POSTGAME 5: St. Paddy's Hatty for Tippett
The Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Buffalo Sabres, 5-2, at the Wells Fargo Center on Friday evening
A Tippett power play snipe (19th goal of the season) at 15:10 of the first period was the lone tally for either team. Joel Farabee (10th) made it a 2-0 lead at 3:53 of the second period. The Flyers then got another goal from Tippett (2nd of the game, 20th of the season) to create a 3-0 goal at 13:14. Philly took a 4-0 lead to the second intermission on a James van Riemsdyk tally (10th) at 18:21 of the middle frame.
Early in the third period, a Victor Olofsson power play goal (25th) cut the Flyers' lead to 4-1. At 5:33, Tippett finished off his hat trick (21st goal of the season, third of the game) on a breakaway goal. Olofsso scored again (26th) on a 5-on-3 power play goal with less than one second left in the game.
Carter Hart earned the win with 34 saves on 36 shots. Craig Anderson took the loss, stopping just 17 of 22 shots.
The Flyers went 1-for-1 on the power play. The Sabres were 2-for-4.
FLYERS STARTING LINEUP
86 Joel Farabee - 13 Kevin Hayes - 52 Tyson Foerster
21 Scott Laughton - 49 Noah Cates - 74 Owen Tippett
25 James van Riemsdyk - 48 Morgan Frost - 22 Brendan Lemieux
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 58 Tanner Laczynski - 57 Wade Allison
9 Ivan Provorov - 45 Cam York
6 Travis Sanheim - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
24 Nick Seeler - 77 Tony DeAngelo
79 Carter Hart
[32 Felix Sandström]
PP1: Tippett, Cates, Foerster, Ristolainen (netfront), DeAngelo
PP2: Farabee, Frost, Hayes, JVR (netfront), York
TURNING POINT
The Farabee goal seemed to create a jolt of momentum for the entire Flyers' team. Hart had to make several good saves in the stanza, too, but most of the pressure -- and more importantly, three unanswered goals -- belonged to the Flyers.
MELTZER'S TAKE
1) Shots on goal were 2-1 Flyers through the first seven minutes of the game. Buffalo had a majority of the offensive zone time but Philly kept everything to the perimeter. The Flyers' best chance came as Seeler made a good defensive play and Hayes led a 2-on-1 rush.
Deslauriers was called for cross-checking at 7:37. Hart made three saves on the successful penalty kill.
Tippett had an outstanding shift in which he set up a chance for Scott Laughton early in the shift and had a semi-breakaway at the end. Anderson stopped Tippett's backhand attempt. At the other end of the ice, Jordan Greenway dangled right around Sanheim but was denied by Hart at 12:59.
At 13:58, Hart made a good save on a Peyton Krebs shot from the right slot. The chance came after Kyle Okposo cleanly won an offensive zone faceoff against Hayes.
The Flyers went on their first power play at 14:24. Jeff Skinner went to the box for interference The Flyers generated excellent puck movement and TIppett finished it off by sniping a shot from the top of the right circle. The assists went to York and DeAngelo.
At 15:33, Rasmus Dahlin caught an accidental high stick while sliding along the ice near the Flyers' net. The faceoff came out of the zone.
At 18:45, Brendan Lemieux won a race to a loose puck and put on net from a sharp angle. For the second time in the same shift, he jostled and chirped with Ilya Lyubushkin.
2) First period shots on goal were 8-6 Sabres, with a 17-11 shot attempt edge to Buffalo. Scoring chances were 10-4 Buffalo with a 4-2 high-danger edge to the Sabres. Faceoffs were 7-6 Flyers. The Flyers blocked five Buffalo shots (Sanheim with two) and the Sabres blocked four.
3) The Flyers had two of the first three shots on goal in the second period through 3:30. The best chance was a Tippett backhander from near the net.
At 3:53, the Flyers made it 2-0.Foerster had a chance near the net. The rebound bounced back out in front and Farabee tucked it home to break his 26-game goalless drought (which stretched back to a first-period goal he scored in the Jan. 9 game in Buffalo). Foerster's primary assist was his first point in the NHL. The secondary assist went to Hayes.
The Farabee goal created a wave of momentum for the Flyers. They applied very heavy pressure in each of the next two shifts and three of five. At 10:13 of the period, shots on goal were 6-3 Flyers. Buffalo deflected a shot off the post at 10:15. The Flyers iced the puck at 11:45.
Tippett had another chance off the rush at 11:08. He tried another backhander, this one form the middle slot, that Anderson stopped,
A gorgeous turnaround pass from Hayes found Tippett skating untouched into the left circle. TIppett then wired home his second goal of the game and 20th of the season into the net. The assists went to Hayes and Provorov.
With 2:37 left in the second period, Hart denied Skinner. Shots for the period were 9-7 Flyers.
The Flyers' puck pressure created a turnover just outside the Buffalo zone.A nice pass from Laughton to van Riemsdyk created a slam dunk for JVR at 18:21 Laughton drew the lone assist.
Hart made a save and a lengthy scrum developed after the whistle at 19:09.The penalties: Krebs, Okposo, Seeler and Allison all received roughing minors. Deslauriers got a 10-minute misconduct. Manpower remained at 5-on-5.
4) Second period shots on goal were 11-9 Flyers. Shot attempts were 19-15 Flyers. Scoring chances were 14-5 Flyers with a 6-2 high danger edge to the Flyers. Faceoffs through two periods were 13-12 Flyers.
5) Laughton was called for a hooking penalty 39 seconds into the third period. With 12 seconds left in the power play, Olofsson one-timed an Owen Power pass into the net as Casey Mittelstadt. The man advantage goal game came at 2:27. It was Buffalo's first goal of the season against the Flyers in five-plus periods.
At 5:26, Hart was in perfect position to absorb a Tage Thompson shot from the right circle. On the next shift, Tippett sped off on a breakaway and then chipped a backhander over Anderson to complete the hat trick and make it 5-1 at 5:33. The assists went to DeAngelo and Seeler.
Shots were 7-4 Buffalo through the first 15 minutes of the third period. The Flyers iced the puck at 15:55. Laczynski turned the puck over at the red line after play resumed. Hart made his 26th save of the game.
Provorov was called for cross-checking at 17:54. Hart made four more saves including a clean glove save. Seeler was called for high-sticking with 16.2 seconds. Skating 5-on-3, Olofsson scored a rebound goal with 0.4 second on the clock.
Third period shots were 16-4 Buffalo.
