. So, I kind of stopped at the top of the blue paint and it was a great play by Misha and Foles and the puck landed on my tape. I wouldn’t say it was a relief but it’s nice to score and contribute a little bit. For the minutes you get you want to be able to do something to show that you belong and show that you’re contributing to the team. That one felt good, for sure," Varone said.
Late on their second power play of the game, the Jets knotted the score at 1-1. Hart had no chance to stop a Roslovic deflection of a Trouba shot. Bryan Little got the secondary assist at 12:59.
Philly restored a lead at 18:46 of the second period. Konecny deftly redirected an Andrew MacDonald point shot past Brossoit. Through two periods, shots were 23-20 in Winnipeg's favor.
The Flyers ended the middle frame on the power play, with 1:56 of carryover time. The Flyers' van Riemsdyk had a Grade A scoring chance on the carryover power play but Brossoit denied him alone in point blank range. As the man advantage expired, the Winnipeg netminder made a save on Konecny with Patrick at the doorstep looking to jam it home. Back at 5-on-5, a great pass by JVR sent Couturier in one-on-one with Brossoit but Couturier ran out of room at left post and jammed his shot attempt off the side of the net.
Through the first 10:42 of the third period shots were were 7-6 in the Flyers favor (29-27 overall in Winnipeg's favor). The Flyers continued to do a very strong close-out job; winning the majority of the puck battles, breaking out of their defensive zone cleanly, creating some counterattacks and also establish forechecking pressure up ice to make life harder on the Jets.
"I think we have gotten a level of consistency of doing those types of things, part of it is playing with a lead going into the third period, to know that you don’t have to sell the farm trying to get a goal and win the game, so that part has been consistently getting better, particularly the last 6 games and we just have to be mindful of that moving forward," said Flyers interim head coach Scott Gordon.
Finally, the Flyers diligence paid off as they capitalized on a turnover to notch an insurance goal at 16:25. On a counter from the blueline in, van Riemdyk worked a nice give-and-go with Konecny and had a slam dunk on the tape-to-tape return pass.
The Jets pulled Broissoit for an extra attacker. Couturier and Scott Laughton had attempts at the empty net but missed the mark. The Jets went offside in the waning seconds. The buzzer sounded to bring the game to a close.
Shayne Gostisbehere had to leave the pregame warmup with a lower-body injury that Gordon described as bruise. While out for Tuesday's game at Madison Square Garden, there is a decent chance he is ready for Thursday's game in Boston and will almost definitely be ready by Saturday, according to Gordon. Folin dressed in Gostisbehere's place. With the Flyers going into the second match of a back-to-back and the middle segment of a 3-in-4 stretch, Anthony Stolarz will get the start in goal against the New York Rangers.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
Join the Discussion:
»