Long before the opening faceoff is dropped, there are particular games on the schedule where the deck seems stacked in favor of one side and against the other. When one side has had two or more nights off and the other is playing on back-to-back nights and playing in their third different city within less than 96 hours, the latter club had better circle the wagons if it to have a realistic chance to hold up through 60 minutes of hockey.
Over the course of the season, every club is faced with a handful of such games. Good energy management is absolutely critical to winning such games: keep shifts intense but short, stay out of the penalty box and support one another with and without and puck. There may not be a lot of scoring chances, especially in the third period, so it's even more important than usual to be opportunistic offensively.
A strong game from the starting goaltender is also a must. There will inevitably be a few shifts (especially late in periods) where the legs start to feel heavy and the opposition gets a flurry of chances.
Last night in Winnipeg, the Flyers followed that winning script very well for the most part. The result was a hard-fought 3-2 win in a chippy game. Philly got two goals against starter Al Montoya and one against Ondrej Pavelec, who took over for the third period.
The Brayden Schenn line produced two even strength goals (one by Schenn, one by Tye McGinn) set up beautifully by Jakub Voracek, who has six points in his last five games. Philly's struggling road power play clicked one time against the Jets' league-worst penalty killing, as Kimmo Timonen wristed home a shot that deflected off a defenseman with Wayne Simmonds (assist, five shots on goal) creating havoc on the doorstep.
Importantly, the Flyers never had to chase the game at any point last night. They scored first, forged a 2-1 lead in the middle stanza and then got an insurance goal (which proved to be much-needed) in the third period. Until taking a pair of successive late-game penalties, the Flyers did a masterful job at staying out of the penalty box and being able to roll all four forward lines.
Claude Giroux did not break free from his five-on-five offensive doldrums last night, and he was on the ice for both Winnipeg goals. However, he got the primary assist on Timonen's power play goal and once again won the majority of his faceoffs. Linemates Simmonds and Matt Read buzzed around the offensive zone frequently, although the line did not put a puck in the net.
Above all, Ilya Bryzgalov was a tower of strength in goal for the Flyers. Although he did not face an especially high number of shots (26), many were of the difficult variety. The momentum saves were made when needed. The goalie was beaten twice by Winnipeg captain Andrew Ladd, but both of those were lunchpail efforts by the Jets where the goalie could not be faulted.
You can look up and down the lineup last night and point to at least one good play that everyone in the lineup made to contribute to the victory. This was a night where the foot soliders were every bit as important to the win as the top-of-the-lineup guys.
McGinn had two-thirds of a Gordie Howe hat trick. Before scoring his third goal of the season (and second of the road trip), he stood up for teammate Voracek and fought Mark Stuart, who went after Voracek in defense of Montoya after Voracek collided with the goaltender well outside the net. McGinn took a few glancing punches early in the fight and then rallied to win decisively.
For instance, Zac Rinaldo drew two power plays for his team. He steadfastly avoided giving the referees any reason to penalize him, and actually deserved to have created a third power play (he beat Dustin Byfuglien in a puck battle behind the net and nearly stuffed the puck inside the post; at the whistle, a flustered Byfuglien elbowed Rinaldo in the head and then slashed him on his way down to the ice). In the third period, Rinaldo laid out and blocked a shot during a scramble near the Philadelphia net.
Ruslan Fedotenko hit a goal post in his bid for second goal of the season but played a strong all-around game. He was good on the boards and relieved some pressure in the defensive zone.
Minor-league callup Harry Zolnierczyk injected some of his blazing speed and agitating presence into the lineup in his first NHL game of the 2013 season. He generated a breakaway opportunity, which he was not able to finish off against Montoya. He had a pair of blocked shots and a pair of hits.
In the meantime, the blueline corps bounced back from a terrible night in Toronto. Timonen scored a goal and helped calm things down at some shaky junctures. Luke Schenn had a game-high seven hits. Braydon Coburn had a couple of bad shifts (two giveaways and a coverage mixup) but mostly good ones, and led all players with four blocks.
Defensive defenseman Nicklas Grossmann bounced back from what may have been his worst game (certainly his worst period) as a Flyer. Last night, he had two hits, including one where he nearly put Alexander Burmistrov through the boards, a key blocked shot during a defensive zone scramble, a deflected pass on a two-on-one down low and 3:13 worth of strong penalty killing time.
At one juncture in the third period, Ilya Bryzgalov gave Grossmann a hug at the end of a shift that easily could have resulted in a Winnipeg goal. It was actually Rinaldo that blocked the shot, but Grossmann was right behind him and would have had it if eluded the sliding forward.
As with a couple of previous games, Peter Laviolette skipped Bruno Gervais (15:12 of ice time) or Kurtis Foster (14:02) on a few even-strength shifts, opting to double-shift one of his top four defensemen. Even so, they were not liabilities in this game.
Gervais made a couple of tape-to-tape breakout passes under pressure from Jets forecheckers. The threat of Foster's big shot (although he didn't get any on goal last night) at least forced Jets defenders to respect it, and spread out the operating room on the offensive side of the ice.
The Flyers return home today, and will take the rest of the day off. Tomorrow, they will practice in Voorhees. Come Friday, the team starts out another tough three-in-four stretch of road games. They start in Newark to take on the New Jersey Devils. On Saturday, the team visits the Montreal Canadiens. On Monday afternoon, they play a President's Day matinee against the New York Islanders.
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