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Flyers Gameday: 3/11/21 vs. WSH; Phantoms Game Suspended |
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GAME 24: FLYERS vs. CAPITALS
Alain Vigneault's Philadelphia Flyers (13-7-3) are home on Thursday to take on Peter Laviolette's Washington Capitals (15-6-4) at the Wells Fargo Center. Game time is 7:00 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on NBCSP.
The Flyers are 1-1-0 against the Capitals this season, with a 7-4 win in Washington on Feb 7 and a 3-1 loss at home on March 7.
The Flyers controlled the first period but only scored a single goal. Washington pushed back in the second period and the Flyers were forced to chase the game in the third. Philly wasn't lacking for scoring chances but the team was unable to bury them and, as in the recent games in Pittsburgh, Flyers' breakdowns proved very costly.
Joel Farabee (11th goal of the season) got the Flyers on the board first in the opening period. Goals by Alex Ovechkin (8th) and one by Dmitry Orlov (2nd) in the final 16 seconds of the middle frame put the Capitals ahead, 2-1. Nick Jensen added an insurance goal (1st) early in the third period.
Carter Hart stopped 24 of 27 shots in a losing cause. Ilya Samsonov earned the win with 36 saves on 37 shots.
Flyers Outlook
The Flyers have lost three of their last five games but are coming off a 5-4 shootout home win over the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday. The Flyers trailed by scores of 3-1 (first period) and 4-2 (second period) but came back to force OT and eventually prevail (2-0) in the skills competition.
The Flyers struck fast, as James van Riemsdyk (11th) goal of the season but then succumbed to their own loose defensive play and inability to get clutch saves. Sam Reinhart (10th and 11th) sandwiched a pair of even-strength goals around a Riley Sheahan rebound goal (3rd) as Buffalo took a 3-1 lead to the first intermission.
A Kevin Hayes goal (9th) off a gorgeous backhand pass by Scott Laughton narrowed the gap to 3-2 early in the second period. Buffalo defensive defenseman Brandon Montour (1st) restored a two-goal margin on a deflected shot. Claude Giroux (4th) got Philly back within 4-3 on a tip-in from a saucer pass from Jakub Voracek. In the third period, Shayne Gostisbehere (power play, 4th) got the game knotted.
After a scoreless overtime, the game moved to a shootout. Couturier elected to shoot rather than deke and scored inside the left post. In the second round, Nolan Patrick attacked with speed and scored high to the glove side. Neither Rasmus Dahlin (stopped by the pads) nor Casey Mittelstadt (made a move, tucked the puck wide) scored on their attempts.
A struggling Carter Hart lasted just one period, giving up three goals on eight shots. Brian Elliott went the rest of the way, stopping 11 of 12 shots and then going 2-for-2 in the shootout.
Phil Myers, who skated just 11:52 of ice time across 17 shifts on Tuesday with the Flyers starting seven defensemen, practiced on the "fourth pair" on Wednesday with Taxi Squad veteran defenseman Nate Prosser as his partner.
Vigneault said on Wednesday that he is still trying to find a player to adapt to the "Nisky role" that retired defenseman Matt Niskanen played last season alongside Ivan Provorov, and has tried a variety of combinations. He said that Shayne Gostisbehere has played well overall.
The right-handed Myers, whom Vigneault said needs to be significantly more consistent in his performance, was among the players who got a look on the top pair. Vigneault said that he's been generally pleased with the pairing of Travis Sanheim and Justin Braun of late, and can mix and match on the third pairing. AV said that he hasn't been unhappy with the majority of Erik Gustafsson's recent games, although Gustafsson sat out several in a row before returning on Tuesday in a seven-man rotation.
Capitals Outlook
The Caps are 3-1-0 to start March, although the team had to work beyond regulation in two of their wins including a 5-4 overtime home win against New Jersey on Tuesday. The Caps were unable to nail down a regulation win after leading 4-1 entering the third period but Jakub Vrana's second goal of the game (10th of the season) rescued an OT victory.
T.J. Oshie (PP. 6th), Daniel Sprong (4th) and Dmitry Orlov (3rd) also scored for Washington. Nicklas Bäckström earned a pair of assists, while Evgeny Kuznetsov set up the game-winner in overtime. Vitek Vanecek earned the win in goal with 27 saves on 31 shots.
The Flyers are likely to face Samsonov on Thursday. Four nights ago, the Russian netminder played arguably the best game in net the Flyers have encountered this season from an opposing goaltender.
Tom Wilson will serve the third game of his seven-game NHL suspension for a head-high check that hospitalized Boston Bruins defenseman Brandon Carlo.
Last season, the Flyers held Alex Ovechkin without a single point in the four-game season series. It's been a different story this season with Ovechkin racking up five points (3g, 2a) in the two games played to date between the teams.
Projected lineups
FLYERS
25 James van Riemsdyk - 14 Sean Couturier - 86 Joel Farabee
21 Scott Laughton - 13 Kevin Hayes - 11 Travis Konecny
23 Oskar Lindblom - 28 Claude Giroux - 93 Jake Voracek
10 Andy Andreoff - 19 Nolan Patrick- 62 Nicolas Aube-Kubel
9 Ivan Provorov - 53 Shayne Gostisbehere
6 Travis Sanheim - 61 Justin Braun
8 Robert Hägg - 56 Erik Gustafsson
37 Brian Elliott
[79 Carter Hart]
PP1: Giroux, Couturier, JVR, Farabee, Gostisbehere.
PP2: Voracek, Hayes, Patrick, Konecny, Provorov.
Scratches: 12 Michael Raffl (hand), 5 Phil Myers (healthy).
Injured reserve: 48 Morgan Frost (shoulder surgery).
COVID-19 protocol: None.
CAPITALS
8 Alex Ovechkin - 19 Nicklas Bäckström -77 T.J. Oshie
13 Jakub Vrana - 92 Evgeny Kuznetsov - 10 Daniel Sprong
73 Conor Sheary - 20 Lars Eller - 14 Richard Panik
62 Carl Hagelin - 26 Nic Dowd - 21 Garnet Hathaway
4 Brenden Dillon - 74 John Carlson
9 Dmitry Orlov- 2 Justin Schultz
33 Zdeno Chara - 3 Nick Jensen
30 Ilya Samsonov
[41 Vitek Vanecek]
PP1: Ovechkin, Bäckström, Oshie, Vrana, Carlson
PP2: Ovechkin, Kuznetsov, Sheary, Sprong, Schultz
Scratches: 34 Jonas Siegenthaler (healthy), 57 Trevor van Riemsdyk (healthy).
Injured reserve: 6 Michal Kempny (Achilles tendon repair surgery), 47 Beck Malenstyn (Achilles tendon repair surgery), 35 Henrik Lundqvist (open heart surgery).
NHL suspension: 43 Tom Wilson (game 3 of 7, eligible to return March 20).
COVID-19 protocol: None.
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Phantoms Game Suspended
Last night's American Hockey League Game at the Prudential Center in Newark between the visiting Lehigh Valley Phantoms and the Binghamton Devils was suspended by the league after the first period due to COVID-19 regulations. An unidentified Devils player in the starting lineup had to enter the COVID-19 protocol, thereby causing the remainder of the game to be suspended. No completion date has been announced as of this writing.
At the time of the stoppage, the game was tied 1-1 at the first intermission. Playing his first game in 364 days, Phantoms goalie Alex Lyon stopped 10 of 11 shots in the first period. Trailing 1-0 after a Grahme Clark power play goal, the Phantoms knotted the score with a power play marker of their own as veteran Cal O'Reilly tallied off a cross-ice feed from rookie defenseman Wyatte Wylie. Rookie winger Zayde Wisdom earned a secondary assist.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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