The Philadelphia Flyers’ 4-game winning streak came to an end with a 6-2 loss at the hands of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Leafs swept the season series with the Flyers after taking them down 5-2 on the 2nd of November and 4-3 on the 22nd of December. Mitch Marner, John Tavares, and Calle Jarnkrok each recorded 3 points – a combination of 2 goals and 7 assists. The Flyers received goals from Travis Konecny and Nicolas Deslauriers in quick response to the Leafs taking 2-goal leads each time.
Matt Murray made 34 saves, Carter Hart made 29, and special teams played a big part in tonight’s loss as the Flyers’ power play went 0/4 with the Leafs scoring a shorthanded goal and a power play goal themselves. Tony DeAngelo was also benched in the second period after a costly turnover that led to a goal in the first period. He only played 7:05 total.
Riding high on a 4-game winning streak, the Flyers entered tonight with another unchanged forward corps as John Tortorella mentioned that he couldn’t be more pleased with how his lines have fared in recent games.
Owen Tippett, Morgan Frost, and James van Riemsdyk remained at the top, followed by Noah Cates, Travis Konecny, and Joel Farabee, then the starting line of the game of Scott Laughton, Kevin Hayes, and Wade Allison, with Nicolas Deslauriers, Patrick Brown, and Zack MacEwen completing the set. Justin Braun was held out again for Nick Seeler who patrolled the backend with Rasmus Ristolainen on the third pair, keeping Ivan Provorov-Cam York and Travis Sanheim-Tony DeAngelo as the top-4.
After almost completing the comeback the last time these two teams faced off a few weeks ago, Matt Murray was the one tending the twine tonight but that’s also because Ilya Samsonov started last night in their 4-1 victory against the Detroit Red Wings.
FIRST PERIOD
The Maple Leafs opened the game with a scoring chance off the opening draw as David Kampf just missed out on depositing a goal past a sprawling Carter Hart but fortunately Tony DeAngelo was backing up his goaltender and kept the puck from the red line. The Leafs fired 4 shots on goal in the first minute.
9:51 into the game, Calle Jarnkrok finished off a one-time pass from Mitch Marner to get the Leafs on the board. Travis Konecny was seemingly tripped on the previous rush by the eventual goal scorer but as nothing was called, the Leafs went the other way as Conor Timmins and Mitch Marner set up their linemate who was left unmarked and untouched for his 9th goal of the season.
A few minutes later, first-time All-Star Kevin Hayes had a similar chance of his own to finish off a one-time pass from post to post but held onto the puck a little longer than expected and his shot went just wide as Matt Murray regrouped in time and the deficit remained at 1.
Unfortunately with 2:16 remaining in the period, the Maple Leafs were able to double their lead after they pounced on a DeAngelo turnover. He completely flubbed his pass attempt as the puck rolled in front of Carter Hart who made the initial stop on Pontus Holmberg but had no chance on the rebound that Zack Aston-Reese finished off.
16 seconds later, Travis Konecny scored his 21st of the season and extended his goal streak to 6 games. This time the turnover came from Mitch Marner who turned it over with an ill-advised pass from behind his net that Konecny batted down before ripping it through the five-hole of Murray to negate the previous goal and returned the deficit to 1.
The period ended with the Maple Leafs ahead 2-1 on the scoreboard and 12-11 on the shot clock.
SECOND PERIOD
1:32 into the second period, Auston Matthews was called for a high-sticking minor for the first penalty of the game. Unfortunately for the Orange and Black they weren’t able to generate much of anything, including the initial setup in the offensive zone. The fourth line came on the ice the very next shift and almost slammed home a loose puck but Matt Murray kept the fort locked down.
7:01 into the second period, Conor Timmins scored his first career NHL goal to increase the lead to 3-1 after another Mitch Marner set-up. He forced a turnover in the defensive zone, jettisoned the puck to John Tavares who fed it back to Marner who waited, waited, waited and found Timmins alone at the point. His shot travelled through a couple players before beating Hart.
1:49 later the Flyers’ fourth line had another big shift as their hard forechecking forced a turnover before Patrick Brown set up Nicolas Deslauriers who roofed it top shelf with his backhander for his 2nd of the season.
Coming out of the second commercial break, the Flyers found themselves on their second power play of the period after Mark Giordano was called for an interference minor with 10:45 left on the clock. After winning an offensive zone draw, the Maple Leafs doubled their lead after Timothy Liljegren’s slap shot trickled through Hart’s five-hole with 1:07 left on the Flyers’ power play.
Only a few minutes later the Maple Leafs’ captain, John Tavares, then added another goal with 7:35 remaining after the Flyers looked slow, sluggish, and out of sync in front of Hart. Morgan Frost turned it over right at the side of the net that allowed Jarnkrok to poke it towards Tavares who made no mistake in the slot for his 19th of the season and Jarnkrok’s third point of the game.
1:57 later, the Flyers received their third power play of the period after Pontus Holmberg was called for a tripping minor. Frost made his next shift on the ice after the turnover that cost them a goal but DeAngelo remained stuck on the bench after just making one limited appearance on the ice after his costly turnover.
The Flyers took their first penalty of the game with 1:22 remaining in the second period after Wade Allison was called for a tripping minor in the offensive zone. The Flyers killed off the first 82 seconds of the power play but the Leafs entered the second intermission with a 5-2 lead after a 3-goal period.
THIRD PERIOD
3:38 into the final period of regulation, Michael Bunting was called for a high-sticking minor, giving the Flyers their fourth power play in the last 23 minutes. Another power play that came and went with not much being generated from top to bottom as they had a good chance to cutting the deficit to something more manageable.
Rasmus Ristolainen was called for a slashing minor with 8:09 remaining in regulation as the camera panned quickly to DeAngelo on the bench as he remained stuck there since his turnover. With 6:47 left on the clock, Auston Matthews snapped one home from his office after a nifty pass from John Tavares. Carter Hart had to go post-to-post on the play and he just missed his blocker on the shot as the reigning goal-scoring champion collected his 20th of the season with Mitch Marner recording another assist – his third of the game.
The Maple Leafs took this one 6-2 with a huge 3-goal second period. Timothy Liljegren’s shorthanded goal was the turning point of this game as the Flyers had just cut the deficit back to 1 with a goal from Deslauriers and with a power play on hand they had a chance to tie the game. After the goal, the Flyers looked to have lost a lot of their fight and even though the shots were relatively even, the Leafs were by far the superior team.
UP NEXT
The Flyers hit the road to take on the Buffalo Sabres tomorrow night in a rescheduled affair in Western New York.
