The Seattle Kraken snapped their 3-game losing streak with a 4-3 victory against the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Flyers ended their homestand with another one goal game and are now heading out west – to Seattle – to face the Kraken on Thursday night. Owen Tippett opened the scoring early on the power play but that was all the Flyers could muster in the first period, ending the frame without a shot on goal in the final 16:35.
The Kraken on the other hand scored 2 late goals in the period, first from Jordan Eberle and then another one from Eeli Tolvanen, both of which came off costly turnovers. James van Riemsdyk tied it early in the second period but then the Kraken scored back-breaking goals – one late in the second and one early in the third – courtesy of Jaden Schwartz.
Patrick Brown scored a late shorthanded goal and the Flyers had a few chances with the net empty but the shot blocking of the Seattle Kraken saved the day in the final 20 seconds. Felix Sandstrom allowed 4 goals on 21 shots and Philipp Grubauer allowed 3 goals on 18 shots en route to his 6th win of the season.
Looking to end their 4 game homestand on a high, the Philadelphia Flyers welcomed the Seattle Kraken in the first of two meetings with the second one coming on Thursday in Seattle. The Flyers were 1-1-1 on their homestand but had only scored 3 goals with a 2-1 loss to the New York Islanders, followed by a 2-1 shootout victory against the Edmonton Oilers, and then yesterday’s hard-fought overtime loss to the Nashville Predators with an identical scoreline.
Felix Sandström returned in goal in only his second start in nine games since returning from his conditioning stint with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and first start in 21 days. The Flyers went with 7 defenseman yesterday but today they welcomed back Olle Lycksell, who was seen skating with Scott Laughton and Kevin Hayes. Wade Allison got bumped to the fourth line with Nicolas Deslauriers and Patrick Brown.
As for the Kraken, they came through the doors of the Wells Fargo Center having lost their last 3 games as well as 7 of their last 10. Nevertheless, they have surprised almost everyone with their strong start to the season as they sit only a few points out of first place in the Pacific Division. They possess a very balanced attack with 6 players having over 30+ points, 5 of them having over 36, and 9 players with 10+ goals scored. Philipp Grubauer got the nod, looking for his 6th win of the season. Over his last 5 games he has posted a 2-2-1 record with a .937 SV% and a 1.98 GAA, which supersedes Martin Jones’ numbers regardless of his 23-9-3 record. Grubauer struggled at the beginning of the season but also missed a lot of time due to injury.
FIRST PERIOD
31 seconds into the game, Travis Konecny was tripped up sending the Flyers’ 31st-ranked power play onto the ice against the 31st-ranked penalty kill of the Kraken. The Flyers spent the first 70 seconds in the offensive zone but were kept to the outside and were caught passing a lot too much, not being able to find the seam pass.
Fear not, because the second unit came out and scored within the first few seconds with Rasmus Ristolainen set up in front of the net. Scott Laughton with the simplest play imaginable by shooting it towards the net, Ristolainen disrupted the Kraken enough to win the battle in front of the net, which allowed the puck to squeak over to Owen Tippett who was all alone with a yawning cage to shoot at for his 15th of the season, 2:11 into the game.
Will Borgen was then called for an elbowing minor on Patrick Brown at the 3:27 mark of the first period. The first unit of Kevin Hayes, Travis Konecny, Morgan Frost, James van Riemsdyk, and Tony DeAngelo struggled yet again and were unable to set up in the offensive zone within the first 60 seconds. The second unit of Joel Farabee, Scott Laughton, Owen Tippett, Rasmus Ristolainen, and Cam York were able to set up but were unable to fire a shot towards the net; a wasted opportunity to take an early 2-0 lead.
A Tony DeAngelo turnover at the blue-line in the offensive zone allowed Jared McCann to rush down the wing on a 2-on-1 with Nick Seeler being the only Flyer back trying to fend it off. McCann waited for Jordan Eberle to match his stride and sent him a perfect saucer pass over the outstretched stick of Seeler as he finished the play for his first goal in 12 games – 11th overall – at the 12:53 mark of the first period.
With 2:59 remaining in the period, Seattle took the lead after another brutal turnover. In one swift motion, Oliver Bjorkstrand swept the puck off the stick of James van RIemsdyk who was trying to skate out of the zone to Eeli Tolvanen who was the only player back and he made no mistake with his snapshot as he beat Sandström glove-side for his 11th of the season and 9th as a member of the Kraken in only his 19th game.
As fate would have it, the Flyers lost all their early mojo after the second power play attempt. They didn’t have a shot on goal in the final 16:35 of the first period. Seattle took over, fired the final 11 shots of the period – they were without a shot until the 7:49 mark – and really made the Flyers work for every inch of the ice. The ice looked choppy, passes were barely being completed, but the ice was severely titled in Seattle’s favour.
SECOND PERIOD
3:33 into the second period, James van Riemsdyk made up for his turnover in the previous period with a batted-in goal for his 9th goal of the season. He initially started the play and entered the zone with speed before sending an outstretched pass to Morgan Frost on the opposite side of the zone. Frost couldn’t handle the pass but corralled it in the corner before dropping it to Owen Tippett who quickly fired a shot that was stopped by the arm of Grubauer but the puck popped up in the air for van Riemsdyk to bat in for his first goal in 6 games and 4th in 23.
By the midway point of the game, the Kraken were outshooting the Flyers 15-7, with the Flyers also blocking 18 shots in the process. It started becoming very evident that they were feeling the effects of the back to back situation. in their own zone they were stagnant, looked like their skates were stuck in mud, and were making ill-advised passes to nobody wearing an orange jersey. Giveaways were prevalent as they had 11 officially registered to Seattle’s 2 and if it wasn’t for their shot blocking it could have been a different game at this juncture.
With the Kraken swarming around the Flyers net late in the period, Jaden Schwartz scored all alone in the slot with just a shade over a minute remaining. The play started with Schwartz’ initial shot being blocked by Nick Seeler, DeAngelo then poked the loose puck into the corner, and as the Kraken retrieved the puck behind the net, Eberle’s first pass was blocked off by Wade Allison, he got it back and tried another pass but it was blocked off by DeAngelo, he got it back again for a third crack and this time he found Schwartz whose shot got past a heavily screened Sandström for his 11th of the season.
The period ended with the Flyers down 3-2, being outshot 18-10, the Flyers had 21 blocked shots versus the Kraken who had 4, and looking extremely flat-footed against a Kraken team that looked primed and motivated to bust out of their losing streak.
THIRD PERIOD
1:03 into the third period, Jaden Schwartz scored his second goal of the game – and technically 2nd goal in 2:04 – after another breakdown in the defensive zone. Ivan Provorov lost a board battle to Schwartz who was helped out by Will Borgen as he took the puck away with Provorov being held along the boards. Borgen then took it below the goal-line where he dropped it off to Alexander Wennberg who then welcomed a double team before dishing it to Schwartz. He was left alone near the face-off circle as he ripped one top corner with Sandström being slightly screened by a moving Cam York for his 12th of the season.
Once down by 2, the Flyers seemed to have woken up from their coma and when they are aggressive the offense comes from the backend. Tony DeAngelo, Ivan Provorov, Cam York and Travis Sanheim were aggressive, pinching, and noticeable on the offensive side of the puck and the Flyers created several dangerous chances but to no avail. With their missed opportunities climbing and the clock ticking away, the desperate Flyers were forced to be overtly aggressive with stretch passes, cross-seam passes, and deft deflections but the Kraken were clogging the neutral zone for the most part.
From his own zone, Travis Konecny tried sending an aerial stretch pass from below his own goal-line to James van Riemsdyk, but it sailed over the glass near the offensive zone, sending the Kraken to their first power play of the game with 3:49 remaining.
Patrick Brown scored the Flyers’ 10th shorthanded goal of the season only 29 seconds into the power play after winning the faceoff and benefitting off a funny bounce. Ristolainen helped off the faceoff and passed it to Provorov who slammed it off the glass and out of the zone. The puck bounced a few times before Brown corralled it and went into the corner, fired a shot, and somehow beat Grubauer blocker-side for his 2nd of the season.
After killing the penalty and having the puck in the offensive zone, the Flyers pulled Sandström with a shade under 100 seconds remaining.
Morgan Frost was stopped by the pad of Grubauer, and the Flyers collected the rebound, swarmed the net, and started hacking and whacking at the loose puck in the blue paint but they couldn’t get it over Grubauer’s pad with Adam Larsson getting his big body in the way. The Kraken collected 3 big blocked shots in the final 15 seconds to secure the win with the Flyers having grade-A opportunities to potentially tie the game. It was all for naught as the Flyers dropped their final game of the homestand, finishing 1-2-1.
UP NEXT
The Flyers begin their Northwestern road trip on Thursday night against these same Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena.
