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Wrapup: Flyers Dominate, Blank Isles, 4-0 |
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WRAPUP: FLYERS DOMINATE AND BLANK ISLANDERS, 4-0
The Philadelphia Flyers continued to put an 0-3-0 post-Christmas California road trip in the rearview mirror as they churned out an impressively complete effort to down the New York Islanders, 4-0, at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday afternoon.
The Flyers (18-15-7) have now pulled back to where they were heading into the holiday break. New York (22-15-5) fell to 1-3-0 in the month of January.
Matt Read, who has played strong hockey since sitting out one game as a healthy scratch, led the way offensively with a goal and two assists. The Flyers also got a goal and an assist from Sean Couturier and tallies by Evgeny Medvedev (four-on-four) and Michael Raffl.
There is something about playing against the Islanders that agrees Read. In his 21st career game versus New York, Read notched his 11th goal and 16th, 17th and 18th points. That is his best against any NHL opponent; next best is his 13 points in 19 career games against the Carolina Hurricanes.
"I took a game off to realize where my game was. I had to get back to playing smart and with speed, and that’s something that maybe I’ve lacked this last little bit. I just kind of focused on skating well out there and supporting my linemates. In Minnesota and tonight, things are kind of going our way and we’re in the offensive zone a lot, and we’re getting chances," Read said.
In the meantime, Couturier has enjoyed one of the best 10-game stretches of his career from an offensive standpoint. Over the last 10 games, he has posted 12 points (six goals, six assists).
”I think I’m a little more confident with the puck, trying to make some plays, trying to create some plays when there’s not much. It’s been working out pretty well and I have to just keep being the player that I am. I’m always going to be a 200 foot guy where I’m solid defensively but when I have the chance to go on offense I’ve got to jump on it, and that’s what I’ve been doing," Couturier said.
Steve Mason only saw two shots in the first period but was very sharp as he went on to make 20 saves and earn his third shutout (fourth regulation shutout) of the season. Mason was strong in his puck tracking and rebound control and came up with some clutch stops while the outcome of the game was still in doubt.
“I did feel sharp," Mason said. "You try to make every move with a purpose. You want to be as crisp as possible. Right from the starting faceoff, I felt sharp and kind of great for the whole game, even though there weren’t a ton of shots. The shots that were coming, I was on top of it.”
Losing netminder Jaroslav Halak let in a couple leaky goal among the four he yielded on 20 shots. He also did not get much help in front of him.
Even without the services of dynamic rookie offensive defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere, Philadelphia took full advantage of an Islanders' defense that was missing top two defensemen Johnny Boychuk. Starting from the first shift of the game, the Flyers made life tough on New York. All four Philadelphia lines controlled the boards and cycled the puck at will, wearing down the Islanders.
Although much of the second period was spent on special teams and four-on-four, the Flyers never fell out of their rhythm when sustained full strength play finally resumed. The Flyers went 0-for-5 on the power play (although they did generate some good looks at the net and scored the game's first goal a few seconds after a power play expired) and were 3-for-3 on the penalty kill. Lastly, Philly dominated in faceoffs, winning 61 percent (34-for-56) for the game. Couturier (11-for-16) and Claude Giroux (12-for-20) led the way.
"I thought each one of our groups -- you have to have your defensemen included in that -- I thought it was a responsible effort. The first shift did set the tone for tonight’s hockey game and sometimes you come out of a first period where we felt like we played pretty well and had some good opportunities, and we weren’t able to capitalize. Sometimes that can backfire on you but it didn’t tonight. Our guys stuck with it and made good things happen," Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol said.
The Flyers' top line opened the game by pinning the Islanders in their own end for an extended period of time and generating two shots. Halak finally melted play down for a stoppage at the 1:07 mark. Shortly after that, Brandon Manning had a golden scoring chance from the left circle after Voracek went around and found the defenseman.
Mason's first save of the game came at the 5:08 mark. The Flyers' goalie cleanly gloved a 30-foot snapshot by Nikolay Kulemin over the middle off the rush.
Manning made a nice one-on-one stop on the against Anders Lee. A once-promising rush for the Islanders fizzled out.
The Frans Nielsen line generated the team's best early pressure,coming close on a couple chances around the eight-minute mark but missing the net a couple times. The Isles later had a great scoring chances on a 3-on-2 rush but Josh Bailey missed the net as he arrived to receive the pass and attempt to direct it home near the doorstep at 13:38.
With 38.7 seconds left, Nick Leddy took a silly interference penalty with a hit on Chris VandeVelde along the offensive zone boards. The Flyers took 1:22 of carryover power play time into the second period.
Shots in the first period were 11-2 in the Flyers' favor. Attempts were 25-11 in Philadelphia's favor. The Flyers blocked five shots (Matt Read led with two) and the Islanders missed the net four times.
The Flyers did nothing with the remaining power play time but scored shortly after the man advantage. Read and Sean Couturier did some great work low in the offensive zone and a trailing Raffl skated untouched into the right slot to take a feed from Couturier (who took a hit to make the play) and score.
Officially, Raffl's sixth goal of the season was assisted by Couturier and Read at 1:27.
R.J. Umberger took a delay of game penalty at 3:19 for accidentally sending the puck over the defensive zone glass. Mason made a good save right off the first faceoff of the PK. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare ragged about 10 seconds off the clock as he occupied the puck in the offensive zone. Giroux laid out to block a shot and then Mason shot off a high glove side attempt to the short side. With eight seconds left on the kill, Mason froze a puck near the post to his left.
The Flyers went right back to the penalty kill. Scott Laughton was called for a neutral zone roughing penatly at 6:38. After a television timeout, the Isles sent their rested first power play unit on the ice. Ryan White emphatically blocked a John Tavares shot attempt. With 32 seconds left in the kill, New York's Mikhail Grabovsky ran into Mason as he attempted to go to the net to receive a Leddy pass. Instead, he received a goaltender interference penalty.
With the teams skating four-on-four, Medvedev took a drop pass up high in the offensive zone, skated into the left circle and wristed a shot through Halak's five-hole. Read and Del Zotto got the assists on Medvedev's third goal of the season at 8:33.
During the ensuing abbreviated Flyers power play, Halak managed to squeeze the pads to keep a Voracek one-timer from the right circle from leaking through into the net. The Flyers got a four-second five-on-three power play as Casey Cizikas got a hooking penalty at 10:02. Giroux won the ensuing faceoff but Streit hit the post through traffic on a point shot.
Philadelphia did not score on the Cizikas minor. As the penalty expired, Medvedev was penalized for high-sticking Cal Clutterbuck near the Philadelphia blueline at 12:06. The penalty parade continued as Anders Lee was sent off for tripping right off the first faceoff at 12:09. Play went right back to four-on-four.
On a play set up on a bouncing puck, the luckless Voracek had the puck sitting for him in the crease with a yawning net but wasn't able to get to it in time before being tied by the defense.
With 5:44 left in the period, Nielsen went off for cross-checking. Philadelphia went back to the power play yet again. Yet again, they did not score with the man advantage.
The Laughton line had a strong cycling shift in the Islanders' end, enabling the Giroux line to get out against tired defenders. Voracek buzzed around dangerously but the Isles' held on to get the puck out and get a line change.
Shots in the second period were 10-8 Flyers (21-10 Flyers through two periods).
Philadelphia continued its patient cycling game in the third period, making life tough on the undermanned Islanders' defense. At the other end of the ice, Mason had a good stop on a 30-foot Tavares snap shot for his 14th save of the game at the 6:09 mark.
Much of the next few minutes were played in the neutral zone. Philly took an icing with 12:06 left in the period. Nothing dangerous ensued but it took the Flyers another 40 seconds or so of game play to get the puck over the red line again. The Couturier line then had another good cycling shift. Shortly thereafter, the Laughton line followed suit.
The Flyer lead grew to 3-0 at the end of the Laughton line shift. The center forced a neutral zone turnover and after Mark Streit got the puck to Read, the winger fired a left circle wrister that squeezed through a challenging Halak and into the net. At the 10:58 mark, Streit and Laughton got the helpers on Read's sixth goal of the season.
Mason made a tough save in close on Hickey with about seven minutes left. The Flyers maintained their three-goal lead. He then stopped a pinching Leddy from the right circle. With 5:04 left, Halak came up with a good save on Schenn as he weaved into the left circle.
The game turned into a blowout with 4:46 left. Gudas fired a right point shot into traffic that Couturier tipped to beat Halak. Originally credited to Gudas, the goal was changed after the game to Couturier's ninth of the season. Gudas and Raffl got the assists. After the scoring change, Schenn lost an originally credited secondary assist.
With 4:14 left, Manning and Lee dropped the gloves in the Flyers' zone.
Mason picked a side angle Nielsen shot through some traffic with 1:13 left for his 18th save and then fought off a point blast as the Isles won the draw. He fought off one final long-range shot by in the final 10 seconds to complete a 20-save shutout.
Final shots were 31-20 in the Flyers' favor. Shot attempts were 66-45 in Philly's favor. The Flyers will take an off-day on Sunday and then resume practice on Monday. The team will have three nights off before the Boston Bruins come to town for a nationally televised Wedneday Night Rivalry game.
“I think it’s happened to us before where we have kind of come back after a break not great so we were talking about that a little bit right now. We got to take care of ourselves. We got a little momentum here. We got to make sure we are ready to go Wednesday and realize how we played tonight," Flyers defenseman Nick Schultz said.
"We can look at how we played and the things we did well and we got to carry that on in our next game. Take care of ourselves the next few days. Make sure that we are ready.”
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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