The Philadelphia Flyers tied the game late but lost yet another overtime game, this time against the Minnesota Wild by the score of 3-2.
Noah Cates opened the scoring early in the first period before Matthew Boldy tied the game in the second and then took the lead early in the third period. Tony DeAngelo tied the game with 1:28 left on the clock after being fed a perfect pass from Kevin Hayes who came on the ice as the extra attacker. Travis Konecny had a glorious chance to take the game in overtime and finally reach the 25 goal plateau but he was robbed, and then the Wild went the other way with Mats Zuccarello scoring a highlight reel goal to snap their 3-game losing streak while extending the Flyers’ streak to 3. Marc-Andre Fleury made 28 saves, Carter Hart made 20 saves, these teams dropped the gloves 4 times – including 3 in a 15 second span – and the Flyers have now lost consecutive overtime games.
Looking to break out of their mini-slump where they’ve lost back-to-back games and are losers in 3 of their last 4, the Philadelphia Flyers visited the Minnesota Wild tonight facing a familiar foe in net. Marc-Andre Fleury was facing the Flyers for the 59th time in his career as he entered the game with a 31-19-2 record, mostly from his time in Pittsburgh. Former Flyer, Ryan Hartman, was a healthy scratch after head coach, Dean Evason, said his players needed to be held accountable for after Hartman’s 21 PIMs in his last 3 games. After winning 3 straight games, the Wild have lost their last 3 games against the likes of Carolina, Florida, and Tampa Bay. Evason said he wants to see some desperation.
The Flyers, on the other hand, had an unchanged lineup for the 17th consecutive game. Carter Hart returned between the pipes, and John Tortorella mentioned that Nick Seeler and Rasmus Ristolainen were the second pairing tonight. Tortorella also mentioned that the effort has been on full display but it hasn’t turned into positive results on the scoreboard. Something had to give tonight with 2 struggling teams on losing steaks.
FIRST PERIOD
5:14 into the game the Flyers struck first after a Rasmus Ristolainen point shot was deflected by hometown native, Noah Cates, in front of the net and trickled slowly past Marc-Andre Fleury for his 7th of the season as the Orange and White took an early 1-0 lead. Nick Seeler’s initial point shot troubled the Wild to begin with, Marcus Foligno looked to have gotten the Wild out of trouble but his clearance attempt was knocked down by Ristolainen and the Flyers turned that into a goal of their own.
At the 9:56 mark of the first period, Ryan Reaves and Nicolas Deslauriers dropped the gloves with the former taking part in his first tilt with the Wild and the latter facing his former team. It wasn’t as spirited as one would have hoped as Reaves had Deslauriers tied up which mitigated his chances for big swings. 15 seconds later Wade Allison and Mason Shaw dropped the gloves in a very quick but spirited bout with the former taking down the latter. After coming back from the commercial break, Marcus Foligno and Zack MacEwen dropped the gloves as well but this time they were throwing haymakers in the 3rd fight in 16 game seconds.
The Wild already had reasons to be fired up for this game but more than 10 minutes into the first period, the Flyers held a 6-2 shot advantage, and most of the puck possession.
The Wild were a lot more energized after the 3 fights as they took control right off the hop. They were circling around the Flyers in their own zone and as the Flyers finally looked to have gotten control of the puck and getting out of the zone, they turned it over, only for the Wild to get a grade-A scoring chance from Connor Dewar in the slot but Carter Hart made a huge blocker save to keep the score at 1-0. The Wild had nearly 5 minutes of offensive zone possession with 5:45 still remaining on the clock but the Flyers held a slight advantage on the shot clock at 8-6.
With a chance to double their lead, Owen Tippett stripped the puck off the stick of Matt Dumba at the blue-line with 3:44 remaining. Tippett came in all alone on Fleury but the goaltender stood his ground and gloved Tippett’s shot keeping the deficit at 1-0 late in the first period. Before the period came to a close both teams had some great chances to add to the scoresheet as Allison had a chance in close that was sticked aside by a sprawling Fleury and then with only a few seconds left, Ristolainen blocked a Jared Spurgeon shot in the slot. The Flyers took a 1-0 lead into the intermission and held a 10-7 shot advantage.
SECOND PERIOD
2:45 into the second period, the fourth fight of game ensued after Brandon Duhaime and Patrick Brown dropped the gloves in the neutral zone.
Kevin Hayes had an odd-man rush opportunity right before the gloves dropped but he mishandled the puck and was forced into a tough angle shot that hit the side of the post. 54 seconds later the Minnesota Wild tied the game after Frederick Gaudreau’s pass attempt from behind the net was deflected by Cam York’s stick but Matthew Boldy – the initial receiver of the Gaudreau pass – dragged the puck with his skate to his stick and finished it over the pad of Hart for his 15th of the season.
With 11:27 remaining in the second period, with the Flyers looking dangerous, Kevin Hayes was hooked by Calen Addison for the first minor penalty of the game. The Flyers had a lot of zone time and a few chances, but their best opportunities came after the expiration of the man advantage, including a Scott Laughton shot that rang off the post. Then with 8:35 left, the Flyers’ power play returned to the ice thanks to an interference minor from Kirill Kaprizov. The Flyers recorded no shots and were held to the outside for almost the entirety of the power play.
The Wild came in wave after wave after the expiration of the man advantage, which started with Mats Zuccarello who had two great chances in succession blocked by Travis Sanheim, then they came back into the zone with Zuccarello setting up Boldy in the slot but his chance was blockered aside, and then Gaudreau came in with too much speed for the Flyers defence to handle but his side-attempt stash just missed and the loose puck was cleared out of the crease in time by Ivan Provorov. Patrick Brown was then called for a slashing minor with 2:53 remaining in the period with Wild generating all the chances and the momentum pendulum swinging their way.
The penalty was killed, the Flyers did a very good job with the Wild only producing one real scoring chance that was gloved by Hart, and both teams entered the final intermission tied at 1 apiece. Zack MacEwen did not return after his fight and Wade Allison was hobbling after a blocked shot in the second period, meaning the Flyers were held to 10 forwards heading into the third period in a tie game.
THIRD PERIOD
1:57 into the third period, the Flyers were awarded their 3rd power play of the night after Sam Steel was called for a hooking minor. Scott Laughton’s shot-pass to James van Riemsdyk at the front of the net was deflected and pinged the post and amidst the chaos around Fleury, Laughton was assessed a roughing minor with 44 seconds left on their man advantage. With 21 seconds left on the power play and 15:12 on the clock, Matthew Boldy scored his second goal of the game after he snuck in unmarked and untouched and finished off a Kaprizov pass from below the goal line.
With 7:49 left in regulation, Travis Konecny dumped Jon Merrill in front of Fleury, who had covered a puck after making a glove save. A scrum ensued afterwards with every one pushing and shoving including the goaltender who got a few hacks in on Konecny. Jordan Greenway, Marcus Foligno, and Joel Eriksson Ek jumped Konecny, which then brought everyone else into the scrum.
Konecny was given the extra minor penalty, which brought out the Wild power play that had just recently taken the lead. With 31 seconds left on the power play and 6:20 on the game clock, Boldy had an open net to shoot at for his hat trick but clanged it off the crossbar.
Tortorella juggled the lines a little in the third since he was down 2 forwards as we saw Scott Laughton with Kevin Hayes and Owen Tippett and Noah Cates was centering Morgan Frost and Travis Konecny.
The Wild burned over 90 seconds with puck control and board battle wins in the offensive zone, reducing the Flyers’ chances of tying the game. They finally got control of the puck and entered the Wild zone with 1:40 left. 12 seconds later with Hart on the bench and Hayes coming on the ice as the extra attacker, he had open ice and faked a shot before passing it to Tony DeAngelo at the faceoff dot where he ripped it top-shelf past Fleury to tie the game. The Wild were frozen by Hayes’ decision because he had the lane to shoot but he found DeAngelo with a perfect feed and he made no mistake for his 8th of the season.
For the second consecutive game, the Flyers were playing extra hockey looking for their 2nd win in the 3-on-3 format. The Wild had full control of the puck for the first 80 seconds before the Flyers corralled the puck and went the other way with an odd-man rush to take the game from Minnesota. Konecny had Sanheim opposite him but was looking shot all the way, he slowed down, and tried going five-hole but the veteran goaltender made the save.
Mats Zuccarello was the hero in tonight’s game as he went end to end, nutmegged Konecny, made a move at the front of the net to get in front of DeAngelo, and then finished it over Hart’s glove for his 19th of the season.
UP NEXT
The Flyers head north of the border to face the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday night in a rematch of last Sunday’s heartbreaking 5-3 loss in Philadelphia.
