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Flyers Gameday: 3/25/21 vs. NYR; Phantoms, NCAA Updates |
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GAME 32: FLYERS VS. RANGERS
Alain Vigneault's Philadelphia Flyers (15-12-4) are home on Thursday to take on David Quinn's New York Rangers (14-13-4). Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 7:00 p.m. EDT. The game will be televised on NBCSP.
Thursday's game is the first of a two-game set between the clubs and will be the firth and sixth of eight meetings this season. The Flyers are 2-1-1 against the Rangers this season but three of the four games have gone beyond regulation, with the Rangers winning one via shootout and the Flyers winning two in overtime. On March 17 at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers dealt out one of the most lopsided and humiliating blowout defeats the Flyers have suffered in franchise history: a 9-0 thrashing. The game included seven unanswered Rangers in a second period nightmare for Philadelphia. Mika Zibanejad scored a natural hat trick.
Flyers Outlook
March in general has been an awful month of hockey for the Flyers, who have just four of 13 games. On Tuesday, on the heels of putting forth of their two best 60-minute efforts of the season one night earlier in a 2-1 overtime loss to the Islanders, the Flyers reverted to their too-frequent form in a 4-3 loss to the New Jersey Devils.
Attention-to-detail lapses and costly turnovers dug a 4-1 hole from which the Flyers were unable to recover despite a desperation third-period comeback bid that featured a pair of goals from Sean Couturier (seventh and eighth goals, 20th and 21st points in 20 games played).
The Flyers had an off-day on Wednesday. There will be a morning skate in Voorhees today.
Rangers Outlook
New York has won back-to-back games heading into this match, and three of their last four to move within two points of the Flyers. Both teams, however, are below the playoff cutoff line in the East Division.
Chris Kreider, who tallied a hat trick in Philly earlier this season, is tied for sixth in the NHL with his 16 goals to date this season. Adam Fox, who missed the game in the Flyers overtime win at MSG, has been outstanding in the games since his return. Meanwhile, Ryan Strome brings a six-game, eight-point (1g, 7a) streak into this tilt. Pavel Buchenich leads the Rangers with 29 points (11g, 18a) in 30 games. The deadly Artemi Panarin (28 points in 20 games) has nine points in his last five games and has racked up six points (2g, 4a) plus a shootout goal in three games against Philadelphia this season.
A 40-goal scorer last year, Zibanejad had a miserable time converting scoring chances for the first two-plus months of the season. The dam burst in his three-goal, three-assist performance against the Flyers at MSG the last time the teams played. He had a goal and an assist against the Capitals on March 20 and a helper against Buffalo on Monday.
Igor Sheshterkin missed time (including the last two games against the Flyers) due to a groin issue. However, he has returned to practice and could start tonight.
Leaguewide, due to the compacted schedule and COVID-related rescheduled games, there are not many on-paper fatigue-factor advantage games this season. However, the Rangers have a bit of one heading into tonight. New York has played just once in the last four nights, including back-to-back off-nights on the schedule on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Flyers rested yesterday but are still playing their eighth game in 11 nights and fourth game in the last six nights.
Projected lineups
FLYERS
25 James van Riemsdyk - 24 Sean Couturier - 86 Joel Farabee
28 Claude Giroux - 13 Kevin Hayes - 93 Jake Voracek
23 Oskar Lindblom - 19 Nolan Patrick - 11 Travis Konecny
12 Michael Raffl - 21 Scott Laughton - 62 Nicolas Aube-Kubel
9 Ivan Provorov - 61 Justin Braun
6 Travis Sanheim - 5 Phil Myers
55 Sam Morin - 53 Shayne Gostisbehere
79 Carter Hart
[37 Brian Elliott]
PP1: Giroux, Patrick, Farabee, Voracek, Provorov.
PP2: Hayes, Couturier, JVR, Konecny, Gostisbehere.
Scratches: 56 Erik Gustafsson (healthy).
Injured reserve: 8 Robert Hägg (shoulder, 2-4 weeks from 3/17/21), 48 Morgan Frost (shoulder surgery).
COVID-19 protocol: None.
RANGERS
20 Chris Kreider - 93 Mika Zibanejad – 89 Pavel Buchnevich
10 Artemi Panarin - 16 Ryan Strome - 24 Kaapo Kakko
13 Alexis Lafreniere - 72 Filip Chytil - 12 Julien Gauthier
48 Brendan Lemieux - 17 Kevin Rooney - 43 Colin Blackwell
55 Ryan Lindgren - 23 Adam Fox
79 K'Andre Miller - 8 Jacob Trouba
25 Libor Hajek - 42 Brendan Smith
31 Igor Shesterkin
[40 Alexandar Georgiev]
PP1: Panarin, Zibanejad, Kreider, Strome, Fox.
PP2: Kakko, Chyti, Buchnevich, Miller, Trouba.
Scratches: 33 Phil Di Giuseppe (COVID recovery), 64 Vitali Kravtsov (healthy).
Injured reserve: 27 Jack Johnson (hand surgery).
COVID-19 protocol: 21 Brett Howden.
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Phantoms Lose to Hershey, 6-2
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms saw a three-game winning streak go by the wayside and suffered their first home loss of the season as they were dealt a 6-2 loss by the Hershey Bears on Wednesday night at the PPL Center in Allentown.
The Phantoms dominated the first period and also had an edge in the early minutes of the second, but then the game went sideways in a hurry as the Bears scored four straight goals. A comeback bid by Lehigh Valley fell short in the third, despite attacking six-on-five for nearly five minutes before finally yielding a 2-on-1 and an empty net goal to seal the final four-goal margin of defeat.
Bears goalie Phenix Copley had been struggling mightily this season but he was excellent against the Phantoms on Wednesday, single-handedly getting the game to the first intermission scoreless with 10 saves. The Phantoms outshot Hershey in all three periods, and Copley had numerous tough saves to make. His body of work on this night including a penalty shot save on Egor Zamula, a breakaway save on Derrick Pouliot and third period stops on Wade Allison, Tanner Laczynski (who didn't have one of his better games) and Zayde Wisdom with the Phantoms feverishly attacking 6-on-5 trying to get back within two goals.
Turnovers were a major bugaboo for the Phantoms as the game unraveled in the second period. In net, as could only be expected in a goalie's first full game in over a calendar year, Alex Lyon was not in peak form to where he could get his team over the rough patches. There were a couple leaky goals among the five he gave up on 16 shots. However, one of the goals probably should have waved off for a high stick, another was off a 2-on-1 where he made the initial save and was beaten off a rebound. More important, he got in a full 60 minutes of hockey after starting the game in Newark that was suspended after one period (tied 1-1) because a player in the Binghamton Devils lineup needed to enter COVID protocol.
Trailing 4-0, the Phantoms got a buzzer beating power play tally from Ryan Fitzgerald (6th goal of the season) at 19:58 of the middle frame. The Phantoms gave up the aforementioned 2-on-1 goal early in the third to fall back in a four-goal hole.
For Lehigh Valley on this night, the most encouraging moment came at 7:17 of the third period when 18-year-old rookie Zayde Wisdom deflected home a Pouliot point shot for the young right wing's seventh goal of the season in 14 games. Fellow rookie Tyson Foerster, the Flyers' first-round pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, earned the secondary assist on the marker. Veteran offensive-minded defenseman Pouliot assisted on both Phantoms' goals on this night.
Back in the first period, Allison unleashed a scorching shot on a power play that beat Copley but drew iron. His streak of scoring goals in each of his first two AHL games was ultimately unable to be stretched to three straight matches with a goal.
Zamula, on a Phantoms power play, showed off his mobility in beating the defense and going in on a breakaway. Fouled from behind, the rookie defenseman was awarded a penalty shot. Unfortunately, he was unable to convert it. Later, in the second period, Zamula was injured while blocking a shot. He did not return to the game.
Earlier in the day, the Flyers announced that Phantoms forward Max Willman has been signed to a two-year, two-way NHL contract that will kick in for the 2021-22 season. He will remain on an AHL deal for the rest of the current season.
Frozen Four Playoffs Set
Flyers collegiate hockey prospects Cam York (Michigan), Jay O'Brien (Boston University), Noah Cates (Minnesota Duluth), Gavin Hain (tournament favorite North Dakota), Bryce Brodzinski (Minnesota) and Jack St. Ivany (Boston College) will all be participating in the NCAA's Frozen Four tournament.
On Friday, York and the Wolverines will take on the Cates brothers and Minnesota Duluth in the NCAA Midwest Regional Semifinal in Fargo, ND. Hain and the North Dakota Fighting Hawks will play massive underdog American International in Fargo.
On Saturday, O'Brien's BU Terriers will play against St. Cloud Sate in the NCAA Northeast Regional Semifinal game in Albany, NY. The same day, St. Ivany and the BC Eagles play Notre Dame in Albany. Brodzinski and the the Minnesota Golden Gophers drew Omaha on Saturday in the NCAA West Regional Semifinal in Loveland, CO.
Flyers college prospects Bobby Brink (Denver) and Ronnie Attard (Western Michigan) are done for the season.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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