The Philadelphia Flyers have now lost 5 of their last 6 games as the Pittsburgh Penguins walked out of the Wells Fargo Center with 2 critical points following a 4-1 victory.
The first period was as sloppy as we’ve seen all season with 5 penalties against the Flyers. Rickard Rakell scored just 45 seconds into the game on the power play before Erik Karlsson doubled the lead less than 7 minutes later.
Owen Tippett scored on the power play near the end of the first, but Chad Ruhwedel’s second period tally proved to be costly as the Flyers never recovered. Evgeni Malkin added a backbreaking third period goal just 4:29 into the period, which all but iced the game.
Hart to fend off some ten-bell opportunities in the first 40 minutes as the Penguins accumulated 31 shots to the Flyers 27. Alex Nedeljkovic earned his 8th win of the season and stood tall when he needed to with 36 saves.
After snapping their 4-game losing streak on Saturday, the Flyers continued their home-stand with a game against their cross-state rivals in the Penguins. The Flyers not only won the game off a shorthanded goal from Travis Konecny in the third period but their anemic power play tallied a crucial goal late in the second period to tie things up.
Carter Hart received the start again after making 22 saves on 24 shots on Saturday and the lineup remained the same with Marc Staal sitting out and the Flyers going with their usual 12/6 formation. Flyers swept the home and home at the beginning of December with a pair of overtime victories as they looked for their 3rd consecutive win and distance in the Metropolitan Division.
As for the Penguins, they have gone 8-5-1 since losing both games against the Flyers back on the 2nd and the 4th of December. Before their loss to Buffalo on the weekend, Pittsburgh had gone 8-2-1 in their previous 11 games, righting the ship after a slow start.
Flyer-killers in Jake Guentzel and Sidney Crosby continue to pace the club as Guentzel has a team-high 25 assists and 43 points while Crosby has the lead in goals with 22 and is 2nd in points with 41. Alex Nedeljkovic got the start as he looked to earn his 8th victory of the season.
FIRST PERIOD
All it took was 28 seconds for the first penalty of the game to be called and it belonged to Sean Couturier for tripping. The 26th-ranked power play of the Pittsburgh Penguins just needed 17 seconds after Evgeni Malkin fed a no-look backhand pass through the crease to Rickard Rakell, who snuck in behind the Travis Sanheim and Scott Laughton for his 5th of the season.
At the 2:09 mark of the period, Jansen Harkins was called for a hooking minor as Ryan Poehling had a dangerous scoring chance thwarted. The Flyers second unit simplified their plays compared to the first unit but didn’t really test Alex Nedeljkovic.
Shortly after, Sanheim was called for a roughing minor against Noel Acciari at the 3:55 mark, fortunately this time around the Flyers killed it off but the Penguins continued to buzz.
As Flyers fans were finding out about the Cutter Gauthier trade to the Anaheim Ducks, the Penguins took a 2-0 lead after Erik Karlsson’s point shot found it’s way through traffic and past Carter Hart at the 7:40 mark of the period.
The Flyers were penalized for a third time with Nick Seeler heading to the box but they were able to keep the Penguins off the board and keep the deficit at 2. Then not too long after that Harkins was sent to the sin bin for the second time with 5:21 remaining.
It took the Flyers just 16 seconds to connect on the power play courtesy of Owen Tippett who ripped a shot from the faceoff dot past the glove of Nedeljkovic. The goal would not have happened without Egor Zamula patiently waiting and bringing forward a few Penguins defensemen – while also stunting Nedeljkovic – before passing it off to Tippett.
The parade to the box continued with Cam Atkinson heading over for goaltender’s interference with 4:23 left to play. And shockingly, they were called for another penalty right after killing off Atkinson’s minor with Poehling airing a puck out of play.
The Flyers survived and had another odd-man rush on the kill but Seeler’s shot rang iron to keep the score at 2-1. Hart battled through that first period and was forced to make 15 saves on 17 shots but the Flyers found their game in the latter half as they fired 13 towards Nedeljkovic.
SECOND PERIOD
Chad Ruhwedel chose the right time to score his first goal of the season he gave the reclaimed the 2-goal lead with 11:23 left in the period. The defenseman threw the puck towards the net with a few bodies in the way as it slipped through Hart’s five-hole.
The second period was a lot more fast-paced, end-to-end, and fast-moving with no penalties being called. Outside of the Ruhwedel goal, there wasn’t much to report outside of both goaltenders having to make a ton of saves.
Both clubs fired 14 shots on goal as the Penguins entered the intermission with a 31-27 edge through 40 minutes.
THIRD PERIOD
The leaky defense of the Flyers allowed Drew O’Connor to bust in all alone on a breakaway, get his own rebound, then recoup another shot on goal right after. Hart had another big sequence to keep the Flyers in the game.
On the ensuing shift, Sanheim danced his way from the point into the blue paint after an offensive zone face-off win but Nedeljkovic made the big pad save to keep the lead at 2 for the Penguins.
Evgeni Malkin gave the Penguins a massive three-goal lead with 15:31 remaining in regulation after he fired a hard snap-shot past Hart blocker-side.
With 14:17 left to play, Garnet Hathaway for whatever reason was given a double minor after a melee ensued in front of Nedeljkovic’s blue paint. Kris Letang had a bloodied forehead presumably from Nicolas Deslauriers’ stick, but the referees tacked it onto Hathaway. Letang was handed a roughing minor, thereby sending the Penguins onto a 2-minute power play.
23 seconds into the man advantage, Laughton and Malkin got into it after the initial whistle and both were sent to the box for roughing.
The rest of the period was elementary as the Penguins held onto their 3-goal lead and earned 2 very important points in the Metropolitan Division playoff race.
UP NEXT
In the final game of their homestand, the Flyers welcome the Montréal Canadiens (7:00pm ET, NBCSP) to the Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday for their first matchup of the season.
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