Ten days after the Philadelphia Flyers stole 2 points away from Nashville Predators with two late third period goals, the Predators exacted revenge by scoring the go-ahead goal with 1:19 remaining in regulation. The Predators were down 2-0 after the first period but came out with a four-goal second period and after dominating all game, their 35th shot on goal ended up in the back of the net thanks in large part to Roman Josi, who had another enthralling game as he extended his point streak to 13 games. The Flyers played a better third period but were outshot 35-23 by the final horn, but most importantly 28-14 after 40 minutes.
The Predators had a variety of reasons as to why they were amped for this game. For starters, the Flyers beat them 10 days ago in Philadelphia after scoring the game-tying and go-ahead goals very late in the third period. They are also in the thick of a playoff race as they were holding onto the top wild card spot but had Vegas and Dallas trailing right behind them. A win tonight would also have catapulted them into third place in their division, edging the St. Louis Blues for the time being.
Before puck-drop the Flyers announced that they would be welcoming back Travis Konecny, who was a late scratch on Friday night in their game against the Colorado Avalanche. With Konecny returning and Oskar Lindblom remaining in the lineup, it was Nick Seeler who received the scratch as the Flyers finally fielded a lineup with 12 forwards for the first time since the trade deadline.
FIRST PERIOD
The Predators came out firing at will as they were pressuring the Flyers and Martin Jones early but a lot of their chances went high or wide. Roman Josi had two chances on the opening shift alone but their best chance came on a 2 on 1 rush shortly after, but shot the puck well wide. However, throwing an axe into their plans were the Flyers as they opened the scoring only 2:15 into the game. Travis Sanheim fired a wrist shot from the slot after being set up beautifully by Morgan Frost. Aggressive forechecking in the offensive zone from Frost lead to a turnover off the stick off of Filip Forsberg. He held onto the puck and waited for Sanheim to burst into the slot as he wired the shot glove-side.
Like their previous matchup on the 17th of March and their last game against Cale Makar and the Avalanche, Roman Josi was very visible and really gave the Flyers fits all period long. Whenever on the ice, the Flyers defense were so worried and focused on #59 that they forgot about their actual assignments, leaving Martin Jones to fend off the scoring chances. After creating several more scoring chances, primarily off the sticks of Filip Forsberg and Matt Duchene, the former was able to draw a tripping penalty on Cam Atkinson in an attempt to tie the game early on.
Over their last 5 games the Predators were 6 for their last 18 attempts, converting at nearly 30% over their last 9 games, and were 7th place in the NHL for the season, which represented a tall task for a very anemic penalty killing unit. The Flyers were able to kill off the penalty in large part to Jones as the Predators fired six shots, with three of them hitting the net.
A little over two minutes after the penalty kill, the Flyers used that momentum to take a 2-0 lead as Joel Farabee buried his 15th goal of the season. Upon entering the offensive zone, James van Riemsdyk tried centering a pass to Atkinson in the blue paint but he was well defended. The puck did however hit his skate and bounced to open and unmarked Farabee, who had an open cage to shoot at.
Off the very next faceoff, Patrick Brown dropped the gloves with Luke Kunin, potentially in retaliation for a big hit the former laid out on Mikael Granlund. Kunin also finished a big hit on Oskar Lindblom earlier in the period. Some punches were thrown as Kunin was brought down to his knees at the onset of the fight, but the Flyers were keeping up with the overly-aggressive Predators in the first 20 minutes. The fight represented the 44th tilt for the Predators, leading the NHL by a wide margin.
The first period ended with the Predators leading in shots by a 14-4 margin, they were all over the Flyers but Martin Jones played as good a period as any. The Flyers took advantage of the shaky Juuse Saros as they were able to strike on their opportunistic chances and take a 2-0 lead heading into the intermission. The latter half got very chippy as Rasmus Ristolainen starting throwing his body around as the Flyers took a 12-11 edge in the hit department.
SECOND PERIOD
If the Predators remained as aggressive as they were in the first period, only time would tell when they would cut into the deficit. Roman Josi extended his point streak to 13 games as he danced around the Flyers zone and took a shot from the point that was deflected by Yakov Trenin for his 16th goal of the season. It was Josi’s 62nd assist of the season and his 27th point during his 13-game point streak as the Predators cut the deficit in half only 47 seconds into the period.
On the very next shift Nashville came close to tying it on yet another deflection opportunity, and they followed that play up with an even more dangerous scoring chance just a minute later as the puck was loose in the blue paint as Jones was flat on his back. Just like in the first period, with the Predators skating circles in the offensive end, the Flyers turned the puck over and scored another goal. Max WIllman blocked a Matt Benning shot from the point, alley-ooped the puck to himself over the defenseman, and finished off the play with a nice snap-shot breakaway goal to make it 3-1.
The Flyers held a 3-1 lead as they were being outshot 19-5 and things didn’t get any better for them as the Predators went back on the power play after Hayden Hodgson was called for cross-checking. In the first 28 seconds, the Predators fired 3 shots but all of them were blocked away, and with 50 seconds left Martin Jones robbed Mikael Granlund from the face-off dot.
Not long after the Flyers had killed off the penalty, the Predators tied the game with 2 goals in a span of 46 seconds. Tanner Jeannot was able to get the puck out of the zone by sending it along the boards as both Granlund and Trenin were rushing towards an odd-man rush. As Granlund scooped up the loose puck he made a beautiful saucer pass over the laying body of Ivan Provorov, who was defending for an on-ice pass. Trenin made no mistake in finishing off the play for his 2nd goal of the period.
Another offensive zone miscue by the Flyers led the Predators to tie the game. Travis Konecny tried sending a pass to Kevin Hayes behind the net but the puck rolled over his stick for Granlund to scoop up again. He went end-to-end before stopping on a dime and sending a pass to Kunin in the middle. His initial shot was stopped, but the rebound was large and went right back to the shooter and he made it no mistake on his second attempt as the Predators’ aggressiveness paid off in full. They scored three goals in the first eight minutes of the second frame and they also carried a 26-7 shot advantage with 5:30 remaining.
With a little over four and a half minutes left in the second period, the Flyers found themselves on their first power play of the game and Kevin Hayes and Joel Farabee were inches away from helping the Flyers re-take the lead. Saros, who looked increasingly shaky by the minute, was able to stave off both chances in and around the crease. It was a good-looking power play for the 32nd-ranked unit but the Predators killed it off and then took the lead in short order.
With 1:47 to go in the period, Alexandre Carrier took a simple shot from the point through a maze of defenders that found the back of the net. Matt Duchene carried the puck from the neutral zone all the way into the offensive zone, behind the net, and then fed it to Carrier at the point, whose shot was deflected in by Filip Forsberg. Provorov couldn’t fend off the Swedish goal-scorer as he was able to fight off the defender and deflect the puck for his 37th of the season.
It just wasn’t Saros’ night as the usually dependable netminder was having fits all game against the Flyers and James van Riemsdyk added to his misery as his goal was the 4th of the night for the Orange and Black on just 14 shots. It only took the Flyers 59 seconds to respond and they tied the game with only 47 seconds left in the period. With the Flyers in the middle of a line-change, Kevin Connauton took a shot from the point that was blocked and went into the corner. Konecny picked up the loose puck, fought off Carrier, and then fed van Riemsdyk who emerged off the bench unmarked as he wired a one-time blast for his 17th of the season and 3rd in 4 games.
THIRD PERIOD
Not wanting to lose momentum at the start of the third period like they did in the second frame by allowing a goal on the first shift, Hayden Hodgson dropped the gloves with Tanner Jeannot in a good old fashioned tussle as both players were chucking knuckles. It only took 24 seconds for the second fight to get scratched into the boxscore as Hodgson continued to impress since making his debut on Thursday.
The fight actually tempered the game a little as they headed into the first commercial break with a 2-1 shot edge in favour of the Flyers. Coming out of the break, both teams exchanged scoring chances as Konecny was stopped on a shot from the slot and then Josi was stopped with an open shot near the slot. After stopping Josi, Jones was tasked on making another big save with the Predators sniffing around the blue paint. Luke Kunin’s shot trickled through the goaltender but Patrick Brown was able to locate the loose puck on the line and tuck it underneath Jones.
With about six minutes remaining in regulation, the Predators jumped on a loose puck after the Flyers flubbed an opportunity at the blue line. Ryan Johansen set out on an odd-man rush with Forsberg and as he fed him a saucer pass, but Forsberg’s attempt went just high and wide. With about four minutes left, Kunin came inches away from scoring his second goal again and taking the lead, and then two minutes after that Mattias Ekholm’s blast from the faceoff dot hit Jones’ shoulder and then the crossbar.
With all the pressure coming from one end of the ice, the Predators broke the deadlock with 1:19 remaining in regulation as Jeannot redirected a perfect fake-shot-pass from Roman Josi. With a minute remaining, Jones was pulled for the extra attacker but the Flyers struggled with setting up in the offensive zone. Their best chance came from Joel Farabee finding a loose puck in the slot, but Josi dove to block it away from harm’s way. The Flyers had the puck in the zone for the last 20 seconds but held onto to it for far too long and then registered one last shot with not much time to spare.
UP NEXT
The Flyers close out their road trip on Tuesday night in Minnesota when they visit the red-hot Wild in St. Paul.
