POSTGAME 5: Flyers Remain Winless in OT
The Philadelphia Flyers opened a four-game road trip on Friday with a 2-1 overtime loss to the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena on Friday evening
The Flyers were the better team in the first period, but trailed heading into the second period. Philly drew even in the second and then needed a series of excellent saves to take the the game to the third period tied at 1-1. After nursing the game to OT, the Flyers had the better of the play for much of overtime but ultimately came up short.
A Jonathan Marchessault breakaway goal (12th) goal of the season ended the game at 3:21 of 3-on-3 sudden death. In an oddity, all three goals scored in the game were unassisted.
William Carrier (9th goal of the season) scored 11:45 into the game for the lone goal of the first period. Scott Laughton (4th) tied the game at 1:47 of the second period with a fortuitous bank shot goal from behind the net. The third period was scoreless.
Carter Hart stopped 32 of 34 shots in a losing cause. Adin Hill stopped 27 of 28 shots to earn the win.
The Flyers did not receive a power play in the game. The Golden Knights were 0-for.2.
Philadelphia blocked 22 shots, led by five from Rasmus Ristolainen. The Flyers had a 40-23 edge in hits, including seven credited to Lukas Sedlak.
FLYERS STARTING LINEUP
13 Kevin Hayes - 49 Noah Cates - 11 Travis Konecny
86 Joel Farabee - 21 Scott Laughton - 74 Owen Tippett
25 James van Riemsdyk - 48 Morgan Frost - 17 Zack MacEwen
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 23 Lukas Sedlak - 38 Patrick Brown
9 Ivan Provorov - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
6 Travis Sanheim - 61 Justin Braun
45 Cam York -24 Nick Seeler
79 Carter Hart
[32 Felix Sandström]
TURNING POINT
Overtime started with Laughton, Sanheim and York on the ice. Laughton then came off for Konecy. Sanheim had two scoring chances. The Flyers continued to rotate shifts of two defensemen with one forward. The Flyers controlled the puck for the first two-plus minutes.
The Golden Knights were guilty of blatant too many men on the ice that was not called. Hayes turned a puck over to Marchessault on an attempted pass to Sanheim. Marchessault went off on a breakaway, elevating the puck into the net on the backhand at 3:21 of sudden death.
MELTZER'S TAKE
1) The Flyers had three of the game's first four shots on goal. William Karlsson rang a shot off the goal post from the left circle 2:15 into the game. Farabee was joined by Tippett on a mini 2-on-2. Farabee looked pass then fired a shot off Hill's right pad. The shot produced a rebound but it eluded Tippett.
The Golden Knights took a 1-0 lead at 11:45 on what was scored as an unassisted goal by Carrier. Hart boxed a point shot by Shea Theodore. Engaging with Ristolainen, who swung at the rebound, Carrier knocked the puck into the net.
Philly took over the game for the rest of the period. The line of JVR, Frost and MacEwen in particular was in the thick of the action. Frost and van Riemsdyk started two-third of potential tic-tac-toe sequence but Hill made the save on MacEwen. JVR then set up Frost for a point blank opportunity. Later, JVR had a set up to MacEwen for another good scoring opportunity.
2) The first period was penalty-free. Philly outhit Vegas by a 12-8 margin led by four credited to Sedlak. Shots on goal were 9-9 (shot attempts were 25-12 Flyers). Scoring chances were 13-3 Flyers (4-2 high-danger edge to the Flyers). Vegas won 67 percent of the faceoffs.
3) Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy, unhappy with his team's first period performance despite exiting with a 1-0 lead, shuffled line combos in the second period. A much more wide open stanza ensued.
The Cates line started out the second period with extensive pressure.
At 1:48, the Flyers knotted the game. Laughton chipped the puck in and pursued to pressure goalie Hill behind the net. The netminder turned it over to Laughton and started to scramble back into his net. Laughton banked the puck off the goalie, who accidentally knocked the puck into his own net. The goal was unassisted.
Frost took an elbow to the mouth from behind the Flyers' net. He went down to the ice, and went back to the bench, spitting out some blood. There was no penalty.
At the 6:40 mark, Hart made an excellent glove save on Reilly Smith after the Vegas forward worked past Frost and fired off a shot on net from the lower right slot. A shift later, Sanheim joined the attack for a scoring chance. At 7:35, MacEwen received a feed from Frost and came within a whisker of a go-ahead goal. Frost won the next faceoff and snapped a shot on goal from up high.
The next wave of attack belonged to Vegas, who controlled most of the latter two-thirds of the frame. Hart came up with tough saves on Nicolas Hague and Jake Leschyshyn. Hart held for a stoppage at 9:05.
At 9:36, Laughton took a tripping penalty at center ice and Vegas went on the game's first power play. Sedlak blocked a shot to snuff out a one-timer attempt. Brown generated a clear off an intercepted pass. The Flyers killed the penalty successfully without allowing a shot on goal.
After a Flyers' icing, Joel Farabee blocked a Shea Theodore shot attempt out of play. Vegas won the draw. WIth 6:48 left in the period, Hart denied Marchessault. The Golden Knights' Eichel won the next faceoff against Frost. Hart stopped a McNabb point shot. Frost won a draw against Eichel on the other side of the ice. Paul Cotter and Ristolainen exchanged hits on one another. The Cates line worked the puck to safety.
Sanheim made a play in the defensive zone and then joined the attack at the other end. Frost had a scoring chance in the low center slot. MacEwen's rebound attempt was blocked.
Hart snapped a Kessel shot from the left dot out of the air with this glove with 4:34 remaining in the period. Shortly thereafter, Konecny and Hayes had a 2-on-1 opportunity but Konecny fired the puck off the goalie's shoulder from the top of the right circle. At the other end again, Stephenson won the draw cleanly for a quick shot on net by Kessel. Hart made another glove save. Leschysyn won the next faceoff. Kessel fired again, looking for the short side. Hart came up with yet another stop.
4) Second period shots on goal were 15-12 Vegas. Shot attempts were 28-16 Vegas. Scoring chances were 11-9 Vegas (but the Flyers had a 5-4 high-danger edge) Through two periods, Vegas won 61 percent of the faceoffs. Hits were 27-14 in the Flyers' favor. The best player on the ice in the period was Hart.
5) The Golden Knights came out attacking right off the hop. The Flyers had a dangerous miscue at their own blueline. Ristolainen blocked a shot to relieve pressure. Shortly thereafter, Frost blocked a Theodore shot.
At the other end of the ice, MacEwen attempted a high tip of a point shot. The Flyers had an offensive zone faceoff but Hayes lost an ensuing faceoff in the left circle. A shift later, some indecision by Tippett in the neutral zone caused a potential rush to fizzle out.
With 15:58 on the clock, the Flyers were guilty of an icing.No harm ensued. Through the first five minutes, the Flyers had only one shot on goal. Near the 7:00 mark, Farabee had a breakaway opportunity on Hill.
Eichel created a great scoring chance for McNabb. . Subsequently Tippett blocked a McNabb shot attempt. At 10:28, Delauriers landed a solid hit on McNabb.
Off a faceoff win by Hayes, Konecny took the puck toward the net as Theodore stumbled. After JVR was tossed from a faceoff, MacEwen won a draw but the Flyers were unable to win a 50-50 puck battle.
Laughton turned a puck over to Eichel in the neutral zone. Sanheim erased it with a blocked shot in the defensive zone. With seven minutes left, Ristolainen relieved pressure with a block. On the next shift, Mark Stone came very close to scoring.
The Flyers' fourth line got hemmed in on a very long shift. Even after they were able to get the Cates line out, Vegas continued to apply heavy pressure. It took a spectacular stick save by Hart to keep the game tied.
Vegas took an icing with 3:14 left in regulation.Cates took an offensive zone tripping penalty for taking William Karlsson down with 2:56 remaining. Vegas won the draw. Hart made a stop down low on Stone, which Laughton cleared down the ice. After a Vegas turnover, rBrown, Laughton and Konecny ragged nearly 25 seconds off the clock. Hart moved over in a flash to deny a Karlsson one timer late in the kill.
With 19.4 seconds left, a Sanheim pass intended for Cates missed connections and went for an icing. Cates lost the draw. Hart absorbed a Theodore point shot with 14.5 seconds left for his 32nd save of the game. The game went to overtime.
Third period shots were 10-6 Vegas. Shot attempts were 17-13 Vegas. Scoring chances were 9-6 Vegas (3-1 high-danger).
