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Flyers Gameday: 11/3/16 @ NYI, Wrap: 4-3 Comeback OT Win vs. DET |
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The Philadelphia Flyers have made too much of a habit of falling behind in games and relying on comeback hockey. On Wednesday night at the Wells Fargo Center, however, things worked out by the end of a 4-3 overtime win against the Detroit Red Wings. The Flyers (5-5-1) who have made multi-goal comebacks in eight games this season, have led or been tied at some juncture of the third period in all 11 games thus far, overcame deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 on this night.
Philly played a poor first period but was the better team over the second and third periods before going on to prevail in OT, Jakub Voracek, who broke up a scoring chance in the defensive end, later went on to blast home a Claude Giroux setup pass on a 2-on-1 rush at 1:41 of OT. With the Flyers skating 6-on-5, Mark Streit scored in a scramble around the net with 1:04 remaining in regulation to secure at least one point before Voracek netted the game-winner.
Earlier, the Flyers got a pair of goals from supporting-cast players. With the Flyers trailing 2-0, Chris VandeVelde, whose wife delivered a baby girl on Wednesday, scored for the first time this season and just the third time since the start of the 2015-16 campaign. Later, rookie import Roman Lyubimov tied the game on his first NHL goal.
Said VandeVelde about the Flyers' first goal, "We had a good breakout. I think I threw the puck wide to Schenner. He skated it up and then pulled up and feathered a nice pass over to me and I was able to beat their goalie. It’s nice that it happened after my daughter was born so it is pretty exciting.”
Lyubimov was asked about all the Flyers' comebacks this season.
"Maybe it’s our style," he said with a smile. "It’s not a good style. We want to be better.”
Michal Neuvirth allowed a preventable goal on the second Detroit tally but settled down to make some important saves. He finished with 22 saves on 25 shots. Countryman Petr Mrazek turned back 36 of 40 shots in a losing cause. Dylan Larkin, Andreas Athanasiou and Henrik Zetterberg scored for Detroit.
Said Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol, "We didn’t have a sense of urgency to start the game. We actually ironed it out for about five minutes from about the 14-minute mark to when we gave up the first goal, but we’re not happy with our start tonight. But that hasn’t been a common theme over the past few nights, so we still have work to do, obviously, to make sure that consistently our starts are better.”
1st period
Neuvirth erased an early mistake by Matt Read, going backward with a dangerous pass intended for Ivan Provorov. The goalie denied Tomas Tatar from 20 feet.
Shots were 5-0 Detroit until Nick Cousins, sprung by a Brandon Manning stretch pass, was denied by Mrzek on a breakaway at 5:02. By a mid-period Mark Streit point shot on goal, shots were 6-3 Flyers. Detroit was conceding a lot of point shots,so the Flyers took them.
The Wings scored back-to-back goals with frighting rapidity to take a 2-0 lead. Over a span of 16 seconds, the game went from scoreless to another multi-goal deficit for Philadelphia.
After a needless icing by the Flyers, they ended up with a matchup they didn't want, and it cost them when they couldn't get a puck in deep after initially working the puck out of zone. Larkin circled out up high, and with a screen set up in front, wristed a shot that Jakub Voracek accidentally re-directed off his stick and into the net at 13:15. Gustav Nyquist and Mike Green got the assists.
At 13:31, Athanasiou tallied on a stoppable right circle shot off the right that beat Neuvirth to the short side off his left shoulder. Riley Sheahan and Jonathan Ericsson got the assists.
Green (roughing) and Bradyden Schenn (goalie interference) received coincidental minor penalties at 16:44. The teams went to 4-on-4 manpower.
The Flyers survived a counterattack from Larkin off a blocked Provorov shot. The dynamic second-year forward backed Andrew MacDonald in and then narrowly missed on a backhander aimed upstairs on Neuvirth.
Shots were nine for Detroit, eight for the Flyers.
2nd period
The Flyers started the second period with Dale Weise skating on the top line with Giroux and Simmonds. Philadelphia had six of the period's first nine shots through 6:22.
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Weise was set up in close by Simmonds but ran out of room and could not finish from a severe angle near the post shortly past the 7:00 mark.
At 9:22, Manning fought Steve Ott in the neutral zone after taking exception to a hit by Ott behind the play near the Detroit bench.
VandeVelde scored a rare goal off the rush, taking a cross-ice pass from Schenn and tucking the puck (and himself) into the net to make it a 2-1 game at 13:39. Streit got the secondary assist.
Neuvirth, who had hardly seen any rubber in the second period to that point, made a tough save moving laterally to stop a Danny DeKeyer shot from the slot.He then made two more saves on the next shift.
Schenn, jumping out of the way on a play, accidentally made contact with Brendan Smith's head. There really wasn't to see on the sequence but the NHL's Department of Player Safety is nothing if not unpredictable.
Said Schenn, "I 1000% even did not try and hit him. I was trying to get out of his way and avoid contact, I know it probably doesn’t look like that. I saw him swing at the puck and I’m watching the puck and to be honest I was trying to get out of his way and I hit him in the head by accident, 100% wasn’t even trying to make body contact there. I talked to both officials and they said they thought the same thing and I even went up to Smith at the start of the period to make sure he was alright. I’m not trying to go out there and pick anyone in the head. When you see on the replay that I hit him in the head, I knew I did it 100% on accident and I apologized at the start of the third period to make sure he was OK.
"He said he watched the hit too and he thought the same thing that I was trying to get out of the way. I’m not out there to pick guys, I will play physical but I’ve gotten trouble for leaving my feet so I’m not going to try and pick guys heads. It was just a play that happened fast and 100% tried to avoid him, I know it doesn’t look that way but I was not even trying to make contact on the play"
The Flyers got the game's first power play with 7.8 seconds left in the middle stanza. Manning drew a call in the offensive zone near the blueline as Tatar was sent off for holding the stick. The Flyers took 52 seconds of power play time into the third period.
Second period shots were 17 for the Flyers, six for Detroit (25-15 Flyers overall).
3rd period
The Flyers generated two shots, a couple missed nets and traffic on their carryover power play but could not tie the game. At 3:51, however, Lyubimov potted an Andrew MacDonald rebound to knot the game at 2-2 on his first goal in the NHL. Couturrier received the secondary assist.
Neuvirth cleanly gloved a 40-foot Larkin blast and hung on for a stoppage and TV timeout at 7:05.
At 8:18,Detroit re-took the lead after the Flyers lost a battle in the neutral zone and it turned into a 2-on-1. Zetterberg, with Giroux in backchecking pursuit, received a pass across from Tatar and been Neuvirth from the right slot. Abdelkader received the secondary assist.
Tatar made a nice dangle and took the puck to the net but lost the handle at the last split second, Neuvirth covered for his 19th save of the game.
With 4:58 left, Weise took a careless high-sticking minor against DeKeyser on a battle along the boards. The Flyers killed the penalty.
Travis Konecny stickhandled through traffic, which eventually created an offensive zone faceoff at a Flyers timeout at 18:35 after a Matt Read shot was blocked out of play by Drew Miler. The Flyers pulled Neuvirth for an extra attacker.
At 18:58, after Giroux passed to Simmonds, Simmonds moved across the goal line and a scramble ensued as Frans Nielsen pushed Schenn into Mrazek, Streit tied the game on a second-effort whack at the puck near the right post. Detroit challenged the ruling, claiming goalie interference.The call stood, and the game was tied at 3-3 on Streit's third goal of the season. Schenn and Simmonds collected the apples.
Shots in the third were 14-10 Flyers (39-25 Flyers through regulation).
Overtime
Detroit had extended puck possession in the Flyers' end to start OT but did not generate any shots as they patiently moved the puck around the zone. Shortly after making a clutch defensive stop in the Philly end, Voracek blasted home a right circle one-timer at the other end off a perfect Giroux pass at 1:41. The goal came on the lone shot by either team in the extra frame.
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Preview: Flyers @ Islanders
Playing the second half of back-to-back games the middle segment of a three-in-four gauntlet, Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (5-5-1) are in Brooklyn on Thursday night to take on Jack Capuano's New York Islanders (4-6-0). Game time at Barclay's Center is 7:00 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on CSN Philadelphia.
This is the first of four meetings between the teams this season and the first of two in Brooklyn. The teams will meet again in New York on January 22 before the scene shifts to Philadelphia on February 9 and March 30. Last season,the Flyers went 2-2-1 against the Islanders.
The Flyers hosted the Detroit Red Wings at the Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday night, winning 4-3 in overtime. The Islanders were off on Wednesday after sustaining a 6-1 blowout loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday.
Flyers Outlook
With the Flyers on a back-to-back and Michal Neuvirth having started on Wednesday, Steve Mason may get the call in net.
Michael Raffl (upper-body injury) was said on Tuesday to be close to being ready for activation from the injured reserve list. He may be ready to go in Brooklyn. Boyd Gordon (upper body injury) is out for at least a week.
Islanders Outlook
The Islanders were never really in Tuesday's pasting by Tampa. The Bolts outshot the Isles by a 30-12 margin (14-4, 16-8) and assembled a 6-0 lead on the scoreboard in the opening 40 minutes.In a losing cause, Jaroslav Halak made 22 saves for the Islanders.
Projected Lineups (subject to change, will be updated)
FLYERS
12 Michael Raffl - 28 Claude Giroux - 17 Wayne Simmonds
11 Travis Konecny - 14 Sean Couturier - 92 Jakub Voracek
24 Matt Read - 10 Brayden Schenn - 13 Roman Lyubimov
76 Chris VandeVelde - 78 P-E Bellemare - 25 Nick Cousins
23 Brandon Manning - 3 Radko Gudas
9 Ivan Provorov - 32 Mark Streit
55 Nick Schultz - 53 Shayne Gostisbehere
30 Michal Neuvirth
[35 Steve Mason]
Scratches: Michael Del Zotto (LTIR), Scott Laughton (conditioning assignment), Andrew MacDonald (lower body), Boyd Gordon (upper body).
Islanders
11 Shane Prince - 91 John Tavares - 12 Josh Bailey
27 Anders Lee - 29 Brock Nelson - 18 Ryan Strome
16 Andrew Ladd - 10 Alan Quine - 25 Jason Chimera
86 Nikolay Kulemin - 53 Casey Cizikas - 15 Cal Clutterbuck
2 Nick Leddy - 3 Travis Hamonic
14 Thomas Hickey - 55 Johnny Boychuk
44 Calvin de Haan - 4 Dennis Seidenberg
41 Jaroslav Halak / 1 Thomas Greiss
Scratches; Mikhail Grabovski (concussion), Ryan Pulock (lower body), Mathew Barzal (healthy), Eric Boulton (healthy), Jean-Francois Berube (healthy)
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