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Wrap: Flyers Fall in Tampa, 5-2 |
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Wrap: Flyers Fall in Tampa, 5-2
The Flyers entered Tuesday night's game in Tampa Bay ranked 23rd on the penalty kill (75.9 percent) overall and 30th on the road (72.9 percent). The Lightning came in ranked 2nd in the NHL on the power play at 25.6 percent.
As such, one of the biggest keys for the Flyers' hopes of prolonging Tampa's five-game winless streak on Tuesday night at Amalie Arena was to stay out of the penalty box as much as possible. Instead, the Flyers took three minors in the first period alone and five penalties in all -- mostly of the up-ice and/or retaliatory varieties -- and paid the price dearly.
Tampa won the game, 5-2, with the entire margin coming by virtue of the Lightning going 3-for-6 on the man advantage and the Flyers' bottom-ranked power play coming away 0-for-3 (despite generating legit pressure, which has been all-too-infrequent the last several seasons). At 5-on-5, both teams scored twice and had runs of momentum. Plain and simple, the Flyers' lost Tuesday's game because of discipline lapses and their season-series long PK struggles against the Lightning's fearsome power play.
Things started well for the Flyers. Morgan Frost (12th goal of the season) gave them a short-lived 1-0 lead at 5:52 of the first period. Alex Killorn (19th) answered on the power play at 7:38.
The Lightning's Nikita Kucherov (24th) made it a 2-1 game with a power play goal 34 seconds into the middle stanza.
That was followed by a Ross Colton goal (15th) at 8:46 and an opportunistic goal by Killorn (2nd of the game, 20th of the season) as Tampa built a 4-1 lead at 10:49 of the second period. Brendan Lemieux (1st of the season, 1st as a Flyer) got one goal back for the Flyers at 12:40. The Lightning took a 4-2 lead to the second intermission. In the third period, Tampa tacked on a late power play goal by Kucherov (2nd of the game, 25th of the season).
Carter Hart stopped 34 of 39 shots in a losing cause. Andrei Vasilevskiy started out looking shaky but settled in and went to make some very good saves among 33 saves on 35 shots.
Travis Sanheim and Joel Farabee were benched by head coach John Tortorella for the duration of the second period. Both players were guilty of taking bad penalties: two in Farabee's case, one for Sanheim at the end of a prolonged and rough shift. With two Flyers forwards (Lemieux and Tanner Laczynski) working their way back into game shape and seventh defenseman Justin Braun being spotted selectively, Farabee and Sanheim returned in the third period.
Tony DeAngelo could be facing supplemental discipline from the NHL for a spearing incident on Corey Perry in the latter stages of the third period. DeAngelo received a major penalty and game misconduct at the 17:20 mark.
There were some bright spots for the Flyers: Owen Tippett (nine) and Frost (five) had 14 shots on goal between them and combined for 5-6 legitimate scoring chances including Frost's tally that opened the scoring. Tippett played 23:47 across 28 shifts, while Frost skated 20:31 over 25 shifts. Noah Cates quietly had a rock-solid game at 5-on-5 while logging 20:24 of ice time. Young defenseman Cam York made a number of really nice plays and looked confident in jumping into attack. York was initially credited with the goal that eventually went to Lemieux afte replays showed a slight deflection in the mid-slot.
Farabee's two penalties and second-period benching were negatives but he made a really nice pass to Frost on the goal that made it 1-0. It was Farabee's second point (0g, 2a) in his last 21 games. Additionally, Farabee played a solid third period when Tortorella sent him back into the game following his banishment throughout the middle stanza. Farabee, who is 24 games removed from his last goal (Jan. 9 in Buffalo) hit the post with a chance to cut a 4-2 deficit to one goal. He's had four Grade A chances in the last two games, and five in the last three. As long as the chances keep coming, pucks will finally start going in for him again.
The Flyers have another tough test on tap: On Thursday, they will be in Raleigh to take on the Carolina Hurricanes.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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