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Wrapup: Flyers Clinch Playoff Berth, Down Pittsburgh 3-1 |
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The Philadelphia Flyers are going to the 2016 Stanley Cup playoffs. Paired with regulation losses by both the Boston Bruins (who will miss the postseason) and Detroit Red Wings (who squeak out third place in the Atlantic Division) on Saturday, the Flyers clinched the final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference with a 3-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Wells Fargo Center.
Philadelphia got off to a jittery start in the first half of the first period, and trailed 1-0 after yielding a 3-on-1 rush. They were in severe jeopardy of falling behind 2-0 when goaltender Steve Mason made a spectacular and potentially season-preserving glove save.
Very shortly after that, Wayne Simmonds scored the first of two goals (31st and 32nd of the season) that he notched in the game. The Flyers extended the lead in the second period after killing a 4-on-3 penalty. Simmonds scored on a deflection off his body. Late in the third period, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scored a breakaway empty net goal to seal the win.
Before the game, Simmonds and other Flyers devoted the home finale to team co-founder and chairman Ed Snider.
“I said it earlier, and especially when we took that picture and Mr. Snider wasn’t in it,” Simmonds said. “When you look in the hallway and it’s the first time he’s not in a picture. It sucks to see it happen. We’re playing to make the playoffs for him. Obviously, like Mr. Snider, we think we’ve got more in the tank. Obviously, I think we’re playing Washington in the first round here so we’re going to dedicate this to Mr. Snider. We’re going to play our asses off.”
He then went out and delivered on his promise with two goals.
Mason finished with 18 saves on 19 shots. He had no chance on the lone Pittsburgh goal, as Nick Bonino scored from point-blank range off the 3-on-1. Mason made nine first period saves in all and then only saw nine shots the rest of the way.
Penguins' starter Matthew Murray left the game for precautionary reasons after a jarring collision at the net with Brayden Schenn, which knocked off the goaltender's mask and left him shaken up. He stopped all 11 shots he faced in 17:25. Backup goaltender Jeff Zatkoff went the rest of the way for Pittsburgh. He had no chance on either Simmonds' tip-in or later deflection off the Flyers' forward right hip. Zatkoff finished with 22 saves on 24 shots before Bellemare's empty netter.
Apart from Simmonds' two-goal day, the Flyers got a spectacular performance from team captain Claude Giroux. He was a force all game long, creating numerous scoring chances and winning 17-of-27 faceoffs.
With the Penguins already locked into second place in the Metropolitan Division, coach Mike Sullivan rested both Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang for what was the Penguins' regular season finale. Philadelphia featured one line change: Nick Cousins re-entered the lineup after a one-game absence and Scott Laughton was a scratch.
The Flyers spent seven minutes of the third period on the power play. They went 0-for-3 on the man advantage for the game, but the long power play milked time off the clock as did a lengthy delayed penalty on the Flyers' subsequent man advantage in the final stanza.
Philadelphia finished the season with 54 points on home ice; one more than they had a season ago. They still have one road game left; Sunday evening in Pittsburgh. Mason will most certainly get a rest. It remains to be seen who else gets the night off in what is now a meaningless game for Philadelphia.
Throughout the histories of the Flyers and Penguins, there has never been a season series between the clubs in which Philadelphia failed to earn at least one point. That streak remained intact with Saturday's win but it was not even a blip on the radar screen for either club on this day. Pittsburgh was worried only about getting through its regular season finale without risking injuries to key players in a meaningless game for their purposes. Philadelphia was worried only about the two points it needed to get into the postseason.
With both Boston and Detroit playing early games that were already over before the Flyers took the ice, Philadelphia knew it was one win away from a postseason spot in a season that was deemed by many to be part of a rebuilding process.
Early on, the nerves were evident.
A quick Michael Raffl shot rimmed out and the Flyers took an icing in the opening 23 seconds of the game. Pittsburgh won the draw and Mason stopped a Ben Lovejoy point shot. At 41 seconds, he snapped up a side-angle Patric Hörnqvist offering. The Flyers took a second icing at 1:07. A third icing ensued at 1:21.
The Flyers first shot came on a Radko Gudas point shot after a clean faceoff win by Nick Cousins. A fat rebound sat in the slot but Pittsburgh got there first.
Gudas missed the net by a wide margin with an open shot on a delayed penalty. Lovejoy went the box for a stick hold at 4:42. During the front end of the power play, Giroux was unable backhand a shot into the net with Murray down and out, hitting the crossbar. The second unit generated no pressure. The Flyers took their fourth icing of the first period right after the penalty expired. Shots were 5-2 Flyers at that point.
The Giroux line generated strong pressure near the nine-minute mark. Pittsburgh took an icing. Shots were 9-3 at a TV timeout at 10:45.
Pittsburgh made it 1-0 at 11:57 on their fourth shot. Nick Schultz got caught up ice in the neutral zone. Suddenly, the Flyers gave up a 3-on-1 rush, Streit the lone defender and unable to prevent a Hagelin pass from going across to Bonino. The center finished off his ninth goal of the season. Kessel got the secondary assist.
Over the next two shifts, Gudas got just enough of Conor Sheary to force a near breakaway to be steered wide. Moments later, Mason had to do the splits to deny Oskar Sundqvist from point blank range.
Gostisbehere created a chance off the rush for Cousins and then trailed the play. Cousins shot high and wide.
Mason allowed a bad rebound on a long-range Hörnqvist shot but denied the rebound follow-up by Trevor Daley for a TV timeout with 3:31 left in the first period.
Schenn broke in on Murray off a great feed from Couturier. Murray made a tremendous save, losing his mask in the process as Schenn accidentally collided with him. The goalie was shaken up and left the game. Zatkoff came in at 17:25.
The Flyers suffered another massive breakdown of coverage and Mason had to scramble over and snap a point blank shot by Kael Moullierat from the left slot after a cross-ice feed 1:17
Philadelphia came right back tied the game on their first shot against Zatkoff, who had no chance to stop a Wayne Simmonds tip-in after Voracek put the puck at the net from the left wing. Giroux made it all happen initially and Pittsburgh turned a puck over to Giroux and the captain made a gorgeous bank pass off the boards directly to Voracek. The time of Simmonds' 31st goal of the season was 18:57.
“Mase was keeping us in the game that period. We had a great back-check and G came and got the puck and made a good play to Jake. I just drove the net and Jake made a great pass to myself and I was able to put it in," Simmonds said.
"I think we were a little bit too nervous that first period. We were fumbling the puck a little bit more.”
The Flyers fumbled one more time. After a Flyers turnover on the walls, Fehr hit the crossbar at 19:46 as he elected to shooting on a sudden 2-on-1 in close. Shots in the first period were 14-10 Flyers.
The two teams traded off scoring chances in the open minute. A momentarily open chance for Kessel was broken up. At the other end, Simmonds moved over the middle and got a diving backhander on Zatkoff.
The Couturier line got hemmed in but kept play to the perimeter before icing the puck. Couturier won the draw and the Flyers broke out of the defensive zone. Mason erased a Gudas turnover two shifts later, making a shoulder save on a rising shot by Fehr.
Couturier got a nice hit on Brian Doumolin on the forecheck but the Penguins cleared the zone at 8:13.
Schultz had a terrible giveaway in his own end, trying to make a stretch pass and getting it picked off about five feet away. Somehow it was credited as a takeaway to the Pens. Streit then made up for the mistake by blocking a shot. The puck then deflected into the benches.
At the other end of the ice, the Flyers top line generated strong pressure, including an open chance in front for Giroux in which Fehr threw his stick to break up the play -- a penalty shot if spotted by an official but which went undetected. That was followed up by the Cousins line buzzing on the next shift.
At 13:25, Schultz got a slashing penalty but Sheary received an embellishment minor to cancel it out and create a 4-on-4. Moments later, the Flyers went down on a 4-on-3 shorthanded situation for 1:42 for a stick hold call behind the Pittsburgh net.
On the ensuing kill, Gudas blocked a Justin Schultz shot. Kessel turned a puck over and the Flyers cleared. Philly killed off the rest of the penalty and finally got the puck out of the zone after Mason stopped a side-angle shot by Hörnqvist. A TV timeout ensued.
Philly took a 2-1 lead at 17:58. From up high in the zone, Simmonds made a good play on the wall and passed back to Streit. With the puck going D-to-D, Simmonds moved to the middle with Voracek in closer to Zatkoff as another layer of screening/deflection potential. Gostisbehere pulled the trigger on a point shot and Simmonds deflected it home off his right hip. The tally was Simmonds' second goal of the game and 32nd of the season.
Shots in the second period were 13-4 Flyers; 27-14 Flyers through two periods.
Ex-Flyers Tom Sestito went up high to hit Ryan White in the neutral zone long after the Flyer got rid of the puck. VandeVelde went over to defend his teammate. The Flyers got a five minute power play as Sestito got an elbowing minor, fighting major and a game misconduct. Somehow, VandeVelde, who got manhandled by Sesisto only a roughing minor although he was clearly trying to fight him.
The top unit created pressure but no goal in the middle stages of the long advantage. With time ticked to final minute of the long power play, there was another flurry of chances. No goal, however.
The Bellemare line had a strong forechecking shift deep in Pittsburgh territory. The Flyers then gave up an odd-man rush the other way but the tired Penguins got only a weak shot on net. Giroux came onto the ice, beat Daley with a dangle off the rush and got a backhander on goal. Zatkoff held for a stoppage with 10:22 left.
With a TV timeout with 8:42 left, shots for the period were 7-2 Flyers; 34-16 Flyers for the game. The Flyers had a bit of a sloppy next shift in their own zone apart from solid bodycheck by Simmonds. Mason then melted down the play after a long distance glove save.
Pittsburgh's Mouillierat took an interference penalty behind the Flyers net. The Flyers ragged off about 15 seconds on the delayed penalty. Finally Pittsburgh touched up at 14:08.Philly went to the power play with another chance to add an insurance goal. Philly didn't even come close, electing to play things very conservatively and never getting set up.
With 3:10 left, the Flyers took an icing. Philadelphia got the puck out and the Pens brought it back in offside. The Pens iced the puck with 2:22 left. Andrew MacDonald blocked a shot on a zone entry by the Pens. Zatkoff was pulled for an extra attacker with about 90 seconds left.
Bellemare sealed the game and the Flyers' playoff spot by intercepting a puck over the middle and the blueline and scoring on a breakaway to an empty net at 19:02.
Shots in the third period were 9-5 Flyers; 36-19 for the game.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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