Goals and wins alike have been hard to come by for the Philadelphia Flyers ever since Christmas. On Monday night at the Wells Fargo Center, the Flyers erased an early 2-0 deficit in the first period and a 3-2 disadvantage in the second period to
earn a 7-4 victory.
James van Riemsdyk, who has scored goals in three straight games, tallied a hat trick for the Flyers on deflections off his stick and skate plus an empty-net tally. He now has 11 goals on the season.
van Riemsyk has been on a tear since a brief partial-game demotion to the fourth line and a talk with interim head coach Scott Gordon about getting his game back on track. JVR said that his previous relationship in Toronto with Gordon built a strong line of communication between the two of them.
"I think he’s getting more volume. It’s one thing to get there two or three times a night but on a power play I think that was the area I felt he could be better in and I think he was trying to be an outlet in areas that didn’t provide him opportunities," Gordon said.
"I think for me the only thing that made it easier is the fact that I knew what he was capable of so I could fall back to our experience in Toronto. What I saw there and wasn’t seeing here so it was a good conversation. It wasn’t anything about being a poor player it was just about how to be better and be yourself."
Nolan Patrick ended a 24-game goal drought with two goals (6th and 7th) and two assists for a four-point game. Wayne Simmonds tallied his 14th and 15th goals of the season. Scott Laughton had three assists while team captain Claude Giroux had two.
"I’ll be honest, it weighs on you quite a bit and it’s something you think about quite a bit when you go through a slump like that. You just have to believe in yourself and keep trying to do things that help the team. If it’s not scoring, it’s trying to play a good two-way game and it will eventually come, didn’t think it would take that long, but it happened," Patrick said.
Carter Hart had two early pucks squeak past him on a Jason Zucker power play goal (13th) that he felt may have goaltender interference by Minnesota forward Nino Niederreiter and a play in which Phil Varone turned a puck over and then accidentally deflected a Joel Eriksson Ek shot (2nd goal) from the top of the left circle into the net. Marcus Foligno scored (3rd) on a second effort from the doorstep early in the second period. Ryan Suter (5th) scored a mid third period goal that was initially waved off for goalie interference but then reversed upon challenge by Minnesota head coach Bruce Boudreau.
Whatever adversity was thrown at him, including being jostled around the net several times, Hart battled through it and competed for saves. He settled in as the game went along and earned the win with 34 saves on 38 shots. If the no-goal call on the final Minnesota tally had held on replay, he'd have had a statistically decent night. More important, his moxie and some timely saves stood out. Hart made 13 stops in the third period to protect the lead.
"I think the first half of the game, I wasn’t very sharp but like I said the boys kept competing and stuck to it and got some support. We were down by two and we battled back and I just had to compete for myself to kind of get myself into the game and get going, knowing that the boys had my back with scoring some goals and just competing. The mood in the locker room right now between periods and on the benches has been really good and very supportive for everybody and it’s fun to be a part of," Hart said.
Devan Dubnyk, who earned back-to-back shutouts against the Flyers last season, was beaten for five goals on 20 shots in 40 minutes of work. With the Wild back in action at home on Tuesday,he was relieved in the third period by Alex Stalock (five saves on six shots).
The Flyers called an early timeout when down 2-0; the message was that there was a lot of hockey left to play (51:34) and the team needed to stay on-system and not get down. On this night, at least, it worked.
Minnesota challenged two goals during the game; coming up on the short end of a challenge for offside on the entry leading up to the first van Riemsdyk goal at 12:04 of the first period. The team was assessed an automatic delay of game penalty for the failed challenge. At 8:18 of the third period, Boudreau challenged the disallowed Suter goal and got a reversal.
The Flyers went 1-for-5 on the power play, featuring a new-look first unit with five forwards. Philadelphia went 1-for-3 on the penalty kill.
A synopsis of the goals:
0-1 Minnesota (PP, 7:34 1st period): Zucker's shot from just outside the blue paint squeaked through Hart's pads. Neiderreiter and Mikko Koivu got the assists. Hart said after the game that he got opened up by Niederreiter, from near the right post, pitch-forking his pad as the puck slid out past the crease, creating enough of an opening for the puck to dribble through.
Being a rookie, Hart did not feel he was in position to complain after the play. It appeared that Gordon was looking at the play on the bench, but he said after the game that no challenge for goaltender interference was considered on the bench or suggested by video manager Adam Patterson.
"I thought I had it in my arm and the guy just kind of pitchforked me in the net and when I moved, it opened me up and the puck trickled in. I don’t know if I should be saying anything yet but I think going forward that’s definitely something you can challenge. I mean their guys, their team, was challenging everything tonight," Hart said.
0-2 Minnesota (8:26 1st period): Varone turned the puck over from below the bottom the circle to Matt Hendricks, who passed out to Eriksson Ek pinching into the top of the circle. The shot deflected off the heel of Varone's stick and dribbled in through the space above Hart's pad and below the blocker.
1-2 Flyers (PP, 12:04 1st period): Jakub Voracek's center-point shot was tipped in by JVR, who was set up in screening position in front of the net. Sean Couturier got a secondary assist. The Wild challenged, claiming that Couturier touched the puck over the blueline offside before JVR could touch up at the line. It was splitting hairs either which way. After a long delay, the call on the ice stood and it was ruled a legal touch-up and entry.
2-2 Flyers (18:48 1st period): van Riemdyk made this play happen, first by gaining entry into the offensive zone with the puck and then continuing toward the net. Girioux's shot from high in the zone went off Minnesota defenseman Nate Prosser, then off JVR's skate boot and then into the net. Giroux and Radko Gudas got the helpers.
2-3 Wild (2:23 2nd period): Hart was unable to locate the puck behind the net, turning his head left and right and not seeing Eric Staal's centering pass to Foligno in the low slot. Hart made an initial stop with his pad but Foligno scored on a second chance opportunity with three Flyers (Ivan Provorov, van Riemsdyk and Travis Konecny) in the vicinity.
3-3 Flyers (4:59 2nd period): A lovely saucer pass by Laughton was chipped into the net from the left circle by Patrick; his first point in his eventual four-goal explosion. Ivan Provorov earned his 11th assist of the season for the initial.
4-3 Flyers (15:28 3rd period): A highlight reel finish on some good puck luck. Travis Sanheim's shot from high in the zone went wide of the net and bounced off the end boards directly to Patrick, who scored on a between-the-legs shot into the vacant left half of the net. Shayne Gostisbehere got the secondary assist.
“I practiced that in the summer when I was goofing around on the ice and also at the end of skates. It’s something you really don’t get a chance to do much in games but it kind of worked out well for me there," Patrick said.
5-3 Flyers (19:54 2nd period): This late-period insurance goal that started with good work in the D-zone proved to be extremely valuable in the third period. Laughton made a high flip pass from the defense zone, which was batted down at the red line by Pateryn. Simmonds immediately poked the puck past the defender and went in alone on Dubnyk. From the slot, Simmonds wristed a shot over the goalie for a two-goal lead. Laughton and Patrick got the assists.
5-4 Flyers (8:18 3rd period): Hart had no chance on this one. Bumped by Robert Hägg near the right side of the net, Staal took out the goalie in the blue paint and Suter scored. The goal was immediately waved off but, after a challenge from the Wild, it was ruled that Hägg had pushed the attacker into the crease and there was no reasonable opportunity to avoid the contact. Staal and Zach Parise picked up the assists.
6-4 Flyers (10:43 3rd period): Another big lift for the Flyers here as Laughton made a perfect cross ice feed to Simmonds going toward the left post and Simmonds finished it off to restore a two-goal lead.
7-4 Flyers (ENG, 18:43 3rd period): The Flyers had a lengthy bend-but-don't-break shift with Minnesota attacking 6-on-5 before they were finally able to get a line change. With JVR and Oskar Lindblom (17:14 TOI, two shots) breaking out of the zone with open lanes, Giroux sent the puck down the ice from the defensive half wall. JVR caught up to the puck first and, from between the hash marks down the middle, slid the puck into the vacant cage. Giroux and Gudas got the assists.
The Flyers (17-23-6) will practice on Tuesday at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. On Wednesday, the team will host the Boston Bruins in a 7:30 p.m. ET nationally televised game on NBC Sports Network.
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