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Flyers Wrapup: Flyers Drop Home Opener to Ducks, 3-2 |
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WRAPUP: FLYERS DROP 3-2 DECISION TO DUCKS
After opening the regular season with an impressive 4-2 win in Los Angeles, the Philadelphia Flyers have lost three games in a row. On Tuesday night, the Flyers suffered a 3-2 regulation setback to the Anaheim Ducks in the 50th Anniversary season home opener at Wells Fargo Center.
The Flyers, who briefly held a 2-1 lead in the second period, allowed too much time and space to the Ducks on all three Anaheim goals. The Philadelphia gap control was spotty and a coverage breakdown contributed to the final goal.
Agitating winger Ryan Garbutt scored the game-winning goal for Anaheim, who also received goals from Chris Wagner and Corey Perry as the Ducks scored once in each period. John Gibson earned the win in goal, stopping 20 of 22 shots.
"You’ve got to try and create gaps. It starts as a five-man unit. You’ve got to carry good gaps through the neutral zone into your zone in order to defend some of those plays," said Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol, who also said that the defensemen were put into tough spots a few times with Anaheim having too much space to gain a head of steam through the neutral zone.
On the bright side for Philly, Matt Read scored his fourth goal of the season as he used his speed off the rush to forge a 2-1 lead in the second period. Earlier, Wayne Simmonds scored on a power play for his third goal of the year.
Thus far in the regular season, the Flyers goaltending has been just OK. Both Steve Mason and Michal Neuvirth can play better than they have in the early going. On this night, Mason stopped 23 of 26 shots.
The Flyers lived to rue a 1-for-7 night on the power play -- despite which, they were getting outshot 15-14 for the game upon the expiration of the final one (12:16 of total power play time with five shots on net). Moments later, Anaheim scored to tie the game and then went on to stifle the Flyers in the third period after forging ahead again.
"When they’re getting a couple of penalties, some deserved maybe some weren’t deserved, but they kill them off and they got momentum from it. When we don’t score it’s the same thing, we we’re trying to build momentum off of it and we had the lead there, we have to do a better job of taking care of the puck when we have the lead or are in tie game situations," Simmonds said.
Added Hakstol, "I thought we had pretty good power plays, our first power play. I thought we had a good power play during the second, scored a good goal. Had opportunities to stretch to 3-1. It’s disappointing we couldn’t. We had one poor power play at the end of the first, where we weren’t able to get set up at all.
"Our power play was okay, the bigger thing for me is the goal we gave up a few seconds after the last power play in the second period. Those are the type of goals that as a team we can’t give up.”
1ST PERIOD
The Ducks had the game's first scoring chance but Mason knocked aside a Ryan Kesler chance from 10 feet at the 1:11 mark. Matt Read generated a pair of shots on Philadelphia's next shift.
Philly got the game's first power play at 3:56 as Josh Manson delivered an elbow to Travis Konecny near the Anaheim blue line. An unscreened point shot from Ivan Provorov was all the Flyers generated. The shot was blocked down by Clayton Stoner.
The Ducks went to the power play at 8:01 as Jakub Voracek went off for a neutral zone high stick as he put his stick up defensively against Jakob Silfverberg. With 37 seconds left on the power play, Mason denied Nick Ritchie in tight.
The Ducks took a 1-0 lead at 11:24. Provorov went down at the blueline to try unsuccessfully to block a pass, turning a 2-on-2 into 2-on-1 situation. Wagner took a drop pass from Jared Boll and scored on a potentially stoppable 23-foot snap shot from the right circle as he used Shayne Gostisbehere as a screen. Sami Vatanen got the secondary assist.
The Flyers went back to the power play at 18:22. Silfverberg got the gate for holding VandeVelde on a three-on-three rush. The period expired with 22 seconds remaining on the power play. Shots in the first period were 9-6 in Anaheim's favor.
2ND PERIOD
The remaining power play time expired without the Flyers generating much. After Mason snapped a shot out of the air, Brandon Manning was sent off for holding at 1:06. Mason tough stops through traffic and from the doorstep.
With the penalty expired, Gibson squared to Couturier and stopped a right circle shot cleanly.
On the next shift, Voracek took a pass over the middle from Couturier and was denied by Gibson but with the puck loose, Antoine Vermette closed his hand on the puck at 4:36.
The Flyers cashed in fast. At 4:52, Simmonds scored his third of the season as he went to the net and knocked the puck over the line at the end of crisp passing sequence from Giroux in the left circle to Voracek at the opposite wing to Simmonds near the left post.
Philly went right back to the power play. Stoner was sent off for tripping at 5:30. The Flyers were unable to score but quickly got a power play as Anaheim captain Ryan Getzlaf retaliated for big hit by Dale Weise on Holzer moments earlier by tripping Weise in the neutral zone at 7:47. Gibson snapped a Konecny right circle shot out of the air with 41 seconds left in the advantage.
On a Flyers counter-rush, they took a 2-1 lead at 10:26. The red-hot Read took a pass from Pierre-Edouard Bellemare at the blueline, confidently cut in from the left circle and stashed home his 4th goal of the season. Mason got the secondary assist.
Getzlaf went back to the box again at 12:10. He was called cross-checking behind the offensive net. Gibson made a late save on from feet. At 14:29, the Flyers got yet another power play. Corey Perry tripped Simmonds near the Flyers' net. Once again it went to waste. Despite the Flyers having had seven power plays to that point, they were still getting outshot 15-14.
At 16:42, Perry ripped a right circle shot from near the dot cleanly past Mason to tie the game at 2-2. Getzlaf and Vermette got the assists. The Ducks had way too much time and space on the sequence with Couturier, Konecny and Weise all caught up ice and Anaheim breaking loose on a 4-on-2.
Mason, who had his stick knocked away as he got bumped heavily at the net by Perry, snared a puck off the end boards. In the ensuing scrum, Perry (roughing) and Provorov (cross-checking) received offsetting minors at 18:24.
Shots in the second period were 8-8. Anaheim led 17-14 overall.
3RD PERIOD
Read, taking a shift on the second line, bid for his second goal of the game but was denied on the rush, but Voracek had a tough followup stopped by Gibson. At 4:58, Gibson fought off a Manning point shot through some traffic.
Shots for the period were 5-3 Flyers (20-19 overall in Anaheim's favor) through a stoppage with 10:24 remaining.
The Ducks took a 3-2 lead at 11:34. Ryan Garbutt parked himself at the bottom of the left circle, took a passout from Holzer and scored on knuckeball that floated upstairs. Nick Sorensen got the secondary assist.
The Flyers generated little pressure the rest of the way. Shots in the third period were 9-8 for Anaheim, 26-22 Anaheim overall.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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