In dire need of all the points they can get, the Philadelphia Flyers settled for one point instead of two last night after dropping a 2-1 overtime decision to the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Flyers nursed a 1-0 lead until the latter half of the second period but late penalty trouble and an overtime goal by Tyler Kennedy combined to extend Pittsburgh's winning streak to 12 games.
Unlike the river hockey style that has characterized many recent Flyers-Penguins games, last night's tilt was a relatively tight-checking affair for much of the first two periods. There were still scoring chances and breakdowns on both sides, but neither club shot the puck particularly well in this game. In addition, Ilya Bryzgalov (33 saves) had a very strong game in net during regulation. Marc-Andre Fleury (27 saves) allowed a weak-looking goal by Claude Giroux but otherwise made all the stops for Pittsburgh.
Both clubs were missing key personnel from their lineups. The Penguins remained without Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, while the Flyers' lineup was missing Danny Briere and Nicklas Grossmann. Briere and Grossmann are day-to-day with upper body injuries sustained at practice.
Giroux's power play goal at the 14:09 mark of the second period was a bit of a fortunate goal for the Flyers. The man advantage had not gone especially well for Philly until the goal was scored. Giroux's pass attempt was blocked but came right back to him. He shot the puck immediately, although without much velocity on it. The shot fooled Fleury and went into the net.
In the third period, the Flyers had a few solid stretches of play where they made the Penguins work hard to get up the ice but also had some problems with failed clears that prolonged Pittsburgh's puck possession time in the offensive zone. When there was a scoring chance, Bryzgalov had the answer.
There were only two penalties called -- one minor aside -- in the first 52 minutes of play. Then the Flyers' Wayne Simmonds (slashing Pittsburgh defenseman Brooks Orpik) and Kimmo Timonen (hooking Chris Kunitz to prevent a power play scoring chance) were sent to the box 23 seconds apart, creating a lengthy 5-on-3 for Pittsburgh. At this point, the Flyers were in damage control mode.
During the ensuing two-man advantage, Sidney Crosby wired home a vicious one-timer to tie the game at 1-1. The Flyers survived the remainder of the 5-on-4 penalty to keep the game tied.
Late in regulation, with about 1:30 left on the clock, the Flyers had a horrific defensive breakdown that very nearly cost them the game in regulation. The team yielded a two-on-one down low to Dustin Jeffrey and Matt Cooke that looked like a sure-fire goal. Luckily for Philly, Jeffrey's last moment pass attempt went off defender Andrej Meszaros and skittered harmlessly away.
In overtime, the Flyers had some extended puck possession time in the Pittsburgh end of the ice but Meszaros was unable to get the puck past Fleury as he crashed the net. Pittsburgh went the other way and scored moments later. Kennedy faked a slapper and froze the defense and then wristed a perfect shot high to the short side over Bryzgalov. You never like to see a goalie beaten to the short side, and perhaps Bryzgalov could have made himself a little bigger in his net on the play, but this was more a case of the shooter deserving credit than the goaltender deserving blame.
The Flyers' best line in this game was the trio of Simmonds, Simon Gagne and Brayden Schenn. They generated the most consistent pressure and created about four or five good scoring chances. Unfortunately, they struggled to finish off the plays.
The 2013 Philadelphia-Pittsburgh season series was a hard fought one, with all four games up for grabs until the very end. Unfortunately for the Flyers, Pittsburgh prevailed in three of the games. Philly twice failed to nail down games they left after two periods.
The Flyers, who have a 4-12-1 road record and 9-4-1 home mark, now return home for a five-game homestand. First up is John Tortorella's New York Rangers on Tuesday night.
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