The Philadelphia Flyers came inches away from mounting a furious comeback in the third period but just fell short as the Toronto Maple Leafs were able to hold on for a 4-3 victory.
After the Flyers failed to take advantage of a 2-man advantage down by 2 goals, the Leafs scored shortly after the penalty kill for a 4-1 lead. Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee then scored 2 goals within 83 seconds to cut the deficit to 1 before Farabee had a wide open chance to the tie the game only a minute later. Unfortunately his shot went wide, the Flyers had a short power play at the end that was cut short, and they had one final scoring chance before the final horn sounded off to signal the end of the game.
Carter Hart did as much as he could, making 24 saves in the first 40 minutes before the Leafs scored 3 goals in 3:43 between the end of the second period and the start of the third. Frost and Tony DeAngelo had a goal and an assist each, Konecny had 2 assists, and Hart made 30 saves while Ilya Samsonov made 19 saves for Toronto. Mitch Marner had a goal an assist, and William Nylander scored a goal and added 2 assists.
Looking to win back to back games for the first time since the 5th and 8th of November, the Flyers visited the Toronto Maple Leafs for their annual afternoon game before Christmas. The Flyers didn’t change too much from their victory against the Columbus Blue Jackets as the top-6 remained the same, Wade Allison got bumped to the third line with Scott Laughton and Kevin Hayes, and Zack MacEwen was relegated to the fourth line alongside Patrick Brown and his partner-in-crime Nicolas Deslauriers. The defensive pairing remained intact and Carter Hart got another starting nod.
Opposite him was Ilya Samsonov who held an 8-0 record on home ice as well as an 8-1-0 record against the Flyers – the most wins he has against any NHL opponent over his career. The Leafs have gone 16-3-4 since a 4-4-2 start that troubled the fanbase and media alike – ironically beating the Flyers to start that streak.
FIRST PERIOD
3:35 into the game, William Nylander was called for a hooking minor on Tony DeAngelo, sending the 29th-ranked power play onto the ice to potentially get the ball rolling against one of the hottest teams in the NHL. 10 seconds into the power play, Mitch Marner – the hottest Maple Leaf entering this game – was sprung on a breakaway after the Flyers turned it over on an offensive zone faceoff win. Marner slowed down to make a move that Carter Hart was able to stop, including a rebound chance. The Flyers went the other way and scored on a slap-shot from the point courtesy of Tony DeAngelo, 32 seconds later.
James van Riemsdyk looked to initially shoot the puck in a very dangerous area but passed it off to Kevin Hayes instead. Hayes was looking to pass it back to van Riemsdyk but noticed all the bodies clogged in the middle, so he then looked over to DeAngelo and set him up for a one-time blast that made it through a maze of bodies. The goal was his 5th of the year and he has already matched his career-high with 3 power play goals in one season.
DeAngelo scored the goal on the Flyers’ first shot of the game 4:17 in, and the Flyers didn’t register another shot on goal until Owen Tippett’s snap-shot at the 13:42 mark of the period. The Leafs had 5 shots within that span but the Flyers held a 10-9 shot attempt edge with Tippett’s attempt being the first even-strength shot of the game for the Flyers.
With 1:26 remaining in the period, Nicolas Deslauriers was called for a holding minor, sending Toronto’s 5-forward power play unit out on the ice in an attempt to tie the game late in the period. The Leafs were in the offensive zone for all but 13 seconds as they fired shots at will but only one found its way through all the bodies in front of Hart.
The Flyers held a 1-0 lead heading into the intermission, looking for their 4th win of the season when scoring the first goal – the lowest in the NHL. The Leafs held a 11-3 shot advantage, while the Flyers held the advantage in hits by a 17-10 margin.
SECOND PERIOD
42 seconds into the period with Nicolas Deslauriers coming out of the penalty box, he was sprung onto a breakaway by a perfect stretch pass by Travis Sanheim, but the Leafs got back in time and troubled the enforcer as he wasn’t able to get a shot on goal.
The Maple Leafs, who ended the first period with a groove, came into the second period on a mission but Carter Hart had all the answers early on. In the first 5 minutes of the period, the Leafs had 5 shots on goal, all of which were scoring chances, culminated by an Alexander Kerfoot breakaway that was blockered aside by the goaltender. Then Auston Matthews, Michael Bunting, and William Nylander tried connecting in the slot but Hart had to come up with 2 huge stops and the shots were 20-4, 27 minutes into the game.
The 20th shot on goal lead to a scrum in front of Hart as the Leafs tried hacking away with the puck gobbled up by Hart. The Flyers didn’t like that very much and things got a little feisty, something similar to how the first game between the Leafs ended with Travis Konecny in the middle. Konecny and Jordie Benn were each given roughing minors.
With 11:03 remaining in the middle period, Morgan Frost was called for an interference minor against Kerfoot, sending back the 5-man forward unit back onto the ice. The Flyers effectively killed the penalty and then Deslauriers was tripped up behind the Leafs net by Mark Giordano with 6 seconds left on the Frost penalty. It wasn’t as good as their first power play as they managed one shot on goal but looked very sloppy in the offensive zone.
The penalties kept coming as the Flyers were called for a holding minor against Joel Farabee with 5:16 remaining in the period. The penalty actually occurred a couple minutes prior but on the delayed call, the Maple Leafs held possession of the puck, even taking it out of the zone, and then coming right back in and generating scoring chances before the eventual power play rolled out.
The power play had just expired but Marner’s point shot was deflected by Calle Jarnkrok with 3:10 left. The Leafs spent the majority of the 2 minutes in the offensive zone and as the penalty expired, Jarnkrok’s tip was perfectly executed as Hart was moving the opposite direction.
Then with 49.5 seconds remaining, Rasmus Ristolainen was called for a hooking minor as William Nylander found his way past the defence and created a dangerous scoring chance that Hart had to fend off.
The 4th power play of the game for Toronto only needed 13 seconds to set up and take a late lead with only 37 seconds left in the period. Marner, who had an incredible 8-game point streak in their Next Gen games, which included 18 points entering this one, fired a one-time slap-shot that found its way past Hart for his second point of the game. Marner was all alone at the point and Tavares set him up with an easy pass, even though Hart got a piece of the shot, it trickled through behind him and into the net for his 13th of the season.
The Leafs scored 2 late goals to take a 2-1 lead into the intermission, while also holding a ridiculous 27-8 shot advantage after 40 minutes – which included a 16-5 margin in the second period. The Maple Leafs are coming off a game where they restricted the Tampa Bay Lightning to only 19 shots in the game, their lowest total in almost 2 years. They outshot the Lightning in that game 40-19 and 29-8 after 40 minutes, similarly to today’s game against the Flyers.
THIRD PERIOD
33 seconds into the third period, the Leafs’ top line connected after the Flyers were scrambling all over the zone. It started at the blue-line when the Leafs kept the puck in, rimmed it around the boards behind the net, where William Nylander passed it to Auston Matthews who faked a shot before centering it to Michael Bunting who was all alone in the slot for a wide open net and his 9th of the season.
Going back to the second period, it was the third Leafs goal in 3:43.
With 12:39 remaining in regulation, Travis Konecny was interfered with after making a good play in the defensive end and trying to jump on the rush, sending the Flyers back on the power play for the third time in the game. 40 seconds into the man advantage, Kevin Hayes’ one-time blast double-doinked post-to-post and then on the next rush, Noah Cates was tripped up by Mark Giordano on a breakaway chance, giving the Flyers 61 seconds of 5 on 3 time. Another 2-man advantage went to waste as they weren’t able to register a shot on goal and the Maple Leafs effectively wasted the final 25 seconds playing keep-away. A very critical juncture of the game went to waste as the Flyers only mustered one shot on goal with all that power play time available to them.
As expected, the Maple Leafs took all the momentum after the penalty kill as they took a 3-goal lead with 8:21 left on the clock. It was fourth line versus fourth line and the Flyers were hemmed in their own zone, which allowed the Leafs to cycle and make a line change that brought out the top line again. William Nylander scored his 20th goal of the season with Hart having no chance on making the save.
Pass, pass, pass, with everyone on the ice touching the puck as it went from corner to the point back into the corner and into the slot with Nylander making it look easy.
22 seconds later, Morgan Frost cut the deficit back to two after being perfectly set up by a saucer pass from DeAngelo before finishing the play through the five-hole of Samsonov. It was a homecoming for the young centre as he scored his first goal against his boyhood team, his third goal in as many games, and 7th on the season.
Then 1:23 after Frost’s goal, Joel Farabee brought the Flyers back into the game with a goal that trickled through the five-hole of Samsonov again.
Konecny, who jump started the Frost goal with a turnover in their defensive end, won a board battle – alongside Frost – in the neutral zone before setting up Farabee for his 6th of the season with 6:36 left on the clock.
Farabee, only a minute later, had a wide open net to shoot at to tie the game after a Sanheim setup, but the pass was too hard for the young forward as he couldn’t one-time the shot. Matthews made a good stick check at the very end as well as he was trying to regroup himself, but that’s a play you have to finish down a goal and late in the third.
Just as Hart was being pulled for an extra attacker, Konecny set up Frost with a one-time chance that was stopped by Samsonov, which then jettisoned the Leafs for an empty net opportunity which just missed the net, giving the Flyers life. With 1:10 left, the Flyers found themselves on a power play after Timothy Liljegren was called for an interference minor on Owen Tippett, giving the Flyers a 6-on-4 chance with the net empty.
With a 2-man advantage, the Flyers couldn’t get the puck and the Leafs were able to waste precious time before Joel Farabee was called for a roughing minor with only 45 seconds left. The Flyers had a flurry of chances right at the end but the Leafs held onto a 4-3 lead for their 21st victory of the season.
UP NEXT
The Flyers are right back at it tomorrow night when they face the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena in the second game of their five-game road trip.
