To date during the 2013 NHL season, there have been 155 games in which a team has trailed after two periods. Thirty-four times, the trailing team has come back to win the game (18 times in overtime, 16 in regulation). In the other words, roughly 78 percent of the time, third-period comeback bids fall short.
Entering yesterday's game against the Winnipeg Jets, the Flyers were 0-7-0 when trailing after two periods. On this day, however, Philly wasn't going to be denied. Fighting back from deficits of 1-0 and 3-1, the Flyers skated off with a 5-3 victory.
The Flyers got off to a terrible start in the game, yielding the game's first goal and getting outshot by a 12-1 margin through the first half of the opening period.
Evander Kane forged a 1-0 lead for Winnipeg on a play where Nicklas Grossmann was left all alone to try to guard both sides of the slot. Nik Antropov centered a pass from behind the net to Kane, who had peeled away from Grossmann to skate near the right post (both the defenseman and Ilya Bryzgalov anticipated Antropov trying to come around to the other side with the puck). Antropov stopped and made a quick pass back in the direction where the puck had originally come. Kane had a slam dunk.
The first of three key jump off points for the Flyers to turn the tables came when Wayne Simmonds dropped the gloves with Chris Thornburn shortly after the nine-minute mark of the opening period. The fight itself was more or less a draw, but sparked some energy in the Flyers.
Over the remainder of the first period, the Flyers outshot Winnipeg, 16-0. More important, they tied the game on a Brayden Schenn power play goal. Simmonds picked up the second part of a Gordie Howe Hat Trick with a secondary assist on the play. Ondrej Pavelec made the initial stop on Simmonds but Danny Briere jabbed the puck free. Schenn quickly potted the rebound from the doorstep on the other side.
Philly came out nearly as flat in the second period as they did at the start of the opening stanza. Early in the period, Olli Jokinen executed a turnaround shot from the right circle that snuck through Bryzgalov and went into the net. On a day where Bryzgalov had an otherwise solid bounceback game from recent struggles, this was the goaltender's lone mistake. Bryzgalov went on to finish with 34 saves including numerous tough ones.
The Jets put a near stranglehold on the game midway through the second period. Alex Burmistrov won an offensive zone faceoff cleanly from Claude Giroux and skated to the high slot as the puck rotated from D-to-D. Burmistrov re-directed Grant Clitsome's shot past Bryzgalov.
The second key momentum-changing event of the game came about when the Flyers received a lengthy 5-on-3 power play opportunity after a Dustin Byfuglien high stick and a Jim Slater delay of game penalty on the next faceoff. After a couple of potential scoring chances went awry, Jakub Voracek rotated the puck to Kimmo Timonen. The defenseman then passed to Giroux high above the top of the left circle. Giroux blasted a shot through a Simmonds screen and past Pavelec to cut the deficit to one goal.
The third period was pretty even with the clubs at full strength but Philadelphia controlled the special teams battle. In the third and final key turning point of the game, the Flyers killed off a Ruslan Fedotenko hooking penalty -- the third of four successful penalty kills for Philly -- and then received a power play opportunity with a chance to tie the game.
The Flyers took full advantage of Winnipeg's struggling PK. Voracek threaded the needle with a beautiful centering pass to Brayden Schenn. The second year forward ripped home his second power play goal of the game to knot the score at 3-3.
Two shifts after the Flyers tied the score, an after-the-whistle scrum involving Scott Hartnell, Grossmann and Kane broke loose behind the Philadelphia net. Hartnell got a roughing minor but Kane got two separate minors (cross-checking and roughing) to put Philadelphia back on the power play.
Forty-eight seconds later, the Flyers had their third power play goal of the game to take the lead for the first time in the game. In a pretty sequence, Brayden Schenn passed to a wide open Simmonds, and the power forward completed his second Gordie of the week into a half-open net at the 8:57 mark.
There were still plenty of hockey left to play. The Flyers didn't so much slam the door as hang on. They killed off a late-game Braydon Coburn interference penalty and a last-minute shift in which it took them three tries to clear the defensive zone.
Finally, Zac Rinaldo broke loose and put the puck into the empty net with about two-tenths of a second remaining on the clock to seal the 5-3 win.
GAME NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS:
* If you want to get a good barometer of whether the Flyers won or lost a game this season, look first to their collective performance on special teams. In their 11 losses, the Flyers are 9.1 percent on the power play (4-for-44) and 75.6 percent (34-for-45) on the penalty kill. Conversely, in their 10 wins, the Flyers are a robust 34.2 percent (13-for-38) on the power play and 90 percent (36-for-40) on the PK.
* The return of Scott Hartnell from a broken bone in his foot came as a surprise to even some of his teammates. All indications were that the All-Star winger would be out about one more week with the injury. After laboring early in the game, Hartnell settled in and skated 14:54 over 23 shifts. Peter Laviolette did not use him on the power play.
* Danny Briere did not play for much of the second and early third period but eventually returned to the ice. He played 8:43 total and only 4:50 through the first two periods. At one point in the game, he appeared shaken up (and was cut in the mouth). He was also the culprit on a too many men on the ice penalty during a second-period power play, and served the penalty for the team.
* Jakub Voracek is richly deserving of NHL Player of the Week honors. With his three assists yesterday, he produced four goals and seven assists in four games over the past week. For his last 46 games as a Flyer (combined regular season and playoffs), Voracek has racked up 47 points. That's getting to be pretty extended period of time as a point-per-game player to simply dismiss his recent hot stretch as an anomaly.
* Brayden Schenn has registered at least one point in seven of his last nine games. Over that span, he has five goals and seven assists for 12 points.
* Believe it not, when Nicklas Grossmann was a member of the Dallas Stars, there were some who criticized him for not being "physical enough" for a defenseman his size (an assessment I always vehemently disagreed with, as he played the exact same way with the Stars that he has ever since coming to Philadelphia). Grossmann thinks positional play first but has NEVER been shy about taking the body when there's an opportunity to do so without getting out of position. Yesterday, he was credited with a season-high seven hits -- several of the bone-rattling variety -- and three blocks. He is tied with Brad Boyes for the NHL lead in blocked shots (48) and is sixth among all NHL defensemen with 49 credited hits. Teammate Luke Schenn leads with 60.
* If the Flyers are to defeat Toronto in tomorrow night's game, they would do well not to rely on about 25-30 minutes of good hockey to carry the day. One of the biggest keys to the Maple Leafs' resurgence this season has been the team's 60-minute work ethic.
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