|
Wrap: Late Rally Too Little & Too Late, Flyers Fall to Canes, 5-3 |
|
|
|
|
|
The Philadelphia Flyers remain winless since the NHL's holiday break and fell to 15-20-5 overall on the season as they lost, 5-3, to the Carolina Hurricanes at the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday night. Philadelphia trailed 4-0 five minutes into the third period before erasing three-quarters of the deficit with nearly half the period still left to play. Finally, a counterattack goal by Carolina restored a two-goal margin and drained the life out of the comeback bid.
Teuvo Teräväinen led the way offensively for Carolina with power play and even strength goals (9th and 10th) plus an assist for a three-point game. Dougie Hamilton (4th) and Justin Williams (power play, 8th) scored goals spaced 1:09 apart early in the second period to put Philly in a 2-0 hole. Warren Foegele scored a deflection goal in the third period to make it a 4-0 game before Philly made its push.
Wayne Simmonds (power play, 12th), Sean Couturier (15th) and James van Riemsdyk (power play, 6th) scored for the Flyers. Claude Giroux (32nd and 33rd assists) and Jakub Voracek (21st and 22nd assists) had two helpers apiece.
The Flyers had a 37-28 shot advantage for the game and a 74-44 shot attempt edge. Ex-Flyers goalie Petr Mrazek got the win with 34 saves on 37 shots. Michal Neuvirth took the loss with 23 saves on 28 shots. The Williams goal and the second Teräväinen goal (despite being scored on a 3-on-1) were stoppable shots that found their way into the net.
Special teams technically ended up canceling out as the Flyers yielded two Carolina power play goals (Canes went 2-for-4) and Philly scored a pair (2-for-5). However, the game situations of the failed Flyers PKs and unsuccessful power plays ended up playing a bigger role in the outcome than the raw numbers.
Said Flyers head coach Scott Gordon, "The way the kill works for us–you have to put a premium on what’s on the backside, what’s on the backdoor before you do on what’s on top. We give up two goals in that instance and that makes that second period look awful because they have three goals and we are down 3-0. That first goal is just a mistake that you can’t defend for it if you’re not doing the right things. Like I said, other than that, I never thought in the second period that they were running away with the game. We made three critical errors that are big."
Philly actually played a decent first period despite Carolina having a 13-8 shot edge. The quality of chances were in the Flyers' favor with three opportunities right near the net and three additional chances from inside/below the dots. Unfortunately, the Flyers missed the net on four, Dale Weise fired off a mediocre shot on another and Mrazek made one of his best saves (on a Giroux rebound chance off an initial Couturier shot) on the other one. The first half of the period was better than the latter portion.
In the second period, a slew of too-familiar problems popped up again for the Flyers:
* Philly only gave up seven shots but three of them ended up in the net. Two of the goals came as a result of miscues in the defensive zone resulting in good scoring chances.
* The penalty kill, which had been much better since late November got beaten twice as Carolina expanded its lead from 1-0 to 3-0. Neuvirth should have had Williams' one-timer from the top of the right circle that beat him on the short side. The latter one, scored by Teräväinen was a result of poor work by the PKers that left a gaping seam and a point-blank look for the goal scorer.
"I think it’s just little breakdowns. Got to give them credit they were moving the puck pretty well. When teams are moving the puck well you have to have really good sticks and take care of the lanes and we didn’t do a good enough job," Couturier said.
* Closely spaced opposition goals continue to plague the Flyers. The response after the first Carolina goal was not what it needed to be, and then Philly's energy dropped for awhile at 2-0.
"It’s like quicksand right now. Trying to get out and it feels like it’s just getting deeper," Simmonds said. "I think we just need to respond better when we get scored against. I feel like beginning of the game we’re playing good hockey, and then we give one up and things turn and start to snowball. We have to do mentally stronger and do a better job."
* With the score still 2-0, the Flyers had two power play opportunities with a chance to get back within a goal. They didn't do much with them, and Carolina bagged its second power play goal late in the period to make it a three-goal gap.
* The two quick Carolina goals early in the period caused the Flyers to start to press. They had a 14-7 shot edge but they weren't making life too tough on Mrazek for much of the period.
"We were kind of playing on our heels and were not playing with the speed we want to play with and there’s a lot frustration even before we start the game, we’re trying to battle back pretty much every game. It's not the way we should be playing," Giroux said.
In the third period, the Flyers quickly generated Grade-A scoring chances for JVR and Simmonds but remained unable to bury one. Foegele's deflection goal at 5:01 made it 4-0. There was nothing Neuvirth could have done on that tally.
The Flyers power play, which entered the game in a mind-boggling 9-for-93 spell and was 0-for-3 through two periods finally got a goal. At 6:17, Simmonds had a slam dunk off a nice feed from Voracek.
At 7:23, Couturier went over the middle to receive a backhanded pass from Giroux and chipped it past Mrazek. On the play, Hamilton pushed Travis Konecny into Mrazek in the blue paint before Konecny vacated the area just prior to the Couturier shot. Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour challenged the goal, claiming goalie interference by Konecny but the call on the ice stood.
Philly got back with 4-3 at 10:58 on another power play goal. On this one, van Riemsdyk claimed a Voracek rebound in front and swept it home.
Disaster struck at 15:13. Voracek took a feed in the right circle from Oskar Lindblom but his scoop shot went high and wide of the net. The Hurricanes countered 3-on-1 with Teräväinen electing to shoot from the right circle. The shot was right into Neuvirth's pads but the goalie, not quite set because he anticipated a pass, had it leak through the five-hole and trickle over the goal line.
"We should have gained momentum and we needed a save there and it didn’t happen," Neuvirth said.
The Flyers have a noon practice on Friday. On Saturday afternoon, they host the Calgary Flames at the Wells Fargo Center.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
Join the Discussion:
»