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Wrap: Kings Crown Flyers, 5-3 |
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Kings Crown Flyers, 5-3
The Philadelphia Flyers dropped to 1-2-0 on their current six-game road trip as they fell, 5-3, to the LA Kings in a New Year's Eve clash at the Staples Center on Tuesday night. A disastrous first period and an awful night on special teams proved to be the Flyers' undoing. A third period pushback from the Flyers was too little and came too late.
Entering this game, the Kings had the worst combined special teams in the NHL (12.6 power play + 73.8 penalty kill) but shredded the Flyers for three power play goals and added a shorrhanded tally on top of it. In a single night, the Flyers' penalty kill dropped from a 6th-ranked 83.7 percent on the season to a 12th-ranked 81.6 percent. The Flyers did score one late power play goal but it scarcely made up for yielding one shorthanded goal (and very nearly a second) and for having such at atrocious night on the PK side.
The Kings roared out to a 4-0 lead in the first period on goals by Kyle Clifford (5th), Alex Iafallo (power play, 7th), Tyler Toffoli (power play, 11th) and Adrian Kempe (shorthanded, 8th).
Justin Braun (1st goal as a Flyer) got the Flyers on the board with 5:01 left in the second period on a shot that generated a friendly bounce into the net.
Martin Frk (power play, 3rd) put the Kings back ahead by four goals just 91 seconds into the third period. Claude Giroux (power play, 12th) converted a nice feed from Jakub Voracek, narrowing the gap to 5-2 and Scott Laughton
Brian Elliott was pulled after the first period, yielding four goals on 15 shots. He was also charged with two giveaways. Carter Hart went the rest of the way, turning back 13 of 14 shots.
Jonathan Quick earned the win for LA. He stopped 32 of 35 Flyers shots.
The first LA goal by Clifford was a stoppable one for Elliott, but the primary blame that period lay with the team in front of him. After Clifford's early goal, Iafallo scored a deflection power play goal, Toffoli stayed with the puck and scored on a second-effort play. Finally, after an ill-advised drop pass on a Flyers power play entry, Kempe scored on a 2-on-1 rush and made it look easy.
At the other end, the Flyers had 15 shots in the first period, but Quick was only truly tested a few times.
In the second period, Joel Farabee set up a great scoring chance for Mikhail Vorobyev. Later, although he didn't get a point on the play, Farabee took the D to the net and it paid off in some puck luck as Braun's shot deflected off a skate into the net to cut the Flyers' gap to 4-1.
With the Kings leading 4-0, Kurtis MacDermid's aggressive high hit on Ivan Provorov was the type that can backfire by energizing the other team. Thankfully, Provorov got right back up to his feet. Ditto a bad retaliatory roughing penalty on Austin Wagner that gave the Flyers a power play with a chance to draw within 4-2. Unfortunately, the best ensuing chances were a shorthanded solo bid by Jeff Carter and then one for Wagner, taking the puck away from Shayne Gostisbehere after exiting the penalty box. Luckily for the Flyers, Carter Hart came up with big saves on both.
The Flyers disastrous special teams night continued in the third period. Hart was heavily screened as Frk fired a shot home from the right circle to restore a four-goal cushion early in the third period.
After Giroux put home a perfect feed from Voracek, James van Riemsdyk had a golden opportunity to get the Flyers back within 2 goals. Quick shot out his pad to make his best save of the game. A Braun shot off Laughton's skate made it 5-3.
In his return to the Flyers lineup after his second trip to injured reserve this season, Scott Laughton won 10 of 14 faceoffs apart from scoring a goal. On the downside, Laughton took a pair of bad penalties that proved costly, resulting in the second and fifth LA goals.
Unfortunately for the Flyers, their regulation loss on Tuesday was combined with a Carolina Hurricanes victory. As a result, Philadelphia has dropped back into fifth place in the Metropolitan Division; lower wildcard position.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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