POSTGAME 5: Flyers Fall to Penguins, 4-1
On Black Friday, the Philadelphia Flyers lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-1, at the Wells Fargo Center. The Flyers are now winless in their last nine games (0-6-3)
A Josh Archibald rebound goal (4th of the season) gave Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead at 11:37 of the first period. Sidney Crosby (11th) made it 2-0 on a deflection goal at 19:29 of the opening stanza.
In the second period, Ryan Poehling scored a deflection goal (3rd) at the 2:57 mark and then tallied another goal on a jam-in play from behind the goal line. Kevin Hayes (6th) got the Flyers on the scoreboard at 10:04 of the third period.
Carter Hart played 33:37, getting pulled after the second Poehling goal. He stopped 17 of 21 shots. Felix Sandström went the rest of the way, denying all eight shots he faced. Tristan Jarry earned the win for Pittsburgh, saving 29 of 30 shots including 14 of 15 in the third period.
The Flyers went 0-for-1 on the power play. The Penguins were 0-for-3
FLYERS STARTING LINEUP
49 Noah Cates - 13 Kevin Hayes - 74 Owen Tippett
20 Kieffer Bellows - 48 Morgan Frost - 17 Zack MacEwen
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 58 Tanner Laczynski - 86 Joel Farabee
59 Jackson Cates - 23 Lukas Sedlak - 38 Patrick Brown
9 Ivan Provorov - 77 Tony DeAngelo
6 Travis Sanheim - 61 Justin Braun
24 Nick Seeler - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
79 Carter Hart
[32 Felix Sandström]
TURNING POINT
The Flyers were roughly 30 seconds from getting out of the first period down only 1-0 after Pittsburgh dominated the latter 15 minutes of the frame. Crosby's deflection goal put an early stranglehold on the game for the Penguins.
MELTZER'S TAKE
1) The Penguins turned the puck over in their own zone on the first shift of the game. Hayes teed up a one-timer for Noah Cates. On the next shift, Bellows took a pass from Frost and moved in for a backhander from the slot. The sequence started with Frost recording a takeaway at the defensive blueline. A shift later, Sanheim generated an entry on a promising looking foray.
The Flyers quickly racked up the game's first five shots and six of the first eight. However, the Penguins won each of the game's first eight faceoffs.
Hart made a clean glove save on a Jeff Carter snap shot from the right slot at 4:32, At 6:35, the Flyers were caught in a line change as Pittsburgh rushed the other way. Hart gloved down a Bryan Rust shot from over the middle. At 7:01, Guentzel was denied from point blank range after a centering pass attempt went off Ristolainen and went right to the Penguins.
Shots were 6-5 Flyers through nine minutes.The Penguins controlled the next two shifts and had each of the next three shots on goal. An unlikely player to go end-to-end, MacEwen, nearly pulled off just such a rush but was stopped by Jarry's pad.
At 11:37, the Penguins took a 1-0 lead. The shift started with a neutral zone faceoff win by the Flyers but they weren't able to do much with it. Braun turned over the puck. Teddy Blueger snapped a shot on Hart and then Archibald cleaned up the rebound,
The Flyers got the game's first power play as Hayes was tripped up by Danton Heinen driving at the net in the Pittsburgh zone at 14:12. The power play was short-circuited with 42 seconds remaining as Provorov was called for interference in trying to create some room for Farabee to gain an entry.
Hayes made a good defensive play and rushed the other way as the 4-on-4 gave way to a Penguins power play. On the abbreviated Penguins' man advantage, Hart stopped a Guntzel tip in and then Malkin from in close.
With 30.5 seconds left in the opening period, a Marcus Pettersson left point shot was deflected into the net by Crosby from center slot to make it 2-0 Pittsburgh. Letang got the secondary assist. Hayes was unable to cancel out Crosby's stick on the play.
2) After the Flyers had the game's first five shots, the Penguins had 15 of 17 over the rest of the frame. Shot attempts ended up 27-13 Pittsburgh for the period. Scoring chances wound up 16-6 Penguins and high-danger chances were 7-2 Pittsburgh. The Penguins won 12 of 19 faceoffs. Philly blocked nine shot attempts by the Penguins.
3) Hayes started the second period on the Flyers' fourth line although there were a lot of different blended lines as the frame progressed.
The Penguins came right out attacking in the second period. At the 30-second mark, Guentzel knocked the puck into the net with a blatantly high stick. On the next shift, Frost was unable to finish off a 2-on-1 feed from Bellows and MacEwen couldn't get to a loose puck.
Deslauriers fought Pettersson at 2:04. Pettersson did little but dodge -- or receive -- punches but hung in.
Pittsburgh made it 3-0 at 2:59. Ryan Poehling from the mid slot deflected a Blueger shot into the net. Jeff Petry had the secondary assist.
DeAngelo blocked a shot off the inside of his ankle. He hobbled off to the bench. Pittsburgh had five of the first six shots on goal of the period.
At 6:25, Seeler dropped the gloves with Brock McGinn after a routine neutral zone hit by the latter. Seeler forced the issue. The Flyer got a roughing double minor, while McGinn got two. Pittsburgh got a power play.
After the Pittsburgh power play expired, MacEwen switched to his backhand to deflected a Farabee feed on net.The Flyers won the next faceoff, and DeAngelo fired a point shot on net. Philly subsequently iced the puck at 9:10.
Pittsburgh's lead grew to 4-0 at 15:37, ending Hart's day on a jam play from just behind the goal line. Hart was unable to fully seal off the post and it went off him into the net. The goal was initially called unassisted but assists were later added for Blueger and Archibald.
Sandström stopped Malkin from close range on the first shot he saw. A few minutes later, the goalie denied Crosby. At the other end of the ice, Philly generated only one-and-done forays.
With 40.2 seconds left in the period, Malkin and Sanheim went off on coincidental stick minors for slashing (Malkin) and cross-checking (Sanheim). There was roughly 1:20 of carryover 4-on-4 time heading into the third period.
4) Second period shots on goal were 9-8 Pittsburgh. Shot attempts were 20-14 Penguins. Scoring chances were 13-2 Penguins and high-danger chances were 7-2 Penguins. The Flyers needed more than a missed net by Frost from prime range off the 2-on-1 rush and good feed from Bellows. That play was Philly's best chance to score in the period.
5) During the carryover 4-on-4, Frost made a good move over the middle and got off a backhander from the slot but missed the net. The sequence started with a Frost takeaway at the other end. DeAngelo pinched in and had a good scoring chance during a solid shift by the Cates line. The Flyers had the first four shots of the third period.
MacEwen was fouled by Petry on a breakaway at 7:17. He was awarded a penalty shot. MacEwen fired from the right hash marks and put the shot off the blocker of Jarry, who was well out to challenge.
Philly made the third period shots 10-1 in their favor about nine minutes into the third period on a long-range shot by MacEwen.
At 10:04, the Flyers got on the board. Deslauriers passed blueline to blueline, received by Hayes. He flipped the puck home to the short side. Deslauriers and Sanheim got the assists.
The Penguins very nearly scored just 11 seconds after the Hayes goal. Sandström stopped Blueger from close range to keep it a 4-1 game. At 11:40, Provorov made a nice feed to Deslauriers, who missed the net. On the next shift, a Frost pass was tipped but ended up on the stick of Tippett, who drew iron off he post with the shot.
The Penguins got a late power play with 1:52 left as Brown accidentally high-sticked Joseph behind the Pittsburgh net. Ristolainen blocked a one-timer attempt by Letang. Blueger was unable to catch and shoot a feed in the final 10 seconds.
The Flyers had a 15-5 shot on goal edge in the third period, as the Penguins went into cruise control mode.
