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Wrap: Flyers Surge, Then Tumble in 5-2 Loss to Pens |
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WRAP: FLYERS SURGE THEN TUMBLE IN 5-2 LOSS TO PENS
With a share or sole possession of first place in the Metropolitan Division at stake, the Pittsburgh Penguins sent the Philadelphia Flyers down to a 5-2 defeat at the Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday night. The Penguins moved into first place in the Metro, while the Flyers fell three points off the pace.
The Flyers trailed 1-0 at the end of a penalty-filled first period, yielding a power play goal to the Penguins' lethal top unit. Otherwise, the opening stanza was fairly even despite the disjointed flow caused by too-frequent special teams play. The Flyers had several quality scoring chances but could not convert them.
Philly dominated the majority of the second period, and were rewarded by scoring twice to take a 2-1 lead that actually could have been more than that. Then the Flyers were guilty of some killer breakdowns that the more opportunistic Penguins capitalized upon. Pittsburgh also benefited from a bit of sheer puck luck on a pinballing deflection goal and again on a favorable bounce in the final minute of the period to take a 4-2 lead to the locker room.
The Flyers had an early 3-on-1 rush in the third period with a chance to draw back within a goal but the chance went awry. That, too, let some additional air out of the Flyers' balloon as did a later ugly power play. Overall, Pittsburgh did a really strong job of closing out the game with the lead and eventually tacked on an empty-net goal to seal the 5-2 outcome.
"They just pressured a lot. We gotta find ways to get pucks to the middle of the ice to alleviate the pressure. We got the puck on the wall. Once we got it on the wall they pressured. They did a good job of not allowing us get it off," Flyers right winger Wayne Simmonds said of the team's inability to the make a sustained push after the Penguins re-took the lead.
Phil Kessel (power play, 28th goal of the season), Jamie Oleksiak (4th), Conor Sheary (13th and 14th) and Evgeini Malkin (empty net, 38th) tallied for the Penguins. Malkin (46th assist), Sidney Crosby (49th, 50th, and 51st assists), Oleksiak (8th assist), Jake Guentzel (19th and 20th assists), Justin Schultz (16th assist), Carl Hagelin (17th assist) and Riley Sheahan (17th assist) collected helpers.
"They just took advantage of the opportunities they got. Odd man rush and they got pucks to the net. Our coverage was a little bit soft on a few occasions in the second. They took advantage and they capitalized," Flyers defenseman Andrew MacDonald said.
Tristan Jarry was solid in goal for the Penguins. He stopped 26 of 28 Flyers shots to earn the win.
Jakub Voracek (15th goal of the season) and Travis Konecny (18th) scored for the Flyers. Nolan Patrick (11th assist), Claude Giroux (56th assist) and MacDonald (10th assist) posted helpers during the Flyers' push that led to their short-lived 2-1 lead.
Petr Mrazek stopped 23 of 27 shots. There was little he could have done on three of the Penguins' goals. The other was perhaps too big of a rebound, but it came on a 2-on-1 rush with Crosby appearing to be shooting for a rebound chance for Sheary.
Ultimately, the outcome of this game swung on three vital factors.
At five-on-five, the Patrick line dominated against the Derick Brassard line and the Sean Couturier line held its own nicely against the Malkin line. The Scott Laughton line also had some good shifts. However, Crosby's line ate absolutely ate alive the trio of the Valtteri Filppula, Jordan Weal and the returning Wayne Simmonds. The Flyers also had struggles on their bottom four on the blueline.
Secondly, the Penguins were far more opportunistic in capitalizing on their scoring chances than the Flyers. There were point-blank chances for Giroux, Simmonds (a power play deflection in close), Oskar Lindblom, Jordan Weal (power play) and Laughton (the aforementioned 3-on-1) that did not get finished. Shayne Gostisbehere hit the post twice. There were also quite a few times where seemingly open shots were declined in favor of extra passes; never resulting in the intended outcome of an improved scoring chance.
"We just got to keep it simple. We over-complicated things. They’re a good team. They took advantage of our mistakes," Simmonds said.
By comparison, the Pens capitalized on two of their three best scoring chances of the game. Philly made several critical mistakes -- a defenseman (Robert Hägg) getting caught up ice and arriving back too late, failures to get pucks in deep or clear the defensive zone -- that ended up in their net.
"I know on the fourth goal there I take responsibility, I could have got the puck in deep and then I didn’t get the puck out of the zone too. Two turnovers there and they capitalized and it’s tough to get back in games against guys like this, but overall I thought we were all over them, the majority of the game we were going back and forth pretty equal," Konecny said.
Lastly, the Flyers' power play let them down in this game. They had two abbreviated man advantages and three full ones but the quality of opportunities deteriorated rather than improved as the game progressed.
"Power play was [poor] tonight and it’s frustrating," Giroux admitted. "We did a good job of drawing those penalties and gaining momentum and then [the power play] wasn’t good."
Meanwhile, the Flyers managed to go 3-for-4 on the penalty kill in the first period (two Penguins power plays were curtailed by Pittsburgh penalties). Although the officiating throughout the game was atrocious on both sides -- especially an egregious boarding penalty on Robert Hägg in the first period -- that is far too many penalties to take against Pittsburgh. It was likely the Flyers would eventually pay, and they did for a careless offensive zone high stick by Lindblom.
Add all these factors up and an overall decent performance by the Flyers wasn't close to being enough to defeat the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions in a measuring stick game with high stakes. The more deserving team won.
"I don’t know what you guys saw up there, but like I said we’re playing good teams right now that are on top of the standings, with a lot of experience so sometimes it shows that we are not there yet. We are still in the hunt for a spot. Obviously it was a big game today, but we’re still not there, so we gotta make sure we find a way around some points," Voracek said.
1ST PERIOD SYNOPSIS
The Flyers won the opening faceoff. In the opening 10 seconds, Travis Konecny was unable to handle the puck in front of the net on the back end of a passing sequence from Sean Couturier to Claude Giroux to Konecny at the back door.
At 2:31, Scott Laughton took a neutral zone pass from Michael Raffl and spend into the offensive zone for a chance from the right circle. Jarry made the save and the net came off its moorings as Tom Kuhnhackl crashed into it on the backcheck.
The Nolan Patrick line generated its second pressure shift early in the first period. With Oskar Lindblom providing support up high, Brandon Manning pinched up to take a feed from Jakub Voracek for a scoring chance in front.
At 4:14, Jori Lehterä received a tripping penalty in the offensive left circle that was called by trailing ref Tim Peel 100 feet from the play. That put the NHL's top-ranked power play to work against the 29th-ranked penalty kill. The Penguins generater about 25 seconds of pressure during the first half of the power play before an errant pass enabled a clear. With the second power play unit out, Manning made a clear. Late in the penalty, Mrazek denied a shot from Derick Brassard high in the zone.
At the 7:00 mark, Ivan Provorov turned a puck over in the neutral zone but the Penguins went offside. A TV timeout ensued, with shots at 3-3.
Konecny looked for a call and didn't get it as he received a high hit at center ice. When play swung back to the Flyers zone, Robert Hägg stapled Bryan Rust to the end boards with what looked to be a clean hit. There was no initial call made but Rust, who put himself in a vulnerable position and whose head hit the glass above the boards, laid on the ice (and then went off for concussion testing). Hägg got a boarding minor.
The Pittsburgh power play was canceled out by a tripping penalty on Phil Kessel after losing a puck battle on the side wall with Lehterä. The Flyers then received a minute-long power play of their own. The Flyers didn't get set up until the waning seconds. A few seconds after 5-on-5 play resumed, Jarry snapped up a right circle wrister from Voracek for a stoppage of play.
At 13:29, Andrew MacDonald got an interference penalty. The Flyers bent but didn't break and Couturier eventually deflected a pass to safety with a quick defensive stick. At 14:01, Pittsburgh's Justin Schultz was sent off for high sticking Raffl.
With 18 seconds of 4-on-4 play remaining, Patrick cleanly won a right circle faceoff for a quick point shot by Provorov. Jarry stopped it and held for another stoppage. After the abbreviated power play got underway for Philadelphia, Shayne Gostisbehere fired a puck from the left point with Wayne Simmonds screening -- and then partially deflecting the puck upwards -- in front.
Lindblom went to the box at 17:46 on an offensive zone high sticking infraction on Brassard. Provorov got a stick in the passing lane to deny a point blank chance for Pittsburgh but the reprieve was temporary. After a failed clear, a triangular passing sequence from Crosby to Malkin to Kessel (through the legs of Radko Gudas), ended in a slam dunk goal at the left post for a 1-0 Penguins lead at 18:35.
Shots for the period were 11-8 in Pittsburgh's favor.
2ND PERIOD SYNOPSIS
Gostisbehere rang a scorching shot off the post just 15 seconds into the period. The puck stayed out.
At 2:07, the Flyers tied the game. MacDonald kept a puck in at the point. Moments later, Patrick took the puck away from Brassard and went to the net after tipping the puck to Voracek. A pass from Voracek went off Brassard and into the net before it quite got to Patrick for a tap-in. Patrick was initially credited with the goal but the scoring was subsequently changed to credit Voracek. Patrick received the lone assist.
Shortly thereafter, Giroux was brilliantly set up by a Konecny drop pass for a point-blank chance. Jarry got just a piece of the puck for the save. Two shifts later, the Flyers had another near miss, as Gostisbehere wasn't quite able to finish off a setup by Patrick as Jarry barely made a skate save on the short side.
The Flyers took a 2-1 lead at 6:01. Konecny put a weak backhander at the net from a side angle and smartly followed it up by going to the net. He was rewarded as Jarry juggled the puck and then Konecny somehow jammed it from the under the goalie upstairs into the top of the net. The assists went to Giroux and MacDonald.
Lindblom bunted an aerial puck near the net a whisker away from his first career NHL goal, going just over top of the crossbar. The Patrick line continued to pressure. The shift ended with MacDonald getting a left circle shot on net and Jarry holding for a much-needed stoppage for the Penguins.
Pittsburgh knotted the game at 2-2 on a pinballing shot by Jamie Oleksiak that may have been a double deflection. The play was reviewed for goaltender interference by Guentzel , but stood as a good goal. The tally was credited to Oleksiak. Schultz and Guentzel got the assists.
Lindblom had a good look at the net but flubbed a re-direct off a pass from Voracek. The Flyers continued to pressure. The Laughton line had a long forechecking shift that hemmed the Penguins in deep. Finally, the Flyers got a power play on a Riley Sheahan interference penalty deep in his own zone at 11:29.
On the ensuing power play, Voracek was tripped without a call on a potential scoring chance, barking at Peel as he went off the ice. The second unit came out for the final 40 seconds and got absolutely nothing going. After the penalty expired, Oleksiak rang a shot off the post behind Mrazek, who hardly reacted.
The Penguins re-took a 3-2 lead at 14:25 on a 2-on-1 rush with Hägg caught on a pinch. Puck carrier Crosby fired from the right circle. Mrazek made the right pad save but there was a fat rebound. Sheary got to ahead of a back-tracking Hägg and deposited it in the net.Crosby and Oleksiak got the assists.
Mrazek made a strong save on Malkin to keep the deficit at one goal. With 3:27 left, Voracek was tripped by Oleksiak's left leg, crashing hard to the ice. Philly went back on the power play.
The second unit fared better than the first but the best chance -- one for Jordan Weal near the net -- was flubbed. There was also a Lindblom deflection that went wide.
Konecny failed to get a puck in deep and then was unable to clear his own zone. The Flyers paid for it not long thereafter. With 39.3 seconds left, the Penguins benefited from a lucky bounce as a Guentzel shot from high in the zone went off the skate of Manning and deflected directly onto Sheary's tape in the right circle. He finished it off just ahead of Mrazek's desperation save attempt. The secondary assist went to Crosby as the Penguins opened a 4-2 lead.
Second period shots were 11-10 Flyers (21-19 Pittsburgh overall).
3RD PERIOD SYNOPSIS
Konecny stole a puck in the Pittsburgh zone but then turned it over as he forced a backhanded pass across the slot with nothing but white jerseys around it. The Pens iced the puck at 1:07.
The Flyers had a 3-on-1 rush but Laughton tucked the puck wide in front off an extra pass from Raffl, who had a shooting lane from the left circle. At the other end, Kessel narrowly missed after driving near the left post.
Voracek skated a shift with Couturier and Giroux. The Flyers pressed heavily, including a chance for a pinching Hägg but no goal resulted.
Finding himself matched up against Crosby, Couturier did a great job of staying airtight to the Penguins superstar. At the end, some support from Gostisbehere helped end the Penguins' foray.
At 11:03, Malkin was called for tripping Konecny. The Flyers power play got nothing going, lowlighted by Weal unwisely trying to skate through three defenders and getting easily taken off the puck.
Lindblom set up Couturier near the right post but the center got in too deep and tried to pass it back out in front. Again Lindblom bunted it over the net; this one wasn't close.
With 2:04 left, the Flyers pulled Mrazek for a 6-on-5 attack as Jarry caught and held a flip-shot from Laughton. A rebound chance in front off a Gostisbehere shot eluded Konecny and the Penguins cleared. Malkin scored an empty netter from center ice to make it 5-2.
Tempers flared after the final horn -- particularly between Manning and Oleksiak (in proxy for Guentzel) -- but then calmed down.
Third period shots were 9-7 Flyers (28-28 overall).
STANDINGS IMPLICATIONS
The Penguins moved into first place in the Metro Division, one point ahead of the Washington Capitals and three points ahead of Philadelphia. The Flyers, 0-3-1 thus far in a tough March schedule, are right back in action on Thursday as they visit the Boston Bruins.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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