The Philadelphia Flyers were a minute away from a 2-0 shutout victory against the Detroit Red Wings, but with 41.6 seconds left Lucas Raymond cut the deficit in half with a rebound goal in the blue paint. Then with only a few seconds left, Raymond was back at it again, this time batting a puck out of the air but Carter Hart got his pad to it for a game-saving stop, preserving the lead and leading the Flyers to a huge 2-1 win.
Scott Laughton opened the scoring midway through the third period before Noah Cates doubled the lead a few minutes later. Carter Hart made 30 saves – including 12 in the third period – as he collected his 14th win of the season. Ville Husso made 23 saves as he kept the Red Wings in the game for as long as he could before the floodgates opened ever so slightly in the third period.
Looking for a big bounce back effort after their disappointing loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday night, the Philadelphia Flyers – playing their 4th game in 6 days this week – entered Little Caesars Arena to play the Detroit Red Wings in a game with some Wild Card implications. The Flyers entered the night with 45 points, one behind the Red Wings, but sat 8 back of the Pittsburgh Penguins who occupied the final spot with the Flyers holding a game in hand. The lineup remained the same and Carter Hart was tending the twine again, which was somewhat of a shocking move considering they play the Central Division-leading Winnipeg Jets tomorrow with Felix Sandström having just been called up after his conditioning stint came to an end.
Meanwhile for the Red Wings, they just snapped their 4-game losing streak with a 3-2 win against the Vegas Golden Knights and have lost 6 of their last 9 games. Tyler Bertuzzi was ruled out shortly before the game started with a lower-body injury. As for players to watch, All-Star Dylan Larkin lead the team with 41 points in 43 games and defenseman Filip Hronek is enjoying a career season is right behind him with 32 points.
FIRST PERIOD
There was not much to report in the first 8 minutes with both teams playing end to end hockey but not creating anything too difficult for either goaltender to handle. The Flyers had a 4-2 shot advantage, a little more offensive zone time, and the Flyers’ fourth line had the most buzz, but a relative tentative start to this evening’s game. The Flyers became very sloppy rather quickly, turning it over in the neutral zone and right at their own blue line. A few times it got a little sticky and with another chance to get the puck out of the zone, their clearance had no sauce behind it and it led to a scoring chance for Dylan Larkin, whose one-time chance hit the post past the midway mark of the period.
Rasmus Ristolainen was whistled down for an interference minor at the 11:44 mark of the first period, sending out the 19th-best Detroit power play unit for the first time. The Flyers killed it off with relative ease, kept the Wings to the outside, and didn’t allow a single shot on goal. The chances for the Red Wings came after the expiration of the penalty where they were all around the net and the blue paint of Carter Hart but were still only allowed to only find one shot on goal through all the chaos.
The period ended with coincidental unsportsmanlike conduct minors charged to both David Perron and Travis Konecny with 34 seconds left. The Red Wings held a 12-10 shot advantage as both teams headed into the intermission with plenty of things to hold onto with a clean sheet of ice awaiting them.
SECOND PERIOD
The Red Wings came out with a lot more gumption as they recorded the first 6 shots with the Flyers going over 6 minutes without one to start the period. At the 13:11 mark of the second period, David Perron, Michael Rasmussen, and Travis Sanheim were each assessed a minor penalty for roughing, eventually sending the Flyers to their first power play of the game. The Flyers regained momentum with that power play and even though they weren’t able to score, they created several chances that finally troubled Ville Husso and continued after the expiration of the penalty.
With the period coming to a close and only 11 seconds remaining, Travis Sanheim was called for a high-sticking minor, which was more of a follow-through than anything else. Nevertheless, the Wings got their second power play of the game and off the faceoff, Filip Hronek had a really good scoring chance that was thwarted by Carter Hart. A scrum ensued after the horn blew to signal the end of the period.
It was another period where nothing grand happened but neither team was playing bad either, as this game had a Wild Card feel to it with good defence, good goaltending, and physical hockey prevailing. The Flyers held a 21-18 shot advantage through 40 minutes after taking an 11-6 edge in the second period as the Red Wings only registered 1 shot on goal in the last 16 minutes of the period – which was Hronek’s power play opportunity in the final 10 seconds – as the Flyers came very close to tilting the game in their favour. The Flyers also had a 20-11 shot blocking advantage after two periods.
THIRD PERIOD
With his 8th blocked shot of the game, Ivan Provorov – the Russian Machine – finally went down in a heap but made his way towards the bench with the help of his teammates as they were able to kill the rest of the penalty. The slap shot hit him flush on the ankle and as the Flyers got it out of the zone, Provorov got up and was helped by Ristolainen as Scott Laughton wasted the rest of the power play.
5 minutes into the period, the Red Wings were denied with their best chance in the game but it wasn’t Hart that made the save, it was a diving Nicolas Deslauriers who made a kick save of his own on Michael Rasmussen’s rebound opportunity.
With 10:59 left in regulation, Flyers alternate captain Scott Laughton finished off a tricky play at the blue line with a backhand finish past Ville Husso for his 12th goal of the season. Wade Allison’s past went off the boards and through the legs of Kevin Hayes at the blue line, it was ruled onside because Hayes had his back skate gliding and then fed Laughton who fumbled his initial chance but corralled the loose puck for the finish. It was his 10th point in his last 6 games and also extended his point streak against the Red Wings to 5 games.
The Red Wings came close to tying the game with a one-time slap shot from the faceoff circle but Carter Hart made a huge glove save to keep the game at 1-0 with 8:44 remaining in the third period. A couple minutes later with 6:37 remaining, Noah Cates doubled their lead after the Flyers took advantage of a bad giveaway behind the Red Wings net. Dominik Kubalik was being pressured by Joel Farabee as he was rounding out from behind his net, he tried dumping the pass behind him but Travis Konecny was the only one there, he scooped the puck and sent it towards the slot to Cates, who made no mistake from in close for his 6th of the season.
With 3:52 left on the clock, the Red Wings pulled Husso for an extra attacker and went to work right away, firing several chances towards Hart – numbers 26 and 27 of the game. After consecutive icings by the Flyers, Dylan Larkin rang one of the post with a shade over a minute remaining and as the Wings recovered the loose puck, they were finally able to get one past Hart. Kubalik’s one-time slap shot from the faceoff dot was stopped by the toe end of the skate and the rebound was deposited by Lucas Raymond for his 15th of the season with only 41.6 seconds left.
With a few seconds remaining, Raymond was literally inches away from tying the game as Andrew Copp’s rebound opportunity from below the goal-line was batted out of the air by the Swedish sophomore, but it hit the part of the pad of Hart that wasn’t behind the red-line and his reflexes took over as he kicked it away from crossing the line, preserving the 2-1 lead for a Philadelphia win.
UP NEXT
The Flyers will head home to host the Winnipeg Jets tomorrow night (7:00pm ET) at Wells Fargo Center.
