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Quick Hits: May 4, 2023
1) Selected by the Flyers with the fifth overall pick of the 2022 NHL Entry Draft, center/winger Cutter Gauthier has accepted an invitation to play for Team USA at the 2024 IIHF World Championships in Tampere, Finland, and Riga, Latvia. Flyers center Scott Laughton will play for Team Canada.
2) Cam Atkinson is the special guest on today's Edition of Flyers Daily. Atkinson discusses the frustration of a missed season, his career going forward, John Tortorella's effect on a team and much more. To listen to the podcast, click here.
3) Today in Flyers History: Roenick OT Goal Wins 2004 ECSF
On May 4, 2004, the Flyers clinched their Eastern Conference semifinal series as they claimed a 3-2 overtime win in Toronto in Game Six. After the Flyers built a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals by Radovan Somik and Jeremy Roenick, they were unable to put the Leafs away in the third period. Tallies by Karel Pilar and Mats Sundin knotted the score at 2-2 and sent the match to overtime.
The extra frame saw back-and-forth action played at a breakneck pace. Both teams had several near-miss scoring opportunities, as both Robert Esche (34 saves on 36 shots) and Ed Belfour (22 saves on 25 shots) came up big in goal for their respective teams.
Toronto blitzed the Flyers for 90 nerve-racking seconds Esche turned the puck over to Alexei Ponikarovsky, whose shot hit a skate and deflected into the corner. The Flyers were unable clear the zone. Esche made a brilliant skate save on Karel Pilar and then got defensive help from Simon Gagne to tie up Ponikarovsky's stick. Finally, Esche stoned Joe Nieuwendyk's stuff in attempt near the post.
Play finally went back the other way. Michael Handzus fired a puck that went around the glass. Sami Kapanen went to play the puck about 20 feet inside the right point. Toronto forward Darcy Tucker lined him up and crushed the tiny Finn was a devastating open-ice body check - shoulder-to-side-of-head - and sent him sprawling to the ice.
Woozy, Kapanen had enough presence of mind to realize he needed to get back to the bench, 25 feet away. He turned over from his back to his knees, trying to grab his stick and rise. He fell. Kapanen rose again and tried to skate. He fell yet again. It took four efforts to get close enough to the bench for team captain and good friend Keith Primeau to be able to hook him in close enough for teammate Mattias Timander and trainer John Worley to assist Kapanen onto the bench.
In the meantime, the Leafs were attacking in the Flyers' zone. Esche stopped a Robert Reichel blast and Handzus helped prevent Tie Domi from getting a wide-open chance to win the game. Toronto maintained control until Alexei Zhamnov, just off the bench, disrupted an Aki Berg shot attempt from behind.
The Flyers counterattacked on a 2-on-1, with Mark Recchi picking up the puck and rushing the other way with John LeClair joining him on the left wing. From the right hash marks, Recchi elected to shoot the puck. Belfour make a blocker save. LeClair was unable to reach the rebound.
Now the Leafs were off to the races again. Sundin tried to move laterally near the Flyers blueline but Zhamnov made his second strong defensive play of the shift, neutralizing Sundin's stick and poking the puck free to rookie defenseman Joni Pitkanen. Both teams started line changes.
Pitkanen passed the puck off the right side boards, where Jeremy Roenick (just off the bench a moment earlier) claimed the puck and rushed full speed back into the Toronto end, joined by Tony Amonte on yet another 2-on-1 rush for Philadelphia.
Reaching the hash-marks, Roenick surprised former Chicago teammate Belfour - who expected Roenick to either look to shoot just over his pads or to dish to Amonte - with a high shot into the top portion of the net. Just like that, at 7:39 of overtime, the game and the series were over. Raucous throughout OT, the Air Canada Centre crowd instantly fell dead silent.
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