With the Philadelphia Flyers’ four-game road trip concluding in Anaheim, they were vying for a winning trip by finishing 2-1-1. However, Troy Terry, John Gibson, and the Anaheim Ducks had other ideas as they were able to defeat the Flyers 4-1. Both teams were ravaged by COVID and had several different lineup combinations for tonight but Terry’s hat trick sealed the deal as the Flyers came up short on yet another Western road trip.
Earlier today, the Flyers had announced that captain Claude Giroux and defenseman Ivan Provorov had entered COVID protocols, alongside Nick Seeler and Jackson Cates. Tonight marked the first game Provorov has missed in his career, a span of 403 consecutive games. In better news, the Flyers welcomed back Scott Laughton and Carter Hart into the lineup.
FIRST PERIOD
3 minutes and 21 seconds into the game, Hampus Lindholm’s shot seemingly hit the crossbar and came out and as played continued for another 20 seconds, Cam Atkinson went the other way with a chance of his own. On the next whistle, the referees reconvened and announced that the puck had gone in and hit the crossbar. Upon even more review Troy Terry had actually deflected Lindholm’s shot.
It started off a defensive zone face-off win by the Ducks as they were able to exit the zone with ease, enter the offensive zone and set up. It was just a simple play by Jamie Drysdale as he shot the puck towards Carter Hart. The shot missed the net but ricocheted off the boards to the other side, where Hampus Lindholm was wide open for his shot that was eventually deflected by Troy Terry.
Off yet another defensive zone face-off win by the Ducks, Jamie Drysdale was behind the play again as he banked the puck off the boards for a streaking Terry, who successfully pulled a move on Travis Sanheim, and then found himself all alone on Carter Hart and buried a beauty to make it 2-0, for his second of the game and 20th on the season.
With a little over a minute remaining in the first period, the most noticeable Flyer in the first frame, Cam Atkinson, cut the deficit to one. He was buzzing all period with scoring chances abound but wasn’t able to finish any of them until the 1:17 mark off a great feed by Joel Farabee.
The Flyers repaid the favour with a defensive zone face-off win of their own and Sanheim quickly out-letted the puck to his forwards, who all got a touch on the goal. Atkinson found Scott Laughton in the centre of the ice, who then dropped the pass to Farabee who found a streaking Atkinson to deflect it past John Gibson.
SECOND PERIOD
For the most part the second period was uneventful but favoured the Flyers a little more as they had more shots and better chances before the Ducks added a third tally on a late power play. James van Riemsdyk had 3 chances, including a breakaway, and Travis Konecny had 2 goalmouth opportunities that were turned away by Gibson.
In what looked like an unnecessary goaltender interference penalty by Morgan Frost, turned even more sour after the Ducks added to the Flyers deficit. With puck possession galore in the offensive zone and after some very nifty and quick passing by the Ducks, Sam Steel hit Sonny Milano with a cross-seam pass, that was initially deflected by Rickard Rakell before Milano shot the puck past an interfered Hart.
Mike Yeo challenged the call but it was very noticeable that Rasmus Ristolainen pushed the player into Hart initially, which impeded his ability to stretch all the way out to stop the puck. Yeo lost the challenge and the Flyers were tasked to kill another penalty with 2:11 remaining in the period, which they successfully did.
THIRD PERIOD
An eventful third period that was mostly controlled by the desperate Flyers trying their darnedest to cut the deficit and tie the game, came to no avail as Gibson thwarted every chance thrown his way, 15 shots in the third period alone.
The Flyers had several strong shifts but none bigger than a 4 on 4 opportunity, that turned into a 5 on 4 with Hart on the bench, with a little over 4 minutes to go. The Flyers had the puck for 1:45, peppering Gibson with everything they had but several chances went wide, were blocked, or got deflected wide. With tired bodies on the ice, Keith Yandle was forced to trip Isac Lundestrom, who had an empty net to shoot at, which ended the 4 on 4 and gave the Ducks a power play.
On the 4 on 5 penalty killing situation, Mike Yeo pulled Carter Hart again, with the Flyers getting a few more chances before Troy Terry iced the game with an empty netter for his hat trick.
The Flyers who have now lost 3 straight games, including back to back regulation losses, had a few standout players in Rasmus Ristolainen and Cam Atkinson, with the latter scoring their only goal. Ristolainen was credited with 4 hits and 3 blocks, while Joel Farabee and Scott Laughton recorded the assists on the lone goal. Carter Hart stopped 26 of 29 shots in his return to the lineup.
For the Ducks, they ended their 4-game losing streak tonight on the back of a Troy Terry hat-trick and a 29 save performance from John Gibson. Sonny Milano added another goal, a back-breaker at the end of the second period that added to the Flyers deficit and Jamie Drysdale recorded 2 assists.
UP NEXT…
Up next for the Flyers are the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night as they embark on a 3 game home-stand.
