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Flyers Gameday: 3/3/22 vs. MIN; Phantoms Update |
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Game 54 Preview: Flyers vs. Wild
Mike Yeo's Philadelphia Flyers (16-27-10) will host Dean Evason's Minnesota Wild (31-17-3) at the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday evening. Game time is 7:00 p.m. ET (NBCSP, 97.5 The Fanatic).
Philadelphia is playing the sixth game of an eight-game homestand. The team is 1-3-1 through the first five games. The Wild are playing the front end of a road back-to-back set that will continue on Friday with a game against the Buffalo Sabres. Minnesota has lost four games in a row within regulation and has dropped seven of its last 10.
The Flyers enter this game coming off a 3-0 home loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday. The Wild enter this game coming off a disappointing 5-1 home loss to the Calgary Flames on Tuesday, getting swept in a home-and-home set.
The Flyers will have one lineup change from last game. Isaac Ratcliffe has been sent down to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Max Willman will dress as the fourth-line left wing. For the Wild, both Matt Dumba and Jordan Greenway have been out of the lineup recently and are considered day-to-day at this point. Both are on the road trip and slated to participate in the morning skate. Minnesota's lineup will be updated below if necessary. The Flyers lineup is set.
FLYERS
86 Joel Farabee - 28 Claude Giroux - 89 Cam Atkinson
23 Oskar Lindblom - 21 Scott Laughton - 11 Travis Konecny
25 James van Riemsdyk - 19 Derick Brassard- 20 Gerry Mayhew
71 Max Willman - 38 Patrick Brown - 17 Zack MacEwen
9 Ivan Provorov - 61 Justin Braun
6 Travis Sanheim - 70 Rasmus Ristolainen
3 Keith Yandle - 24 Nick Seeler
79 Cart Hart
[35 Martin Jones]
PP1: Giroux, JVR, Farabee, Atkinson, Yandle
PP2: Brassard, Ratcliffe, Konecny, Mayhew, Provorov
WILD
97 Kirill Kaprisov - 38 Ryan Hartman - 36 Mats Zuccarello
22 Kevin Fiala - 89 Frederick Gaudreau - 12 Matthew Boldy
21 Brandon Duhaime - 14 Joel Eriksson Ek - 17 Marcus Foligno
52 Connor Dewar - 7 Nico Sturm - 27 Nick Bjugstad
47 Alex Goligoski - 46 Jared Spurgeon
25 Jonas Brodin - 29 Dmitry Kulikov
4 Jon Merrill - 59 Calen Addison
33 Cam Talbot
[34 Kaapo Kahkonen]
PP1: Kaprisov, Eriksson Ek, Zuccarello, Boldy, Spurgeon
PP2: Foligno, Gaudreau, Fiala, Goligoski, Addison
******
Phantoms Lost to Providence, 5-3
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms suffered a 5-3 setback to the Providence Bruins at the PPL Center on Wednesday night. The Phantoms trailed 2-0 in the first period, scored three goals in a row to take a 3-2 lead, and entered the third period tied at 3-3.
Ultimately, a five-minute interference major penalty on Hayden Hodgson early in the third period proved to be extremely costly as the Bruins scored just a few seconds into the major penalty. The Phantoms were significantly the better team over most of the latter two periods but they couldn't get an equalizer again in the third period despite a heavy push. Providence scored a late empty-netter to seal the win.
The Phantoms best player in the game, by far, was Morgan Frost; a better performance, in fact, than some multi-point games that he's had at the AHL level. After a quiet first period, Frost was excellent -- even dominant at times -- as the game moved along. He did not record a point on this night, but it wasn't for lack of scoring chances.
For one thing, in this game, Frost played at his fastest pace. He flew around the ice, twice beating defenders (in one instance, multiple defenders) off the rush. He led or triggered a couple of transition rushes. On one shorthanded rush, he beat a defender and then came within a whisker of scoring on a semi spin-o-rama backhander.
Secondly, Frost engaged willingly and repeatedly in puck battles in the trenches. On one third period shift that did result on in a scoring chance but did create prolonged puck possession, Tanner Laczynski, Frost and Garrett Wilson combined to hem Providence -- one of the AHL's top defensive teams -- in their own end of the ice.
Frost showed some take-charge willingness. On one offensive left circle faceoff, he directed Egor Zamula where to line up and then cleanly won the draw directly to the defenseman's stick. Later that shift, Wilson gathered a Providence turnover and passed to Hodgson. Hodgson then finished it off to tie the score at 2-2.
After Hodgson was ejected in the third period, head coach Ian Laperriere at first put Maksim Sushko on the line with Frost and Wilson. However, he soon made another adjustment, attempting to stack the top line with Laczynski (moved from third-line center) playing on Frost's line. For his part, Laczynski saw a four-game point streak come to an end, but his overall game performance on Wednesday was superior to his previous three outings although not up to his first two games. Oddly enough, two of Laczynski's three best games since returning from preseason hip surgery have been ones where he did not record a point.
Cam York opened the scoring for the Phantoms late in the first period, trimming a 2-0 deficit to a single goal. For the second straight game, there was a scary moment in which York had to leave the game -- this time after taking a puck to the face, thankfully without much steam on it -- but returned to play. Late in the game, with the Phantoms skating 6-on-5, York came up empty on an attempted keep high in the offensive zone. Providence's Joona Koppinen scored the empty-netter.
Providence starter Troy Grosenick had to leave the game with a lower-body injury at 3:41 of the second period after making a save on Laczynski. Keyser went the rest of the way in relief. He was greated by Hodgson's goal at 5:30. One shift later, Matthew Strome potted a Zamula rebound to put the Phantoms ahead, 3-2.
Ultimately, the Bruins re-tied the game at 3-3 on a Zach Senyshyn power play marker and then went ahead again to stay on Justin Brazeau's PPG at the 38-second mark of the third period (nine seconds into their five-minute power play on the Hodgson interference major). Back in the first period, Senyshyn and Steven Fogarty opened an initial 2-0 lead.
Wednesday's game was a chippy affair at times. During a late second period scrum after a whistle in the Phantoms' end, Adam Clendening would have had the lone penalty (roughing) but he was then cross-checked in the back dangerously close to the end boards by Jack Studnicka. Studnicka received a minor plus a 10-minute misconduct.
Hodgson's major penalty was immediately followed by Josiah Didier stepping up to fight him and taking a lopsided beating for his troubles. The Phantoms won that battle but lost the war. Hodgson, the Phantoms' surprise goal-scoring leader for the season, was gone for the night and the Phantoms were never able to find a fourth goal despite multiple opportunities to do so.
Pat Nagle stopped 15 of 19 shots in a losing cause for Lehigh Valley. He was backed up by Kirill Ustimenko. Felix Sandström is expected to be ready to return by the weekend from a lower-body injury.
The Phantoms (18-21-10) will host the Charlotte Checkers (27-21-3) on both Friday and Saturday.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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