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Wrapup: Flyers Storm Back, Earn 5-4 OT Win in Boston |
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Shrugging off several bites by the injury bug and overcoming a two-goal deficit in the third period, the Philadelphia Flyers earned a 5-4 overtime victory against the Boston Bruins on Wednesday night in TD Garden. The victory snapped a six-game losing streak against the Bruins, dating back to April 23, 2013.
A pair of goals by team captain Claude Giroux, including the game-winner on an overtime power play one-timer, started and finished the comeback. Giroux's tallies were sandwiched around a perfectly placed snipe from the left circle by Wayne Simmonds to tie the game at 4-4 with 9:36 remaining in the third period.
"It’s a tough thing to do,” Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol said of playing comeback hockey to the Philadelphia media members who made the trip to Boston.
“It’s very much a tight group in terms of being a team game and a team atmosphere. That’s hard to do. We obviously didn’t get our focus quite where we needed it to be because we didn’t get off to a good start, but we survived the period and most importantly we were able to regain it after the second.”
During the first period, the Flyers held a pair of short-lived one-goal leads, on a rebound backhander by Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and a top-shelf goal from the left circle by Sam Gagner. Both times, the Bruins came right to knot the score.
Michal Neuvirth started the game in goal for the Flyers, stopping 10 of 12 shots before leaving the game after the the first period. Neuvirth sustained an upper-body injury on Boston's second goal. His shutout streak ended at 145 minutes and 33 seconds.
Three minutes Brett Connolly turned a horrific giveaway by Giroux -- who inexplicably tried a behind-the-back pass from behind his own net -- into Boston's first goal of the game, Giroux took a careless high-sticking double minor as he attemped to lift Connolly's stick.
“I think [the first period] could have been one of my worst professional periods,” Giroux said to the media in Boston. “I was pretty frustrated with myself letting the team down like that.”
During the ensuing power play, Boston's Patrice Bergeron (whose wife, Stephanie, gave birth to a baby son earlier in the day) made it a 2-2 game as he knocked in a puck from the doorstep at 17:24 of the first period. While following through, Bergeron accidentally clocked Neuvirth in the head with his stick. Neuvirth dropped heavily to the ice. He finished the period but it was decided midway through intermission that he was unable to continue.
Moments before the expiration of the first period, former Flyers winger Zac Rinaldo delivered a huge hit to ex-teammate Sean Couturier. The hit was late -- the puck was already 10 feet away from Couturier as he chipped up ice from along the boards -- and Rinaldo may also have slightly left his feet.
Although Rinaldo had his elbow tucked and the main point of impact was Couturier's chest, the taller recipient's head seemed to bounce off the top of Rinaldo's shoulder pad as he lifted upon impact, causing Couturier's head to jarringly snap back. The Flyers center fell in a heap to the ice, clutching his head.
Couturier eventually got up and left the ice but was forced out of the game with an upper-body injury. Rinaldo received a charging major and game misconduct, and will now face potential supplementary discipline for the fourth time of his NHL career and the eighth time since his rookie pro year in the AHL. In ensuing scrum, both Giroux and Zdeno Chara received coincidental minors.
Steve Mason came in to replace Neuvirth at the start of the second period, which began with the Flyers on a five-minute power play. In what proved to be a major negative momentum swing for the Flyers, not only did they fail to score or generate anything close to a scoring opportunity during the long man advantage, they found themselves trailing on the scoreboard by the time it ended.
The first shot Mason saw came off a 2-on-1 shorthanded rush for Boston. He denied it. Mason and the Flyers werent's so lucky the second time around. A seemingly low-danger 2-on-2 give-and-go play with a routine shot by Loui Eriksson suddenly turned into a double-deflected pinball off Mark Streit and then off the skate of Chrs Kelly, going into the net for a shorthanded goal at 4:31.
A little over four minutes later, the onus was entirely on Mason. Moments after Simmonds was unable to convert a Flyers' 2-on-1 rush, play swung 2-on-2 the other way. A harmless looking side-angle shot by Jimmy Hayes someone squeezed through Mason to put Boston ahead 4-2 at the 8:49 mark.
To his credit, Mason buckled down the rest of the way. He finished with 16 saves on 18 shots after the rough start. During the third period, Mason authored a save-of-the-year candidate, making a virtually impossible save on a wide open David Pastrnak from point blank range that was reviewed in Toronto because it was hard to believe the puck didn't go in. Replays were somewhat inconclusive but seemed to suggest Mason somehow got the puck right on -- not over -- the goal line before covering it in the blue paint with his glove.
The almost miraculous stop was a momentum turner in the Flyers' direction. The Flyers' best offensive players took over from there.
“I felt like we had energy right away [in the third period]… and when Mase made that save, it jacked it up a couple of notches. Guys have stuck together. To come back in a situation like we had tonight, that wasn’t an easy task. The guys stuck with it. We got a great save and the rest of the guys took advantage of the energy that that provided," Hakstol told reporters after the game.
A Boston turnover and a nice little chip pass by Jakub Voracek to Giroux, who roofed a shot from the doorstep, brought the Flyers back within a goal at 7:48. Streit got the secondary assist.
Less than three minutes later, at the 10:24 mark, Simmonds re-tied the game at 4-4. Boston turned the puck over to Streit just inside the Flyers' blueline. Streit passed ahead to Umberger as the Flyers gained entry into to the Boston zone. Umberger then made a quick pass to Simmonds who advanced the puck near the facoff dot from his off-wing and roofed a shot high to the long side and under the cross-bar.
Tuukka Rask (32 saves on 37 shots) had no chance of stopping the perfectly placed shot by Simmonds. He also had little to no chance of denying the enventual game winner by Giroux.
At 1:36 of 3-on-3 overtime, Ryan Spooner was forced to hook down Michael Del Zotto in the defensive zone to set up a 4-on-3 power play for Philadelphia. After a nice keep on the right boards by Voracek, the puck was rotated to Streit at center point and then passed to Giroux, who measured and hammered a one-time blast from the right circle past Rask as the goal scrambled to cover the angle at 2:09.
Streit's assist on the Giroux goal was his third helper of the game, tying a career-high accomplished seven previous times but only once before when he entered the third period pointless for the game.
Two seasons ago, the Philadelphia Flyers set a franchise record for successful comebacks when trailing at some point in the third period. Last year, such comebacks were in short supply. Philly accomplished the feat just three times in 2014-15 where the team went on to win, although there were seven one-point results where the Flyers lost in overtime or via shootout.
Gagner, who tallied the Flyers' second goal, was originally slated to be a healthy scratch. Brayden Schenn took part in the morning skate but, perhaps still feeling the effects of a heavy hit away from the puck by Dallas Stars forward Antoine Roussel, sat out Wednesday's game with what was was deemed by the Flyers to be an upper-body injury.
The Flyers will take a complete off-day on Thursday and resume practice on Friday. The New York Rangers pay a visit to the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday evening.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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