POSTGAME 5: Flyers Fall in OT, 3-2

The Philadelphia Flyers battled back from a pair of one-goal deficits to force overtime before losing. 3-2, to a severely undermanned Pittsburgh Penguins team at PPG Paints Arena on Thursday night. Kris Letang (1st goal of the season) scored the game winner on an overtime wraparound in his first game back after a battle with coronavirus.

The game was a sporadic overall effort from the Flyers. For long stretches, they got outworked and outcompeted by the Penguins before making a push of their own. Overall, while the Flyers made some good plays, they gave up too much time and space to a Penguins team that was missing half its regular blueline along with the likes of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Bryan Rust.
A deflection tally by Brock McGinn (3rd goal of the season) on the game's opening shift gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead they held for the remainder of the first period. A nice shot in close quarters by Travis Konecny (power play, 4th) briefly tied the game in the second period but Jake Guentzel (2nd) restored the lead for Pittsburgh. With just under three minutes left in the third period, Scott Laughton (3rd) converted a Pittsburgh turnover into a goal that tied the game at 2-2.
Carter Hart more or less stole the Flyers a point in regulation. He finished with 33 saves on 36 shots. Tristan Jarry was equally strong in net for Pittsburgh, earning the win with 36 saves on 38 shots.
The Flyers went 1-for-3 on the power play. Pitttsburgh was 0-for-2 on the man advantage.
TURNING POINT
In overtime, both teams had scoring chances. At 1:57. Letang scored on a wraparound that crossed the goal line by a whisker to end the game. Jeff Carter earned the only assist.
MELTZER'S TAKE
1) At the 16-second mark of the game, McGinn moved in front and deflected Mike Matheson's flipped point shot along the ice past Hart. Pittsburgh had the better of the play for about the first 12 minutes of the period, winning most of the 50-50 battles and taking away time and space from the Flyers. Philadelphia's first power play went nowhere -- no shots on net or anything close to a scoring chance.
2) However, over the latter part of the first period, the Flyers took over the game. Oskar Lindblom, still looking for his first goal of the season, was unable to finish off a point blank chance set up by Scott Laughton. Prior to that, Zack MacEwen won a puck battle but Nate Thompson directed the puck wide from the center slot. First period shots on goal ended up 17-8 in the Flyers favor but the Penguins had the only one that counted in the cash register. Pittsburgh also blocked five Flyers shot attempts.
3) Hart saved the Flyers' bacon repeatedly in the early minutes of the second period but kept the deficit to one goal. Finally, at 7:37, the Flyers cashed in their second power play (and first power play shot of the game). A great effort by goal-scorer Konecny made it happen. Facing the end boards, took a pass from Claude Giroux. In tight quarters to the net, Konecny turned around as Mark Friedman went down to his knee in front of the net, and then flipped the puck upstairs over Jarry. The secondary assist went to Ivan Provorov.

4) As the second period progressed, the Penguins took the play to the Flyers. It took clutch saves by Hart -- and a bit of good luck where Penguins forwards missed half open nets. However, at 11:46, a broken play for Pittsburgh turned into a goal. Guentzel worked his way inside the top of the circle but then whiffed on a shot. That seemed to get Hart off his rhythm as Guentzel recovered the puck and fired as Jeff Carter went directly to the net. The puck found space between the pads and went into the net. The assists went to Danton Heinen and John Marino.
The Flyers had some chances of their own, including a 2-on-1 for the fourth line (Jarry made a save on Zack MacEwen) and a breakaway for James van Riemsdyk that was sprung by Oskar Lindblom (JVR's five-hole attempt on the backhand was stopped cold). Second period shots were 16-10 in Pittsburgh's favor. Entering the game as the NHL's No. 1 ranked faceoff time, the Flyers lost 20 of 30 faceoffs over the first two periods. Carter won eight of 12 for the Pens.
5) Over the first half of the third period, the Flyers generated a 7-4 shot edge, but struggled to create high-end scoring chances. The Flyers did a good job killing off a Nicolas Aube-Kubel offensive zone penalty. With time ticking below seven minutes left, Kris Letang made a goal-saving play on Konecny. Hart then erased a 2-on-1 (basically a 2-on-0) after Ristolainen got caught behind the play. A moment later, McGinn took a high-sticking penalty in the attack zone corner with 6;02 left. The Flyers' top PP unit nearly scored at the end of the crucial power play but Couturier couldn't put the puck home.

At 17:08 the Penguins' Mike Matheson turned the puck over behind his own net. A JVR centering feed went off Carter's skate into the slot and Laughton buried it to tie the game at 2-2. The whole sequence started with a Flyers dump-in and confusion by the Pens on potential breakout, and it went downhill from there for Pittsburgh on the shift. Third period shots ended up 9-9 (36-34 Flyers through regulation) before the game went to overtime.