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Wrapup: Flyers Waste Stellar Neuvirth Performance, Fall 3-1 to Dallas |
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WRAPUP: FLYERS WASTE STELLAR EFFORT BY NEUVIRTH IN 3-1 LOSS IN DALLAS
Playing on tired legs at the end of the three-in-four set and back-to back games, the Philadelphia Flyers dropped a 3-1 decision to the NHL-leading Dallas Stars on Friday night. The loss snapped the Flyers' four-game road winning streak. Philadelphia is now 2-4-0 in the second game of back-to-back sets.
On this night, Philadelphia simply expended too much energy killing penalties and struggled to cope with Dallas aggressive forecheck. Michal Neuvirth's 41-save performance was the only thing that kept the game close.
"There's a reason why they're in first place," said Flyers captain Claude Giroux. "We came out pretty good. This is the kind of team where we know we have to come out ready to play, but after that, they kind of took it to us a little bit."
A Shayne Gostisbehere power play tally stood as the Flyers' lone goal of the game, as they briefly held a 1-0 lead in the second period. Over a three-and-a-half minute span in the latter stages of the middle frame, however, Dallas forged a 2-1 lead on goals by Mattias Janmark and Antoine Roussel. Jamie Benn, the NHL's lead goal scorer, added an empty-net tally in the final minute of the third period.
“The two goals we gave up a little more than three minutes apart were the difference in the hockey game,” said Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol. “We pushed as hard as we could in the third period to generate, but unfortunately we couldn’t take advantage of Neuvy’s performance, which was outstanding tonight.”
The Flyers actually won the special teams battle, but lost the war in the process. Philly went 1-for-2 on the power play and 6-for-6 on the penalty kill. However, the kills took a heavy toll on the already fatigued Flyers' legs. The Stars ended with 86 shot attempts (44 on goal) to 46 attempts for the Flyers (20 on goal). Dallas had nine power play shots and 34 at even strength.
We had a good night killing penalties, we just took too many of them," Matt Read said.
The Flyers got off to the type of start they wanted, but things went downhill fron there. Evgeny Medvedev sprang Giroux and Brayden Schenn on a 2-on-1 rush, stoning Schenn. Giroux was not quite able to get to the loose rebound. Moments later, at the 3:51 mark, Niemi denied Schenn's deflection on net.
A few mintes later, Jason Spezza drew oohs and ahhs from the crowd with a spin-o-rama stickhandling move around Radko Gudas in the neutral zone. Nothing dangerous resulted, however.
The Flyers continued to play at a quick pass. There was lots of open space through the neutral zone and Flyers took early advantage with some stretch passes. Shots were 6-3 Flyers at the first TV timeout at the 8:34 mark. Thereafter, Dallas pushed back.
Right after the TV time, the Spezza line applied heavy pressure in the Philadelphia end down low. Michael Del Zotto broke up one good scoring chance, and Neuvirth made a good save on another.
Neuvirth rhen made an outstanding save at 9:54, denying Nichushkin on a 2-on-1 rush with Seguin. Shortly thereafter, Neuvirth cleanly gloved a Seguin shot through traffic.
There were back-to-back scrums after whistles. At 13;27, Simmonds got a cross-checking penalty during a scrum near the benches. The Flyers got through the kill. Simmonds went back to the box at 17:59 for a hook on Cody Eakin in the defensive zone. Dallas pressed heavily again but the Flyers got through their second kill unscathed before time expired.
Shots ended up 18-9 in Dallas' favor. Attempts were 31-15 for Dallas. The Flyers had three shots blocked and missed the net three times. Dallas had seven attempts blocked and missed the net five times. The Stars also owned the faceoff circle, going 13-for-18 (72 percent).
The last thing the Flyers needed was another penalty. Matt Read went to the box for holding in the neutral zone at 2:15 of the second period. Schultz blocked Jamie Benn on what would otherwise have been a goal from inside the right hash marks.
The pace of play slowed somewhat over the next few minutes. Dallas chipped the puck a few times into Radko Gudas' corner and tried to set up a forecheck but little of note resulted.
Philadelphia got its first powerplay at 8:33 when Cody Eakin was called for a stick hold.At 9:23, Giroux fed Gostisbehere for a center-point blast that found its way hoe through a net-front screen by Wayne Simmonds. Jakub Voracek received the secondary assist on Gostisbehere’s fourth power play tally (and fifth goal overall).
Dallas promptly went back on the power play at 10:12, as Schultz went off for holding at 10:12. The Flyers staged their fourth successful penalty kill. With 6:15 left in the middle frame, shots for the game were 26-13 in the Stars favor.
The Stars struck for a tying goal at 14:06. Simmonds accidentally deflected an otherwise harmless side-angle shot by Mattias Janmark past Neuvirth, who was also contending with a Stars player near the crease in front. Jason Spezza got the primary assist.
With 3:24 left in the second period, Janmark was well set up to aim for his second goal of the period on a chance off the line rush but the Swede opted instead to pass and the puck went wide of the net. Philadelphia was not so fortunate 1:02 later as Roussel won a goal mouth scramble and poked the puck through Neuvirth as he attempted to cover a loose puck in the crease on aan Eakin rebound.
The Flyers’ penalty parade continued. Brayden Schenn went off for goaltender interference at 17:52. No sooner did the Flyers get through their fifth straight kill than was Michael Del Zotto called for hooking Nichushkin in front of the net with four seconds left in the period.
Second period shots were 16-5 in Dallas’ favor (34-14 overall); a Attempts were 32-7 (63-23 overall). The Flyers had one shot blocked and missed the net four times (five blocked shot tries and four misses overall). Dallas had nine attempts blocked (16 overall) and missed the net eight times (13 overall).
The Stars entered the third period with 1:56 of carryover power play time. Right off the opening faceoff, Dallas pushed the attack but Radko Gudas snuffed out Jamie Benn's attempted pass from the left wing. Neuvirth then stopped a tricky deflection by Benn in front of the net.
Niemi denied a Schenn deflection in front, Neuvirth stoned Vernon Fiddler on a Dallas 2-on-1 to keep the deficit to one goal. With 11:43 left, Niemi hung on to a Gostisbehere point shot through traffic for a television timeout. Shots for the period were 4-4 at this point.
After Niemi denied a Schenn deflection in front, Neuvirth stoned Vernon Fiddler from 15 feet away on a Dallas 2-on-1 to keep the deficit to one goal with 16:56 left in regulation.
The Flyers changed up some of their line combinations in the third period. Voracek moved onto Giroux’s line, while Michael Raffl went to the Scott Laughton line and Ryan White went to the Pierre-Edouard Bellemare unit.
Philadelphia got its second power play with 7:26 left as Colton Sceviour was whistled for hooking. The Flyers called a timeout with 46 seconds remaining on the power play in order to keep the first unit on the ice. Voracek, Schenn and Simmonds all had good looks at the net, but none could hit the mark. Dallas used its timeout after an icing at the end of the penalty.
The Flyers pulled Neuvirth for an extra attacker with 1:24 remaining and a right circle faceoff upcoming in the Dallas zone. After Gostisbehere had a shot attempt blocked, Jamie Benn scored into an empty net at 19:07.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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