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Wrap: Flyers Edge Blues in OT, 4-3; Phantoms Update |
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Wrap: Flyers Edge Blues in OT, 4-3
The Philadelphia Flyers prevailed, 4-3, in overtime against the defending Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues in a hard-fought thriller on Wednesday night. The Flyers went 3-1-0 in a four-game gauntlet against elite-grade opposition while the Blues saw a nine-game home winning streak end.
With the win, the Flyers moved into a points tie with upper-wildcard seeded Carolina. However, the Hurricanes, idle on Wednesday, hold both a tiebreaker edge and a game in hand on the Flyers. The Florida Panthers, also idle on Wednesday, are three points behind the Flyers but hold two games in hand.
Justin Faulk (power play, 4th) opened the scoring with the lone goal of the first period. The Flyers answered back for second period tallies by Tyler Pitlick (5th) and Michael Raffl (5th). Travis Konecny (power play, 15th) built a 3-1 lead in the opening half minute of the third period. In the latter half of the period, Ryan O'Reilly (9th) and Alex Steen (4th) scored roughly three minutes apart to knot the score at 3-3.
In overtime, Jakub Voracek (9th) won the game on the only shot on goal for either team. One shift earlier, Scott Laughton hit the post; one of four by Philly in the game.
Brian Elliott earned the win against his former team with 31 saves on 33 shots. Jordan Binnington took the loss, stopping 21 of 25 shots.
The Flyers stepped up special teams in the game, killing 5 of 6 Blues' power plays including a lengthy 5-on-3 in the third period. The Flyers went 1-for-2 on the power play.
Overall, the Flyers didn't play a bad first period. They defended well at five-on-five and generated solid puck possession for much of period. But most of their better looks did not end up on Binnington's net.
Matt Niskanen took an unnecessary holding penalty, and then Phil Myers roamed too far as he slid himself way out of position in the same corner that Ivan Provorov was already working. The result was a gaping passing lane for Alex Steen to feed an open Justin Faulk for the game's first goal at 14:24 of the first period.
Philly did very little with its own first power play, and the Flyers went to the first intermission with a 1-0 deficit and a 14-8 shot disadvantage.
The early portion the second period -- the first seven minutes or so -- belonged to the Blues. Elliott had to come up big several times, but none bigger than his breakaway save on Zach Sanford after Myers was trapped up up ice, and Claude Giroux (covering up high in the offensive zone with Myers pinching) was beaten on the counter. Going back to the first period, the Flyers went 13+ minutes between shots on goal, but Elliott kept the Flyers in the game.
As the second period moved along, the Flyers at first stabilized things and then began to dominate for a stretch. The Flyers had a slew of good looks at the net, and three shooters (Sean Couturier, Matt Niskanen and Jakub Voracek) hit goal posts. Finally, the Flyers broke through with a pair of goals.
At 12:43, Pitlick scored on a wraparound attempt that bounced in off David Perron. The assists went to Laughton and Niskanen. Then, at 15:43, Raffl potted a Robert Hägg rebound to establish a 2-1 lead. Sean Couturier earned the secondary assist.
Second period shots ended up 9-8 in the Flyers favor. Konecny occupied the puck on the boards in the defensive zone as the final seconds ticked off the clock. A scrum ensued after the buzzer, and Perron received a cross-checking minor for going up high on Konecny in retaliation.
It's hard to work a double-netfront presence on a power play better than the Flyers did on Konecny's early third period goal that temporarily put the Flyers ahead 1-1. It was a set play, with James van Riemsdyk nicely redirecting a setup from Claude Giroux and Konecny getting a slam-dunk at the opposite post at the 26-second mark.
Shortly thereafter, the Flyers executed a 5-on-3 penalty kill about as well as can be done. In 1:49 of two-man disadvantage time, Philly held the Blues to a single shot. Later, the Flyers would have to kill off two additional penalties; a bad stick-slashing call against Nicolas Aube-Kubel and a had-to-call too many men penalty.
At 10:35 of the third period, O'Reilly worked his way past Sanheim to take a feed from ex-Flyer Brayden Schenn and score on his own rebound against Elliott. At 13:39, a wide open Steen took a centering pass from Robert Thomas and beat Elliott from the dead slot. Jaden Schwartz also got an assist. Killing the too-many-men penalty late in the period helped Philly get the game to OT with one point in the bank and trying for a second.
Wednesday's OT was much more methodical than the breakneck, frenetic style of the overtime against Boston two nights earlier, where the teams raced end-to-end trading off scoring chances. Finally, at 3:33, this game came to an end: a well-orchestrated rush by Ivan Provororv (who had a monster game all around in 27:14 of ice time) and a perfect finish by Voracek.
The defense pairing of Travis Sanheim and Phil Myers had some good shifts in the game, making nice good plays up ice and coming up with shot blocks as well as tremendous neutral zone hip check by Myers. However, there were also a few too many not-so-good shifts on this night, wh risky plays or misreads ended up in the Flyers net. On the game-tying goal by Steen, the Flyers could have also used help guarding the house in front by center Kevin Hayes; both D engaged elsewhere and the netfront area was left wide open.
No matter what happened, to a man on both sides, the teams kept plowing forward which made for a very dramatic and tense game. The momentum swings were palpable.
Now the Flyers return home to play the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday, and must avoid a letdown game after claiming six of eight possible points against Washington, Tampa Bay (a 1-0 loss that came down to a single puck bounce), Boston and St. Louis. Both previous games with the Canadiens went to overtime before the Flyers prevailed, so Thursday's game is hardly a gimme.
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PHANTOMS PREVAIL OVER SYRACUSE, 5-4
Goals have been very hard to come by this season for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, particularly since the start of December. However, the team has now won three games in a row. Coming off back-to-back shutout wins on home ice this past weekend, the Phantoms prevailed over the visiting Syracuse Crunch (Tampa Bay Lightning affiliate) on Wednesday in a high-scoring, 5-4, affair.
Early on the game, it was visible that Phantoms rookie Morgan Frost was up on his skates. For Frost, moving his feet consistently, playing with pace and getting to the greasy areas are things he does when he's piling up points and things he has not done consistently during stretches where points come on a few here and there basis.
On Wednesday, Frost enjoyed his first two-goal game in the AHL. At 7:47 of the first period, he scored on a follow-up play near the net to put the Phantoms ahead, 2-1. In the third period, Frost put the Phantoms ahead to stay with a highlight-reel power play rush from end-to-end, beating a neutral zone defender, splitting the D inside the blueline and then taking the puck to the house and beating goalie Spencer Martin.
An AHL All-Star Game selection, Frost now has eight goals and 17 points in 23 games with Lehigh Valley this season. Since being returned to the AHL by the Phantoms, he has three goals and five points in seven games. None of his first three games were very good but he's been reassembling his game and regaining confidence gradually with each passing game since.
The Phantoms also received goals from Maksim Sushko (7th), Max Willman (1st in the AHL) and veteran Greg Carey (power play, 10th). Chris Bigras and Eric Knodel each had two assists for the Phantoms, and Kyle Criscuolo, Pascal Laberge, Cal O'Reilly and goalie J-F Berube each chipped in an assist.
For Syracuse, ex-Phantom Danick Martel had a goal (13th) and assist, as did Alex Barre-Boulet (16th). Ross Colton (8th) and Cory Conacher (14th) each added a goal. Frost's former linemates on the OHL's Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, Boris Katchouk and Taylor Raddysh (who play on separate lines in Syracuse) had an assist apiece.
Berube stopped 23 of 27 shots to earn the win. Martin stopped 28 of 33 shots at the other end.
Next up for the Phantoms: On Friday, Lehigh Valley will host the Binghamton Devils (17-17-4) at the PPL Center.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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