Wrap: Flyers Fail to Close but Succeed in Shootout
Playing the second half of a back-to-back set, the Philadelphia Flyers beat the New York Rangers via shootout, 4-3 (1-0), at Madison Square Garden on Sunday evening. The Flyers were unable to protect a three-goal lead in the third period and New York stormed back to force overtime. Kevin Hayes scored in the third round of the shootout to rescue a victory.
Early first-period goals spaced 50 seconds apart by Cam York (3rd goal of the season) and Owen Tippett (1st as a Flyer, 7th overall) gave the Flyers a 2-0 lead that they took to intermission. The second period was scoreless but dominated territorially by the Rangers.
In the opening minute of the third period, the Flyers very briefly took a three-goal lead on a Joel Farabee slam-dunk (16th) off the rush after passes from Oskar Lindblom to Travis Sanheim and from Sanheim to the goal-scorer. Thirty-eight seconds later, Artemi Panarin (19th) immediately cut the Flyers' lead back to two goals. With less than five minutes remaining in regulation, the Rangers generated goals just 12 seconds apart from Mika Zibanejad (26th) and Andrew Copp (16th).
New York came out attacking in sudden death. Morgan Frost had two chances in the New York end and then Frost blocked a Panarin shot at the other end on a nerve-wracking and protracted sequence. With 33.3 seconds left in OT, Travis Sanheim received a high stick to the mouth from Chris Kreider. The Flyers went on a 4-on-3 power play. A Joel Farabee shot was blocked and the game went to a shootout.
In the skills competition:
1st Round: Cam Atkinson blasted a shot directly into the goalie. Zibanejad was denied by Jones' glove.
2nd Round: Tippett cut to the middle and was stopped by the glove. Panarin moved in deliberately and then missed the net as the puck hopped on its edge.
3rd Round: Hayes wristed a shot over Sheshterkin's shoulder. Filip Chytil was stoned at the left post by a full-extension skate save.
Sunday's game saw the Flyers' first shootout win and first shootout goal (on 18 attempts) of the season. Prior to this match, the Flyers were the only team in the NHL not to win at least one shootout this season.
Martin Jones was outstanding in net for the Flyers. He stopped 43 of 46 shots over 65 minutes and then went 3-for-3 in the shootout. He finished it out with an outstanding save on Filip Chytil in the final round of the shootout.
Igor Sheshterkin started out a little shakily but then settled in and played brilliantly as needed. The Vezina Trophy favorite finished with 23 saves in regulation and overtime. Sheshterkin then stopped the Flyers' first two shootout attempts before he was beaten by Hayes.
The Flyers went 0-for-3 on the power play. The Rangers also went 0-for-3.
For a complete synopsis, period-by-period analysis and highlights from Sunday's game, see the
Postgame 5 on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com.
The Flyers will have a complete off-day on Monday. On Tuesday, they will host the Columbus Blue Jackets at the Wells Fargo Center.
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Phantoms Complete Weekend Sweep
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms remain a longshot to capture the final playoff spot in the American Hockey League's Atlantic Division. However, Ian Laperriere's club took care of business this weekend in a Friday-Saturday-Sunday set of three games in less than three nights. The Phantoms won all three games in regulation, skating to a home win over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, a comeback home victory against the Utica Comets and then a gutsy 4-3 road win against the Bridgeport Islanders on Sunday afternoon.
Isaac Ratcliffe stepped up big in Sunday's game. Despite twice hobbling off the bench -- once after taking a puck off his hand and later after blocking a shot off the back of his leg -- the hulking winger directly figured in three huge goals for his team. He provided a screen on the Phantoms' first goal and later scored a pair of deflection power play goals including the game-winning tally at 16:00 of the third period.
In the first period, the Phantoms looked heavy-legged and dog tired after the trop from Allentown to Connecticut to play an afternoon game after evening games on Friday and Saturday. Shots were 11-0 in favor of Bridgeport at one juncture and 16-5 by the end of the period. Goaltender Pat Nagle (28 saves on 31 shots) did yeoman work in getting the game to the first intermission scoreless.
To make matters worse, oft-injured Phantoms power forward Wade Allison left the game after getting banged around several times in the first period. He did not return. As of this writing, there is not an official update. Hopefully, it's nothing serious.
Despite the adversity, the Phantoms buckled down and were the better team over the final 40 minutes of the game. Coming into the game with the AHL's bottom-ranked power play, the Phantoms went 3-for-5 on the man advantage on Sunday. They also fired a season-high 21 shots on goal in a lopsided second period and took a 2-1 lead to the second intermission.
At 7:00 of the middle frame, Adam Clendening had a double screen from Ratcllffe and Adam Johnson on the power play and Johnson scored the game's first goal. A turnover by Wyatte Wylie started a mid-period sequence where Bridgeport's Collin Adams potted the juicy rebound of a Parker Wotherspoon shot. Late in the period, the Phantoms did not score on the front end of a two-man advantage, but retook the lead during the remaining 5-on-4. Ratcilffe set up a heavy screen directly in front of Jakub Skarek and then got a piece of Brennan Menell's shot to slightly re-direct it past the goal into the net.
Three times in this game, the Phantoms established one-goal leads. Three times, Bridgeport evened the score. A pivotal moment came in the third period when, 20 seconds after the Islanders' Mitch Vande Sompel knotted the game at 2-2, Phantoms defenseman Logan Day got the goal right back to put Lehigh Valley ahead again.
Bridgeport forged a 3-3 tie at 11:28 of the third period on a power play blast by Chris Terry, making the Phantoms pay for a Max Willman delay of game penalty for putting the puck over the glass from the defensive zone. Willman redeemed himself by using his feet to force a Paul LaDue holding penalty at 14:51 of the third period.
With exactly four minutes remaining in regulation, Isaac Ratcliffe set up shop at net-front and deflected home what proved to be the game-winning goal. Phantoms captain Cal O'Reilly and Tanner Laczynski each collected their respective second goals of the game on the play.
The Phantoms, who outshot the Islanders in the third period, 9-6, blocked several shots and closed out the game with their final one-goal lead still intact.
The Phantoms will have a complete off-day on Monday. On Tuesday, they will practice in preparation for another must-win game on Wednesday; this time a head-to-head road clash with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
With two games in hand, the Phantoms (25-27-11) will go into Wednesday's game seven points behind the sixth-place Penguins (30-27-8) in the push for the final playoff spot in the division. Bridgeport is still ahead of the Phantoms, too, despite yesterday's outcome. The Islanders (27-27-10) are three points ahead of Lehigh Valley with the Phantoms holding one game in hand.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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