Wrap: Flyers Hold Off Vegas, 2-1
A pair of first period goals, a career single-game record for saves by Carter Hart (47 on 48 shots) and 23 blocked shots in front of him including six by Rasmus Ristolainen were just enough for the Philadelphia Flyers to defeat the Vegas Golden Knights, 2-1, at the Wells Fargo Center on Monday night.
Justin Braun, who also came up with a vital block to end an extended stretch on a penalty kill where Hart was facing a shooting gallery after losing his stick, scored the game's first goal (5th of the season). Oskar Lindblom tallied a wraparound goal (10th) in the final minute of the first period to make it 2-0. Scott Laughton earned assists on both Philadelphia goals, while Travis Konecny and Ivan Provorov had one helper apiece.
For Lindblom, it was his 10th goal and 20th point in 34 games since Dec. 6, which was Mike Yeo's first game as interim head coach. He had only one point, an assist, in 21 games under Alain Vigneault. Flyers captain Claude Giroux has 21 points (10g, 11a) over the same span.
Hart had no chance of stopping Vegas' lone goal; a tic-tac-toe power play marker by Evgenii Dadonov (11th) in combination with Jack Eichel and Jonathan Marchessault. At the other end of the ice, Robin Lehner (19 saves) was not very sharp. He was caught out of position several times and was beaten by Braun on a clear-sighted point shot that the goalie misplayed. Fortunately for Lehner, he saw limited shots and chances after the first period.
The Flyers were badly outplayed in the second period, including a staggering 11-2 high-danger scoring chance disparity in Vegas' favor (per Natural Stat Trick). The Flyers continued to spend too little time attacking and too much time defending in the third period but at least most of the play was kept to the perimeter and Philly got a host of blocked shots.
"I think our start was pretty good to be honest with you. We had a good start and we came out and did a pretty good job. Started to get away from our game a little bit towards the end of the first period. Second period we had one pretty good look, but obviously the too many men on the ice penalty [which was converted into Dadonov's goal] really put things in their favor," Flyers head coach Mike Yeo said.
"A big part of the game tonight was that we had some big kills, but they got that power play goal and I think we lost some momentum with our power play. This is one area where we still need to get better in our game. You play against these good teams and you have to space it along. I think we worked hard, but the details of our game were not that sharp so we just couldn’t get in the offensive zone. If you do that you are going to lean on your goalie and lean on your defensive play a lot."
The finish, with the Flyers on a penalty kill (Ivan Provorov was called for delay of game after flipping the puck over the glass from the defensive zone). was a wild one. The Golden Knights attacked 6-on-4 with Lehner pulled for an extra attacker. Hart and company found a way to get through the final kill.
The Flyers' power play, a sore spot most of the season but especially since the calendar flipped to 2022, was a momentum killer for them in going an ugly 0-for-4. Philly also took too many penalties against a dangerous Vegas club but were able to go 4-for-5.
The Flyers (18-28-10) finished their franchise-record eight-game homestand with a 3-4-1 record. It could have been worse but most of the games were winnable heading into third periods and the team's performance was all over the map from inspired to atrocious depending on the period and the game in question.
The club will practice on Wednesday at noon at the FTC in Voorhees, and then head to Sunrise to play the Florida Panthers (39-13-5) on Thursday evening.
For a full recap, analysis and highlight clips from Tuesday's game, see the
Postgame 5 on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com.
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Phantoms Blanked in Hershey
The free-falling Lehigh Valley Phantoms lost their sixth straight game (0-5-1) as they slogged through a lackluster 4-0 road loss to the Hershey Bears at the Giant Center on Tuesday evening. The team only trailed 1-0 heading into the third period but were outplayed most of the night, and the Bears put the game out of reach in a three-goal third period.
Almost to a man, the Phantoms were outskated and outworked pretty much all night. Hershey had shot on goal edges of 7-0 and 10-2 in a scoreless first period, although it wasn't until 10:21 of the second period that Hershey's Beck Malenstyn (6th goal of the season) got the game's first goal. Early in the third period, closely spaced tallies by Brett Leason (2nd) and Garrett Pilon (15th) expanded the Hershey lead to 3-0.
The Phantoms attempted a far-too-little and far-too-late push once they are out of the game (13 of Lehigh Valley's 26 shots came in the third period, with most being fired in the final 15 minutes). That was short-circuited by an empty net goal by Malenstn with 2:12 remaining.
It was hard to find highlights from the Lehigh Valley side. As excellent as Morgan Frost was offensively and defensively (despite not recording a point) last Wednesday against Providence, that's how ineffective he was in this game. He won few battles, created no offensive chances of note, did not record a short on goal, and was beaten defensively by Pilon on the third Hershey goal. Frost and other Phantoms were on the wrong side of the puck too many times and no one had their feet moving with any consistency or seemed to be on the same page.
Frost was far from the only Phantom who had a bad night. Tanner Laczynski finished with four shots on goal, but wasn't getting to the inside. Cam York, other than a couple up-ice shifts handing the puck, was a non-factor (zero shots, minus-one) and had a defensive misplay that contributed directly to the second Hershey goal. Linus Sandin was back in the lineup after missing Saturday's game but could not accomplish much. Apart from a couple hits, Isaac Ratcliffe was a non-factor.
The Phantoms' best players on this night, arguably, were defenseman Cooper Zech and forward Connor Bunnaman.
Egor Zamula and Matthew Strome missed the game due to injury, as did Jackson Cates (the good news is that Cates is out of the hospital after his scary crash into the end boards in Saturday's loss to Charlotte). Wade Allison might be ready to play later this week. Phantoms leading goal-scorer served the third and final game of his third AHL suspension of the season. Lehigh Valley missed him in his absence.
Felix Sandström made 29 saves on 29 shots in a losing cause. Zach Fucale was credited with a 26-save shutout.
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