Postgame 5: Trampled by Buffalo
Curtis Lazar (1st) sent the Sabres to the first intermission with a 1-0 lead. Sam Reinhart (1st, and 2nd) extended the lead with two goals in the first half of the second period. Lazar (2nd of the game) had a slam dunk goal to make it 4-0 and end Carter Hart's night early. Henri Jokiharju (1st) and Nicolas Aube-Kubel traded off third period goals. Victor Olofsson scored a garbage time goal of his own with 1:11 left in the game.
Hart stopped 18 of 22 shots before being pulled at 8:09 of the second period. Brian Ellliott went the rest of the way, stopping 12 of 14 shots. Carter Hutton denied 21 of 22 Flyers shots.
The Flyers went 0-for-1 on the power play and 1-for-2 on the penalty kill.
TURNING POINT
Reinhart was wide open to the left of the net on Buffalo's early second-period power play goal and open again in the slot on Eichel's tip pass. The result was that a 1-0 deficit for the Flyers became a 3-0 crater.
MELTZER'S TAKE
1) The Flyers played a sleepy and sloppy first period overall, and the Sabres generated an 11-4 shot advantage while blocking 8 shots (two by Brandon Montour) and also outhitting the Flyers by a 15-6 margin (led by a half-dozen credited to Rasmus Ristolainen including a board rattler at the Buffalo blueline on Jakub Voracek). The Lazar goal was a backhander from the bottom of the left circle , eluding the reach of Phil Myers, that went off the post and in.
Highlights for the Flyers were limited to a couple of good shift by the Morgan Frost line and some forechecking pressure from Scott Laughton's line. The Flyers didn't do much with the game's first power play, drawn by Travis Konecny on Montour behind the Buffalo net. Konecny later had a partial breakaway but fired wide. The Flyers dodged a bullet when an Erik Gustafsson turnover in the neutral zone sent Jack Eichel and Jeff Skinner in transition against Hart. Skinner tipped a pass just wide.
2) Team Corsis were pretty even in the first period (48.6% Flyers, 51.4% Sabres) but that did not reflect the actual details of play. The Sabres put 11 of 18 shot attempts on net to 4 on net for the Flyers, blocked 8 Flyers shots, outhit Flyers 15-4. Flyers tagged with 6 giveaways to 2 for Buffalo. Just not a good period.
3) On Buffalo's first power play (Hart was called for tripping), the Flyers got to chasing and Reinhart was alone with plenty of net for the PPG. He didn't miss when the pass from Hall got across at 3:35 of the second period. The secondary assist to Eichel. At 6:28, Reinhart was completely unmarked in the slot after Eichel tipped a Hall pass out of the corner to him.
A pass by Riley Sheahan got through Gustafsson's legs, leading to a tap-in form Lazar at 8:09. The secondary assist went to defenseman Montour.
4) Second period shots were 15-11 in the Sabres' favor (26-15 through two periods). Shot attempts overall were 21-21 and the Flyers had a 52.7 team Corsi at even strength, which of the Flyers attempts coming after the score was already 4-0. Second period faceoffs were 14-10 in Buffalo's favor (21-21 overall) after two periods. Of course, the only number that truly mattered was the crooked number that Buffalo put up in the middle frame on the scoreboard. The Flyers continued to have trouble with exits on defense and entries on the attack.
5) Alain Vigneault shuffled lines to start the third period. Jakub Voracek went to Frost's line. Joel Farabee went to Nolan Patrick's line. Konecny went to the Hayes line. The fourth line remained untouched. All three defense pairs were also juggled: Ivan Provorov with Travis Sanheim, Gustafsson on left defense with Phil Myers, Robert Hägg with Braun. At 10:47, a Jokiharju backhander from the left side boards found its way into the net. Eric Staal got the lone assist. Aube-Kubel ended Hutton's shutout bid from the doorstep, with Raffl and Sanheim getting assists. Eichel completed a three-assist game by setting up Olofsson's late tally.
Third period shots were 10-7 in the Sabres' favor; 36-22 Sabres for the game.
