The Philadelphia Flyers ended their season-long five-game road trip by going 1-4-0 as they fell very flat once again against the Minnesota Wild, this time by a score of 4-1. After a good start to their first period and carrying a heavy shot advantage, the Flyers lost the plot as the Wild broke out with two late goals in the period and then doubled their lead in a much more dominant second period. Whenever the Flyers did look dangerous, Marc-Andre Fleury was up to the task, making several ten-bell saves, especially in the third period. With the loss, the Flyers were officially eliminated from playoff contention but hey, on the bright side, Travis Sanheim looked really good on the power play.
FIRST PERIOD
The youth movement in Philadelphia continued with the NHL debut of Noah Cates, who signed an entry-level deal on Sunday. Looking to at least win 40% of their season-long road trip, the Flyers didn’t have the greatest of starts against the extremely hot Minnesota Wild. Coming in with a six-game winning streak and starting newly-acquired “backup” goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, it only took the Wild nine seconds to record their first scoring chance. Martin Jones, who was starting because Carter Hart was ruled out with a nagging injury, was tasked in making a pad save on Kevin Fiala in the slot.
James van Riemsdyk, who entered this game on a 4 game point streak and goals in 3 of his last 4 games, continued to provide the Flyers with genuine scoring opportunities as he countered Fiala’s scoring chance with one of his own that Fleury padded away. A few minutes later, he came streaking into the zone and attempted to centre a pass into the slot for Joel Farabee that he just missed with an open cage in his sights.
The Flyers continued their trend of dropping the gloves in an attempt to gain momentum against one of the NHL’s best. The Nashville Predators are first in the NHL in fighting majors but the Wild aren’t far off being in fourth place. Nick Seeler and Nicolas Deslauriers both dropped the gloves near the midway point of the period. It was a spirited bout with knuckles flying aplenty and early. Post-fight, the Flyers continued to pepper Fleury as the Flyers held an 11-5 shot advantage nearing the second commercial break.
It was all Minnesota after however as the Wild broke the deadlock with a very crafty tic-tac-toe goal with Matt Dumba finishing off the pretty play. On the previous shift, the Wild were zooming in and around the Flyers zone before Martin Jones had to smother a loose puck. On the next shift, Dumba and Matthew Boldy both had chances that were stopped before Frederick Gaudreau intercepted a van Riemsdyk clearance attempt, passed it to Boldy, who then set up Dumba streaking into the slot for the goal.
The Wild continued their offensive surge by firing even more shots towards Jones, so much so that the Flyers were caught and eventually took a holding penalty that put the Wild on the power play. It only took them 19 seconds to score after a face-off win and a quick strike by Kirill Kaprizov. Off the face-off win, Jared Spurgeon fed Kaprizov, who held onto the puck and made a move before firing a shot blocker-side on Jones. The goal was Kaprizov’s 13th in the month of March, which is tops in the NHL. The Wild ended the period up by two but also edged the Flyers in the shot department 16-12, which is saying something because the Flyers held the upper-hand at 11-5 ten minutes into the game.
SECOND PERIOD
The scoring spree continued as the Wild opened the second period with their third goal of the game only 1:35 in. The Flyers trend of allowing early second period goals continued as a simple shot by Marcus Foligno was stopped by Jones but he let out a juicy rebound to the streaking Jordan Greenway who was coming in like a freight train. The Wild seemingly made it 4-0 only a few minutes later after Kaprizov ripped a shot from the slot, but Martin Jones was down on the ice because Ryan Hartman bumped into the goaltender.
The goal was immediately waved off because the referees believed Hartman did enough to impede Jones even though it looked like Travis Sanheim might’ve pushed him in. The Wild didn’t challenge the call either and only a few seconds after the play, the Flyers found themselves on a power play after Hartman was called for a hooking penalty. The 32nd-ranked power play was going head-to-head with the 22nd-ranked penalty kill and it was the latter that prevailed and even out-chanced the Flyers down a man.
Patrick Brown was called for a high sticking minor that put the Wild right back on the man advantage. Scoring 19 seconds into their first power play, the Wild weren’t so lucky this time around as the Flyers were able to kill it off without much damage. Minnesota’s offensive pressure was relentless and their scoring chances just kept increasing. The Flyers found themselves right back on the penalty kill after not being able to clear the puck a few times and having Jones flailing around in his crease with the Wild skating circles around the Flyers defense.
After killing the penalty, the Flyers finally got some scoring chances as Joel Farabee was initially stopped and then Rasmus Ristolainen’s rebound opportunity was thwarted by the usually unorthodox Fleury, sliding out of his crease. Foligno and Greenway almost connected again to give the Wild a 4-0 lead as the latter sent a perfect cross-crease pass to the former but his deflection hit the side of the net.
With 1:11 remaining in the period and a delayed penalty coming to the Flyers, the Wild added to their NHL-leading 17 goals with a 6 on 5 advantage as they let Dmitry Kulikov walk into the slot before finding Fiala to his right on a near impossible angle. Fiala’s 23rd goal was a thing of beauty as he ripped it top shelf while falling on a bemused Jones. The Flyers left him unmarked and collapsed in the slot as Kulikov was allowed to just walk into a dangerous spot. The Wild ended up outshooting the Flyers 13-4 in the period, 29-16 after two, and after the Flyers had an 11-5 advantage the Wild went on a 24-5 rampage in the last 30 minutes.
THIRD PERIOD
30 seconds into the third period, Noah Cates was inches away from scoring in his NHL debut but the future Hall of Famer in Marc-Andre Fleury came up huge with a blocker save. Cam Atkinson won the battle behind the net for the puck and centered the pass to Cates who was all alone in the crease but he hesitated on pulling the trigger by a millisecond, which allowed Fleury to regain his composure.
Three minutes into the period, the Flyers were awarded a four-minute penalty after Tyson Jost was called for a double-minor high sticking penalty on Farabee. In an attempt to spoil Fleury’s shutout, the Flyers actually looked pretty good for once, a lot of that had to do with the insertion of Travis Sanheim. The Flyers were firing shots at will as Atkinson’s initial shot was stopped, Spurgeon failed to clear the puck as it hit Frederick Gaudreau’s back and Morgan Frost was able to corral the loose puck and score.
Right off the ensuing draw, still down a man, Jordan Greenway found himself on a breakaway but he fumbled the puck right before taking a shot, which allowed Jones enough time to make the save.
Owen Tippett came streaking in all alone and was impeded on his scoring opportunity, which resulted in a delayed penalty. James van Riemsdyk followed that play with a scoring chance of his own as the Flyers were really jamming away in the slot but Fleury once again came up with a huge save, this time of the glove-save-variety. York sent a pass for a van Riemsdyk deflection, his initial shot was stopped by the pad, he followed the rebound which was gloved down by the windmilling Fleury.
The power play started with another Minnesota shorthanded breakaway, this time for Gaudreau, but just like Greenway, he lost control of the puck with Provorov right behind him. It took the Flyers almost 70 games to finally give Sanheim some much deserved power play time and he didn’t look like he ever missed a beat, creating chances aplenty with shots and passes. Playing quarterback also allowed Provorov to roam and fire slap-shots from the face-off dot, which was something we saw when Ryan Ellis was in the lineup.
Kevin Hayes had a chance to cut the deficit in half after Nick Seeler’s slap-shot went wide. The rebound bounced towards Hayes in the crease but his back-hand didn’t have enough strength on it and the puck whistled wide. The Flyers looked miles better and different in the third period, even dominant at times, but it was way too little way too late as the Wild were able to just sit back with a 4-0 lead entering the final frame. The Flyers held a 17-7 shot advantage in the final frame, almost equaling the Wild for the game.
