POSTGAME 5: Hart Stops Vegas, 2-1

The Philadelphia Flyers concluded an eight-game homestand with a 2-1 win/loss to Vegas Golden Knights at the Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday evening. Brilliant goaltending by Carter Hart and two early goals were good enough. The Flyers spent most of the game defending.

Justin Braun (5th goal of the season) opened the scoring in the first period. Oskar Lindblom (10th) made it 2-0 in the final minute of the opening stanza.
Evgenii Dadonov (power play, 11th) trimmed the Philadelphia lead to 2-1 in the second period. The Flyers were able to nurse the game to the final buzzer in the third period.
Carter Hart was phenomenal in goal. He made a career-high 47 saves on 48 shots. Robin Lehner took the loss, stopping 19 of 21 shots.
The Flyers went 0-for-4 on the power play. The Golden Knights went 1-for-5.
TURNING POINT
Any number of Hart's saves in stopping 32 of 33 shots over the final 40 minutes could qualify as the Flyers somehow protected their lead. Offensively, Lindblom's wraparound goal proved to be the game winner.
MELTZER'S TAKE
1) Jack Eichel drove the net and crashed into Carter Hart at the 46-second mark of the game. Travis Sanheim was called for hooking. Hart stopped a deflected shot just after the penalty expired. Shots were 4-0 Vegas through 2:58.
The Flyers took a 1-0 lead at 6:31 of the first period. Justin Braun fired a center point shot at the net and beat Lehner. Travis Konecny and Scott Laughton received the assists. It was a shot that needed to be stopped by Lehner, who was not screened nor did anyone deflect the puck.

The Golden Knights went back to the power play at 10:19. Farabee was penalized for slashing William Karlsson. The Flyers killed it off in good shape.
The Flyers had a 2-on-1 opportunity as Konecny worked free in the neutral zone and was joined by Claude Giroux. Lehner made the save on Giroux's shot from the deep left slot.
Philly went on its first power play at 13:29. William Carrier was called for slashing Nick Seeler behind the Flyers net, breaking his stick on the play. The power play struggled. Ivan Provorov took an icing with 53 seconds remaining. Philadelphia generated only one harmless shot on the advantage.
The Flyers went right back to the power play at 17:05 when Vegas defenseman Ben Hutton was called for cross-checking Giroux. One again, the Flyers had trouble setting up.The Flyers did not score. However, after the teams returned to full-strength, Philly grabbed a 2-0 lead on a wraparound goal by Lindblom at 19:09. For Lindblom, it was his 10th goal and 20th point in 34 games dating back to Dec. 6 (Mike Yeo's first game as interim head coach). Scott Laughton and Provorov received the assists.
With 8.9 seconds left in the first period, there was a scrum around the net with Max Pacioretty falling on top of Hart. The puck stayed out despite a point-blank shot by Jonathan Marchessault.

2) The Flyers had two goals in the cash register at the first intermission, which mattered than their 14-8 shot on goal disadvantage, 35.56 percent all-situation shot on goal share, and 8-5 high-danger chance disadvantage. Lehner was not sharp in the first period, and Hart was: that was the biggest difference.
3) At 4:10 of a second period that got off to a quiet start, Lehner made an outstanding save on Konecny, who drove down the slot and tipped a Giroux feed on net on a near tic-tac-toe sequence.
The Flyers were called for too many men on the ice at 5:47 (served by Zack MacEwen), sending the Golden Knights on their third power play of the game. Vegas made Flyers pay quickly on a three-way-passing play from Eichel to Marchessault to goal-scorer Evgenii Dadonov in the low left slot. The time of the power play goal was 6:26.
By the 11:20 mark of the middle frame, shots on goal were 9-2 in Vegas. Hart made a clutch stop on Dadonov from the doorstep.
At 12:20, Konecny drove to the net again and tipped another shot -- this time originating from Scott Laughton -- that Lehner stopped.
Philly went to its third power play at 12:50 as Nicolas Hague interfered with Farabee on a Flyers' chip-in. Philadelphia's (momentary) best chance came after the power play expired. Lehner got himself caught out of position but the chance fizzled out before the puck came out to Konecny for a backhander from the middle slot.
Vegas went to their fourth power play at 17:40. Ristolainen got the gate for slashing Chandler Stephenson. In the first 20 seconds, Hart got just enough of a side-angle tip by Marchessault to keep the puck out of the net. The Flyers goalie lost his stick on a subsequent scramble around the net and had to play without until Braun deflected a pass attempt out of play with 26 seconds left on the penalty.
There was yet another jam-up around Hart's net after he fought off a deflected shot by Carrier from a Nicolas Roy faceoff win against Kevin Hayes. It was Hart's 29th save on 30 shots.
4) Second periods have been a significant problem for the Flyers far too often all season, and this one was no exception. Just about the only good thing that could be said of it was that Hart continued to stop everything he had a chance to save and the team escaped the period holding a 2-1 lead. Beyond that and Konecny's aggressiveness in getting to the scoring areas, the Flyers were outworked and outskated for much of the period. Shots on goal were 17-8, shot attempts were 31-15, and high-danger chances were a whopping 11-2, all in Vegas' favor.
5) Trailing by a goal, Vegas came out looking to attack again at the start of the third period. The Golden Knights had three of the period's first four shots. Only one -- a Karlsson backhander in close -- was dangerous but it was clear that the Flyers could not afford to keep spending so much time defending.
The Flyers iced the puck at 4:01. Again, the Golden Knights had control. However, an offensive zone interference penalty by Roy at 4:31 put the Flyers on an important power play opportunity leading by a goal. Once again, it went by the wayside.
Shots were 9-4 Vegas through 15 minutes. Over the period, the Flyers were able to settle things down for the most part in terms of keeping play to the perimeter and getting in the lanes. Philly recorded its 18th shot block (Ristolainen on Shea Theodore) at the 16:16 mark. However, the Flyers still weren't getting much sustained attack. In terms of unblocked shots, Vegas held an 11-7 edge. Scoring chances were 4-2 Vegas (2-1 high danger). Shots that got on goal favored Vegas, 10-5.
Provorov took a delay of game penalty for putting the puck over the glass from the defensive zone at 18:15. The Golden Knights pulled Lehner for a 6-on-4 attack.
Hayes won the first draw and the Flyers cleared the puck. Hart stopped Eichel from the top of the right circle (42nd save of the game) on Vegas' next trip down the ice. Atkinson blocked a shot out of play with 1:03 on the clock. Hart covered for a stoppage with 44.1 left after Eichel threw the puck at the net from a side angle, looking for a scramble or rebound. After a Sanheim failed clear, Hart made a vital blocker save on Marchessault. With 13.4 seconds left, Vegas won an attack zone draw. Ristolained blocked a shot. Eichel took one final shot attempt.