The Philadelphia Flyers‘ winning streak came to an end with a dud-like effort on home ice against the Boston Bruins by a score of 3-0.
Samuel Ersson exited the game midway through the first period with an injury and although Aleksei Kolosov played relatively well on short notice, the offense was shut out without much of a fight.
Matthew Poitras scored the go-ahead goal in the first period, Justin Brazeau added the second tally midway through the second, and Brad Marchand iced it into the empty net in the third. The Bruins also held a 31-20 shot advantage.
Kolosov made 21 saves on 23 shots, Ersson stopped all 8 faced, and Joonas Korpisalo made 20 saves for the shutout.
On the heels of back to back victories and three wins in their last four games, the Philadelphia Flyers welcomed the Boston Bruins into the Wells Fargo Center for a rematch of Tuesday night’s affair.
As expected the Flyers returned with an unchanged lineup for the third straight contest and Samuel Ersson was back between the pipes, looking for his fifth win of the season and fourth in as many appearances.
The Bruins have had an uncharacteristic start to their season as they entered today’s matinee with the same record as the Flyers (4-6-1) and coming off the heels of an 8-2 drubbing their last time out against Carolina. With a back-to-back set in their midst, the Bruins went with Joonas Korpisalo after his 19-save performance against the Flyers on Tuesday and the continued struggles of Jeremy Swayman.
FIRST PERIOD
42 seconds into the game, the Flyers were called for a tripping minor courtesy of Travis Konecny. However the struggling 25th ranked power play of the Boston Bruins had difficulties traversing into the offensive zone with 0 shots recorded.
The Bruins collected 7 shots on goal after the power play ended, pinned the Flyers in their own zone, and forced several turnovers. The top line got the Flyers on the board with their first two shots, both from Sean Couturier, who then drew a roughing minor against Mark Kastelic at the 5:25 mark.
The Flyers’ power play entered today’s game having gone 0 for their last 9 and just 1 for 14 on home-ice and they continued to struggle with just one shot at the on-set of the man advantage from Owen Tippett.
Coming out of the first TV timeout, Samuel Ersson had a lengthy chat with a trainer before leaving the ice and heading straight to the locker room. In his stead, Aleksei Kolosov came in for his second NHL appearance. At first it was believed to have been a skate blade issue, but his chat with the trainer suggested otherwise.
After Travis Sanheim couldn’t bury his net-front opportunity, the Bruins went the other way and recorded the first goal of the game off the stick of Matthew Poitras. Hampus Lindholm’s point shot initially went wide but the bounce off the boards and landed right to Poitras, who snuck it between the legs of Kolosov for his first of the season.
With 73 seconds remaining in the period, Noah Cates got the gate for a holding minor. The Flyers survived heading into the intermission although Brad Marchand came inches away from securing a 2-goal lead after ringing his odd-man rush opportunity off the post.
The Bruins took control of most of the period and entered the intermission with a 14-5 edge in shots.
SECOND PERIOD
Desperately needing a spark, the Flyers jumped back onto the power play at the 6;13 mark of the period. Unfortunately it was another disjointed power play with very minimal entries and offensive chances outside of one from Bobby Brink at the very end – that missed the net.
After Couturier roofed a shot high and wide, the Bruins went the other way and doubled their lead after Justin Brazeau wired a shot from near the faceoff dot past Kolosov. Marchand was able to find him from behind the net as the Flyers left him unmarked coming off the bench for his third of the season.
The period came to a close with the Bruins holding a seemingly authoritative 2-goal lead and a 21-12 edge in shots. The Flyers came very close to chipping away but Morgan Frost was absolutely denied on his one-time opportunity.
THIRD PERIOD
As has been the case in recent games, the Flyers’ offensive game has been zapped out and their lack of shots was a troubling sign. The trend continued today and while they upped their chances ever so slightly in the third, it wasn’t enough to get past Korpisalo.
They were kept to the outside for most of it, the puck carrier very seldom had help whenever they carried the puck in the zone, and no orange jerseys were ever in sight for rebounds or 50/50 pucks.
The Bruins didn’t need to do all that much while clinging onto a 2-goal lead as they were able to cycle, pin the Flyers in their own zone at times, and when that didn’t work they dumped and chased the clock away.
The Flyers pulled Kolosov for the empty net with 4:36 remaining but similar to their power play, they couldn’t enter the zone with speed or extra bodies. Marchand jumped on a loose puck with sagging Flyers jerseys around and sent the full-length clearance into the empty net with 3:39 left.
The final couple of minutes became chippier and penalty-filled with Garnet Hathaway and Kastelic receiving 4 PIM each and Poitras, Sanheim, Travis Konecny, Trent Frederic, and Brandon Carlo each receiving 2 PIM.
