FLYERS CRUISE INTO HOLIDAY BREAK IN STYLE
The Philadelphia Flyers finished out the pre-holiday portion of their schedule in style, taking care of business in a 4-1 home win over the Minnesota Wild on Monday night at the Wells Fargo Center. With the win, the Flyers pulled their record above .500 again (17-16-4) and moved back into third place in the Metropolitan Division.
Wayne Simmonds scored a pair of goals (first period power play goal, third period empty netter) for the second straight game. He also assisted on the Flyers' first goal. Simmonds has five goals and seven points in his last three games after going 10 games without scoring a goal.
Claude Giroux had a goal and assist to set a new career-high point streak. The Flyers captain has five goals and eight assists for 13 points during this stretch and has scored at least one goal in four of the last six matches. Giroux's linemate, Jakub Voracek. recorded a pair of assists in the game, bringing his own career-best point streak to eight games (six goals, seven assists, 13 points).
Defenseman Luke Schenn opened the scoring for the Flyers early in the first period. Scott Hartnell assisted on the tally. The point was the 500th of Hartnell's regular season career.
In the meantime, Steve Mason turned back 26 of 27 shots to earn the victory in goal and improve his season statistics to a 14-9-4 record, 2.35 goals against average and .923 save percentage. The lone puck to elude Mason was an unstoppable 5-on-3 power play goal by the Wild's Mikael Granlund in an 11-shot first period for Minnesota.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the victory for the Flyers was the way they kept forechecking and pressuring Minnesota while protecting a two-goal lead in the third period. The clock seemed to tick down much faster that way. Mason helped himself with a big skate save in the final stanza, but most the action in crunch time was down in Niklas Bäckström's end of the ice.
The Flyers had some on-paper advantages heading into the game. The Wild came in struggling, having dropped each of the first two games on their three-game pre-Christmas eastern road trip. They were playing on back-to-back nights, while the Flyers had Sunday night off. Lastly, the team was without its top forward, Zach Parise.
None of these potential factors would have meant a thing, however, if the Flyers hadn't gone out and played the game the right way. Philly was the more focused and harder-working team for most of this game. They moved their feet well and when they do that, they become a much better two-way team.
Luke Schenn got the Flyers off to a lead at 1:52 of the first period. The big defenseman pinched up to claim a loose puck and fire it home from the right circle with the Wild defense collapsed down low. Hartnell and Simmonds, who had been buzzing around the net, picked up the helpers.
At 10:51, the Flyers took advantage of some less-than-airtight Minnesota penalty killing. On a tic-tac-toe passing sequence, Giroux worked the puck from the left half boards to Voracek on the other side. Voracek then found a wide-open Simmonds near the left post for an easy tap-in goal.
The Wild evened out the Philly power play goal with one of their own at 16:43. With Brayden Schenn (slashing Jason Pominville) and Braydon Coburn (cross-checking Granlund) in the box, Philly nearly killed off the 5-on-3 portion of the penalties until Minnesota cashed in with seven seconds left on the Schenn minor. Pominville threaded a pass through the legs of Luke Schenn and Granlund sniped home a shot from the other side. Ryan Suter received his 22nd assist of the season on the play.
Outshot by an 11-5 margin in the first period, Philly nonetheless took a 2-1 lead to the first intermission. The Flyers proceeded to control most of the remaining 40 minutes of the game.
Before they did that, however, the Flyers first had to kill off a two-minute Simmonds roughing penalty incurred at the expiration of the first period. They did so without yielding a shot to the Wild.
At 7:46 of the middle period, Coburn received the puck from Voracek at the point. With Giroux moving in front of Bäckström into screening/deflecting position, Coburn wristed the puck toward the net. Giroux re-directed the puck in front to extend the Flyers' lead to 3-1.
The Flyers had to get through another carryover penalty at the start of the third period. Voracek was penalized for hooking Granlund in the final half minute of the middle frame. Once again, the Flyers held Minnesota without a shot on the ensuing man advantage.
In fact, the lone Minnesota shot on the power play in this game came on the Granlund goal on the 5-on-3 back in the first period. The Wild's fifth and final power play of the game -- incurred at 3:50 when Adam Hall was mistakenly sent off for an interference penalty that was committed by Nicklas Grossmann -- also went nowhere.
Grossmann, returning to the lineup from a one-game absence while battling the flu, was instrumental in the Flyers' final goal of the game. With Minnesota's goaltender pulled for a 6-on-5 attack, Grossmann went down to block a shot, painfully taking the puck near his ribcage but snuffing out a scoring chance for the Wild. Brayden Schenn claimed the loose puck and sent it ahead to Simmonds, who scored into the vacated cage at 19:03.
The Flyers now have four nights off over Christmas. The schedule resumes on Saturday night in Edmonton, as the team embarks on a three-game-in-four-night road trip through western Canada that will take the team through New Year's Eve. Thereafter, the team has away games in Denver, Phoenix and New Jersey before returning home to the Wells Fargo Center on Jan. 8.
With their second six-game road trip of the season on the horizon, it will be incumbent upon the Flyers to start improving their road performance. The team heads into the schedule break with an 11-7-0 mark at home but just a 6-9-4 record in away games.
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CHRISTMAS EVE QUICK HITS
* Scott Hartnell was chosen second star of last night's game by official selector Anthony San Filippo. Luke Schenn got third star honors for scoring a goal and dishing out five hits. Wayne Simmonds got first star honors. Personally, I'd have bumped Hartnell to third star and picked Giroux (21:04 of ice time, goal and assist, 10-for-15 on faceoffs) second.
That is not to take anything away from Hartnell or Schenn. I thought Hartnell had one of his most effective games of the season in terms of winning battles and creating havoc down low in the offensive zone.
Hartnell has been stuck on six goals for the last nine games and has just one tally in his last 12 games. When he plays the way he did last night, he can contribute positively in other ways. Hartnell needs to consistently produce more games like the one from last night. There have been too many games both last season and this season where he's been either a non-factor or even a liability (taking undisciplined penalties without the trade off of effective forechecking and creating Philadelphia power plays).
It should be noted that Hartnell has points (three assists) in three of his last four games. He had four shots on goal last night and if he can produce comparable efforts when the schedule resumes, the goals will start to start to come again for him. If he doesn't, they won't. The simpler that Hartnell keeps things on the ice -- going north-south, digging pucks, crashing the net, and getting inside the PK box on the power play -- the better off he is.
* My sincere wishes for a Merry Christmas go out to all who celebrate. Tomorrow's blog will take a look at the Flyers prospects participating in the World Junior Championships. The blog will also feature a video section honoring of the Flyers' greats of the past.
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