The scrappy and resilient Nashville Predators ended the Philadelphia Flyers’ point streak at 9 games with a 4-2 victory at the Wells Fargo Center.
Morgan Frost opened the scoring just 91 seconds into the game before an eventful 2nd period that saw 3 goals scored in a span of 4:19 – 2 of which belonged to Nashville. Philip Tomasino scored his 2nd goal of the game and the eventual game winner with 4:01 left in regulation before Gustav Nyquist added an empty netter with less than a second on the clock.
Samuel Ersson made 28 saves in the defeat, and Juuse Saros won his 11th game in 13 starts and made 31 saves along the way as the Predators swept the season series with 2 victories in 9 days.
Looking to extend their lofty point streak to 10 games and eyeing another revenge game victory, the Flyers welcomed the Predators into the confines of the Wells Fargo Center. Nashville defeated Philadelphia 3-2 in overtime on the 12th of December.
Samuel Ersson earned his 5th consecutive start with Carter Hart still on the mend with an illness but the young goaltender had gone 7-0-1 in his last 8 games with a .931 SV% along the way. Marc Staal returned to the lineup in replace of Egor Zamula, and Cam Atkinson remained on his usual line with Ryan Poehling and Joel Farabee after being demoted to the fourth line in the third period of their last game.
As for the visiting Predators, they entered tonight having gone 7-3-0 in their last 10 games and catapulted back into the playoff picture backed by great goaltending from Juuse Saros and offense from Filip Forsberg. The aforementioned Saros is 10-2-0 in his last 12 starts with a .924 SV% and 2.25 GAA.
FIRST PERIOD
91 seconds into the game, the Philadelphia Flyers jumped to an early 1-0 lead after a very fortuitous bounce that rewarded Morgan Frost with his 5th goal of the season.
Bobby Brink‘s wrap around pass deflected off of the blade of Alexandre Carrier then the skate of Frost skate, before bouncing over the net, onto the back of Juuse Saros and into the net.
3:35 into the period, Filip Forsberg was guilty of a tripping minor against Sean Couturier. The Flyers top unit looked a lot better with several dangerous chances, puck retrievals, and offensive zone pressure but couldn’t beat Saros.
With 3:06 let to play in the period, the Predators jumped onto their first power play of the night after Travis Sanheim was called for a holding minor. The Flyers generated the best scoring chance with Scott Laughton and Travis Konecny barrelling down on the Finnish goaltender but he once again was up to the task.
The Flyers killed off a dangerous looking power play at the end of the period and entered the intermission up 1-0 on the scoreboard and 13-9 on the shot clock.
SECOND PERIOD
26 seconds into the middle frame, Ryan McDonagh was called for a hooking minor, sending the Flyers back onto the power play. Unfortunately it was more of a boon for the Predators as Cole Smith was able to pot a shorthanded goal just 39 seconds into the man advantage.
Rasmus Ristolainen was caught, Frost was the last man back and tried defending the pass instead of the man as Smith was able to walk in before firing it past the blocker of Samuel Ersson for his 5th of the season.
Perhaps the third time could be the charm as McDonagh returned to the sin bin for a holding minor against Owen Tippett at the 4:08 mark of the period. 37 seconds into the man advantage, Couturier was able to pounce on a loose puck right in front of Saros before sliding it through the five-hole for his 8th of the season.
Frost did a good job at jumping on the puck after the faceoff, and Yakov Trenin then pushed the puck forward into no man’s land before Couturier was able to walk into the slot with time and space for the goal.
Only 29 seconds later, the Predators tied things up after Philip Tomasino finished off a great pass from Tommy Novak for his 3rd of the season. Nashville jumped on an errant pass from Sanheim to Brink in the neutral zone before transitioning into the offensive zone to quickly grab the equalizer.
With 11:22 remaining, Sean Walker was called for an interference minor. With 30 seconds remaining in Walker’s penalty, Ryan O’Reilly and Forsberg both deflected a Roman Josi slap-shot past Ersson. The referees immediately ruled it as a high-stick, reviewed it before confirming their original decision, however there was a delayed penalty called for tripping against Couturier, sending the Predators on a 5-on-3 for 30 seconds.
The Predators were threatening with several ten-bell chances but the shot blocking of the Flyers kept most of the shots at bay, however Ersson had to still come up with a few big stops as they survived the 5-on-3 and the subsequent 5-on-4.
Then with 7:23 left to play, Trenin checked Frost from behind directly into the boards, leaving the youngster down on the ice in obvious pain.
The Russian forward looked to have tried to slow up on Frost but still drove him into the glass/boards – head first – and was originally assessed a 2-minute minor for illegal check to the head. Shortly after, the referees assessed a 5-minute major and after a very lengthy review, the officials confirmed the 5-minute major for boarding and a game misconduct.
In the midst of a very disappointing power play, Cam Atkinson was assessed a slashing minor with 1:26 left on the man advantage at the 16:11 mark of the second period.
With 15.4 seconds left, Marc Staal was whistled down for an interference minor right in front of the Flyers net as Ristolainen was looking to head out of the zone.
A very long and eventful period came to a close with both clubs tied at 2 apiece with the Flyers taking a 26-18 shot advantage into the third period.
THIRD PERIOD
The Flyers were able to survive the final 1:45 of Staal’s penalty, effectively killing off their 5th successive opportunity.
With 13:11 left to play in the final period of regulation, Atkinson was sprung on a breakaway after a great outlet pass from Walker but his struggles continued as his five-hole slide attempt was stopped by Saros before he clamped his pads to keep it from rolling past. Atkinson had gone 16 games without a goal prior to tonight while only collecting 4 assists along the way.
With 4:01 remaining in the period, Tomasino scored his 2nd goal of the game after another perfect feed set it up – this time from Colton Sissons – before he ripped it past the glove of Ersson. Tomasino stripped the puck off of Atkinson’s stick just outside of their blue-line to jumpstart the rush.
The Flyers pulled Ersson with just a shade over 2 minutes left to play but found it difficult to set up in the offensive zone. Just before the final horn sounded, Gustav Nyquist tucked home the empty netter after Cam York’s shot was blocked to seal the deal with a 4-2 victory.
UP NEXT
The Flyers will head to the Motor City to take on the Detroit Red Wings tomorrow night (7:00pm ET, NBCSP) in their final game before the Christmas break and the first of what will be a 5-game road trip.
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