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Flyers-Isles Wrapup: Fluke Goal Salvages 5-4 Regulation Win for Flyers |
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WRAPUP: FLUKE GOAL SALVAGES 5-4 WIN FOR FLYERS
Over the years, there have been a lot of strange games played between the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Islanders. On Tuesday night, the Flyers let a 4-1 lead in the third period slip away, including two goals in the final two minutes, and still managed to skate off with a 5-4 regulation victory.
The winning goal came with 2.1 ticks left on the regulation clock. A perimeter shot from 69 feet away by Brayden Schenn squeezed through losing goaltender Jaroslav Halak (22 saves on 27 shots) and went into the net.
Claude Giroux scored power play and even strenght goals for the Flyers, while Pierre Edouard-Bellemare and Carlo Colaiacovo had one tally apiece. Mark Streit collected three assists and Jakub Voracek chipped in a pair. Winning goalie Steve Mason stopped the first 24 shots he saw and finished with 36 saves on 40 shots.
For the Islanders, Anders Lee notched two goals, including the short-lived tying goal with 28 seconds left in the third period. John Tavares had a three-point game, scoring a power play goal and setting up the goals that made it 4-3 and 4-4 with clean faceoff wins in the offensive right circle. Johnny Boychuk scored the goal that cut the deficit to 4-3.
The Flyers went 1-for-3 on the power play. New York went 1-for-5.
1st Period
The Sean Couturier line started out the game by hemming the John Tavares line in deep for over a minute and generating three shots. On the next shift, the Islanders then took an icing at the 1:42 mark.
Mason's first save was a tough one; a point-blank chance for Ryan Strome.
Eric Boulton leveled Carlo Colaiacovo with a huge but clean hit behind the Flyers' net. A moment later, at the 5:19 mark, Ryan White fought Boulton. White got an additional unsportsmanlike conduct minor tacked onto the fight, and the Islanders went to the power play.
With 59 seconds left in the White penalty, Nicklas Grossmann flipped a backhanded shot from the corner over the glass, incurring an automatic delay of game minor. New York now had a lengthy 5-on-3 opportunity.
The Flyers were pinned in their own end throughout the 5-on-3 and 5-on-4 -- a Nick Schultz clearing attempt hit Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and the Flyers never got possession back again -- but did not get scored upon. After the Grossmann penalty expired, Voracek (who had been serving the White minor) iced the puck. Philly had to take a timeout.
Philly lost the ensuing faceoff but Mason made a clutch save on Brock Nelson and hung on for a stoppage. That brought about a TV timeout and, finally, a chance to change lines. Shots were 7-4 Islanders at the 8:38 stoppage.
Voracek drew a holding penalty behind the Islanders' net on Thomas Hickey. The Flyers went to their first power play at the 10:32 mark. With 1:25 left on the advantage, Johnny Boychuk went off for a trip at the blueline. Now Philly had a substantial 5-on-3.
The Flyers did not score on the 5-on-3 but stayed patient and cashed in late in the 5-on-4. Giroux (24th goal) one-timed home a left circle shot off a Mark Streit (40th assist) feed. Voracek (58th assist) got the other helper at 12:54.
With 4:48 left in the period, Mason swallowed up a Nikolay Kulemin shot from the deep left shot. There was no rebound. At the 16:31 mark, Mason made a similar save on a blistering but unscreened shot by Michael Grabner.
The Flyers made it 2-0 on a nifty line rush finished off by Giroux (25th goal; second of the game) from the slot at 17:44. Once again, Streit (41st assist; second of the game) and Voracek (59th assist; second of the game) had the respective primary and secondary assists.
Shots in the first period were 15-10 Islanders. Faceoffs were 12-9 Islanders.
2nd Period
Mason left out a dangerous rebound on a Kyle Okposo slap shot from distance but Anders Lee shot it wide from about 15 feet away at the 1:10 mark.
At the 3:53 mark, Mason made his 20th save of the game, swallowing up a John Tavares wrist shot. Shots for the game were 20-11.
The Islanders went on their third period on a Couturier hook at 6:00, but not before Mason denied a Travis Hamonic chance in tight off a feed from Tavares. Mason stopped a blast by Visnovsky. In the final seconds of the kill, the Flyers had good chance in the Islanders end and then Mason denied Strome at the other end.
New York soon went back to the power play. Streit went off for hooking at 9:04. This time, the Islanders capitalized and scored on their 25th shot of the game to cut the gap to 2-1 at 9:34. Tavares (36th goal) deflected home a Strome (33rd assist) shot, with Nick Leddy (24th assist) getting the apples.
The Flyers got the goal right back on a beautiful cross-ice pass from Vincent Lecavalier (12th assist) to Bellemare (6th goal). The French forward had a tap-in near the left post. Nicklas Grossmann (9th assist) got the secondary helper at 10:36.
Girou took an accidental but nasty high-stick to the face by Visnovsky at 12:29 as he was about to make a play in the offensive zone. There was no blood, so it was only ruled a two-minute penalty. Philly's second unit generated decent offensive zone time in the latter stages of the man advantage but nothing dangerous ensued.
Shots in the second period were 15-8 Islanders (30-18 Islanders through two periods). Faceoffs were 11-9 Flyers (23-21 Islanders through two periods).
3rd Period
Halak kept the Islanders' deficit to two goals by coming up with the puck in a scramble around the net. The whistle blew at 2:11.
The Isles goalie was beaten shortly thereafter, as Carlo Colaiacovo (2nd goal) pinched in and received a blind backhand feed from Zac Rinaldo (5th assist) in the left slot. The defenseman released the shot quickly and made it a 4-1 game at 2:45.
Shortly after the goal, Nick Schultz did a nice defensive job, neutralizing Tavares on a one-on-one situation as Tavares carried the puck into the Philly zone.
With 12:39 left in the period, Couturier stickhandled around three Islanders and snapped off a routine shot. Halak held on for a television timeout stoppage.
Anders Lee scored a point-blank goal to make it a 4-2 game at 8:21. The puck went off the side of the net from a sharp angle and right out to Lee (24th goal). Josh Bailey (24th assist) and Visnovsky (14th assist) got the assists.
Michael Raffl got the lone penalty (roughing) from a scrum with Colin McDonald in the neutral zone at.15:20 The Islanders went to their fifth power play. The Flyers killed the penalty without allowing a shot. On the kill, Michael Del Zotto blocked an Okposo shot, Grossmann blocked a Nelson attempt, Bellemare (painfully) blocked a Hamonic slap shot and VandeVelde blocked a Visnovsky shot.
The Islanders cut the gap to 3-2 at 18:16 directly off a right circle faceoff win. Boychuk (9th goal) scored from the point through traffic as Tavares (46th assist) pulled the draw back to him at the right point.
New York continued to press for the equalizer. They called timeout with 1:02 left before a center ice faceoff. Raffl then took an icing with 30.9 seconds left. It proved costly.
The Islanders won the draw and Lee went to the net untouched. He slid in a shot from point blank range for his 25th of the season and second of the game. Tavares got the lone assist off the faceoff win at 19:32.
Just as the game seemed headed for overtime, Brayden Schenn's harmless shot from the left half boards sneaked through Halak to win the game for the Flyers at the 19:57 mark. Schenn's 18th goal of the season was assisted by Couturier (21st) and Streit (42nd; third of the game).
Shots in the third period were 10-9 Islanders (40-27 Islanders for the game). Faceoffs were 11-11 but the Islanders turned two of them into goals (34-32 Islanders for the game).
Postgame Notes and Quotes
* The Flyers will hold practice at 11 a.m. on Wednesday at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. They will host the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday before closing out the season with a Saturday matinee against the Ottawa Senators. With Ottawa beating the Pittsburgh Penguins in overtime on Tuesday, Saturday's game could potentially wind up deciding Ottawa's playoff fate.
* Mark Streit's second assist of the game gave him 50 points on the 2014-15 season; the last Flyers defenseman to reach that milestone was Chris Pronger in 2009-10.
* The Flyers averted a season series sweep by the Islanders -- a feat the Islanders have never accomplished in their franchise history -- but New York's two shootout wins and one regulation win left Philly with a 1-1-2 mark head-to-head with the Isles this year.
* With the win, the Flyers improved their home record to 23-9-7. If the Flyers win their remaining two games, they will have 25 home wins for the first time since the 2000-01 season (26-11-4). Last season, the club went 24-14-3 at the Wells Fargo Center.
* John Tavares' three-point night gives him the Art Ross Trophy lead via tiebreaker over Sidney Crosby. Both players have 83 points but Tavares has 36 goals to Crosby's 28. Voracek's two-point game places him third in the league with 81 points (22 goals, 59 assists).
* Brayden Schenn on the events leading to his game-winning goal: "I know there was obviously not a whole lot of time left, so I just tried to get it on net. I think (Travis) Hamonic had his stick out there, and I just tried to drag it around and throw it on net and I guess I’ll take a lucky one like that.”
* Steve Mason on the roller coaster ride of the final two minutes: "We had a two-goal lead with a little over a minute to go. They unfortunately made two plays in our zone on the face offs. They were able to capitalize. We got a lucky break there with Schenner putting it on net. Anything can happen.”
* Claude Giroux on whether the Flyers were thinking too much about getting him an empty-net goal to complete a hat trick: "I had one chance, that was basically it. I don’t think we were trying to do that. We just needed a couple good plays to score.”
* The Flyers are now 12-1-4 in their last 17 games against teams in playoff position.
* Mark Streit on the Flyers' success against playoff-position teams this season: "“Finally figured it out how to play, I guess. I don’t know. Took 80 games. We talked a lot this year. Rough year. You just want to finish the right way. We face good teams. You don’t play the right way you’re going to get burned. Bad losses. We don’t want that. We want to finish on a positive note. I know it’s hard. We’re out of the playoffs. We play for the guys in here. For the team. Obviously for the fans. We want to have a good finish. Teams are playing hard. They want to be good in the playoffs and get by us. For the most part it was pretty good tonight."
*Jakub Voracek on whether there is any satisfaction in playing the spoiler role well: "we are just focused on ourselves, trying to finish the season strong and get a couple more wins and play for our fans… score some goals and play good hockey. I think we did that the last few games.”
* Craig Berube on the final two minutes: "I didn’t feel we were on our heels at all, but that second goal shouldn’t have happened. We were passive coming back in our end. The forwards didn’t get back quick enough, all of them. I don’t know if he intended to bank that off the post, but it was a nice play. It was just casual all around a little bit on that play. We lose the faceoff. I had no timeout. You lose the faceoff, Boychuk shoots one, [there is] a screen, and then [it is] a tying goal. G knows that he can’t let the guy jump by him there. I would’ve liked Schultz to just pick up the guy at the net and try to play that two-on-one, but things happen quickly.”
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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