The Philadelphia Flyers keep improving with every game this preseason and after a tough 6-0 defeat against the New Jersey Devils in their pre-season opener, they threw everything but the kitchen sink towards their divisional rivals on Saturday but fell 3-2 in overtime. The Flyers are now 1-3-0 after 4 games, while the Devils improved to 4-0-0.
After scoring the game’s first goal only 2 minutes in courtesy of Wade Allison, the Devils ended the period with 2 goals of their own from Curtis Lazar and Alexander Holtz. The Flyers were relentless in the latter half of the game and came very close on numerous occasions but either couldn’t get it past Vanecek or had their shots go high and/or wide. Rhett Gardner finally buried a shot past Vanecek with just 3:06 remaining in regulation, sending the game into overtime for the second time in as many days. Unfortunately the Devils took advantage of some tired skaters and Erik Haula finished off a nice passing play from Dawson Mercer.
The main story was that for the first time in 539 days, the Philadelphia Flyers will feature a lineup with both Sean Couturier and Cam Atkinson at the Wells Fargo Center. Couturier and Atkinson were set to make their returns earlier in the week against the New Jersey Devils but the latter was ruled out before game-time with an undisclosed injury. Couturier played a 18:05, which was the second most for a forward that night outside of Joel Farabee’s 18:22. The Flyers lost the game 6-0 but it was a good sign to see Couturier back on the ice with no limitations.
Tonight the lineup featured Couturier and Atkinson as well as Travis Konecny and Carter Hart – both of whom have yet to make their debuts. Brendan Furry was on the top line with Couturier and Konecny, Wade Allison and Bobby Brink were on the wings for Noah Cates, Matt Brown, Tanner Laczynski, and Atkinson rounded out the top-9, and Olle Lycksell, Rhett Gardner, and Sami Tuomaala completed the lineup.
Marc Staal was paired up with Sean Walker, Emil Andrae with Rasmus Ristolainen, and Adam Ginning with Ronnie Attard. Carter Hart was expected to play the whole game with Felix Sandstrom as the backup.
The Flyers were coming off a resilient comeback against the Boston Bruins last night with Brink and Cal Petersen starring in the 4-3 win. Joel Farabee scored the first goal of the pre-season for the Flyers and Morgan Frost and Brink scored in the shootout to claim their first victory.
FIRST PERIOD
2:04 into the game, Wade Allison and Bobby Brink connected on a pretty give-and-go with the former depositing the goal past a sprawling Vitek Vanecek for a 1-0 lead. Emil Andrae started the play from his own zone as he sent an outlet pass to Allison entering the offensive zone with speed. Allison dropped it off to Brink who made a silky smooth move around a defenseman before finding Allison for the goal. The primary assist represented the third point for Brink in 67:04.
6:28 into the period, Tyce Thompson was whistled down for a tripping minor against Ronnie Attard in the neutral zone, more of a knee-on-knee collision, sending the Flyers on the first power play of the game.
Couturier, Brink, Konecny, Atkinson, and Ristolainen represented the top unit tonight. Unfortunately it took the Flyers almost a full minute to get into the offensive zone but were still unable to set up. Erik Haula counterattacked and fired a shot right into the belly of Hart for their first shot of the game.
Brown, Cates, Lycksell, Tuomaala, and Andrae represented the second unit and were able to set up but unable to get a shot on goal. At the end of the power play, the Devils jumped on an opportunity after Andrae’s wrist shot was blocked by Chris Tierney. Thompson who was coming out of the box was able to corral the loose puck and go the other way on an odd-man rush with just Andrae trailing. Thompson was able to get the puck over the defenseman and find the stick of Lazar as the puck trickled through the wickets of Hart for the tying goal.
With 5:49 remaining in the period, captain Nico Hischier was called for tripping Sean Walker behind the Flyers net. The Flyers top unit continued their sloppy play as the Devils jumped on a 2-on-0 with no defenseman even close. Brink turned it over as he tried to make a pass to the open man at the point but the Devils not only beat him to the punch, they also pressured him into making an ill advised pass. Ondrej Palat took the puck went on a mini breakaway before realizing he had Lazar tailing and after a few give and goes, Hart made a huge glove save to keep the game tied.
As soon as the penalty expired, Nico Hischer and the Devils entered the Flyers zone with speed and ferocity but had 2-3 golden opportunities stopped by a sprawling Hart. On the ensuing face-off after the commercial break, Alexander Holtz buried a net-front opportunity for a 2-1 lead. Hischier forced a turnover from Attard behind the net, which allowed Timo Meier to corral the loose puck and dish a laser to Holtz in the blue paint for an easy goal.
After a strong start to the game, the Flyers lost momentum after 2 disappointing and rather ineffective power plays. In fact, the Devils had the better scoring chances on both man advantages. Carter Hart made a few ten-bell stops but the Devils were opportunistic in their chances and took a 2-1 lead into the intermission with 5 shots on goal – to the Flyers 8.
Emil Andrae paced the backend with 7:18 TOI, while Cam Atkinson and Sean Couturier led the way for the forward group with 7:39 – team-high – for the former and 7:08 for the latter.
SECOND PERIOD
4:14 into the second period, Brendan Smith sent a perfect outlet pass through the Flyers defense for Erik Haula who walked in all alone but was robbed by the glove of Carter Hart. Almost a minute later, the Devils pounced on a Ristolainen turnover after he couldn’t handle a point-to-point pass, but Hart was able to shut the door on another odd-man rush to keep the score at 2-1.
The second period was all Carter Hart as he was tasked on making timely save after timely save. This time around, the save came after the Devils were transitioning from defense to offense with the use of their outlet pass – once again. The Devils sent out long pass off the boards that Timo Meier had to chase down but as he was barring in on Hart, Adam Ginning troubled him just enough to force a pass out of the Swiss sniper. Nevertheless, his spin-around pass found Alexander Holtz whose one-timer was stopped by the out-stretched pad.
With the offense going cold in the second period, the Flyers were handed their third power play of the game after Dougie Hamilton was whistled down for a tripping minor with 5:43 remaining in the middle frame.
On a 2-on-1 rush with Sean Couturier on his wing, Cam Atkinson decided to let loose a cannon of a slap-shot that was swallowed up by Vanecek. The second unit was buzzing with blistering shots from Lycksell and Andrae looking dangerous but unfortunately missing the net. With the power play expiring, the Flyers remained in the zone and came within inches of tying the game with Marc Staal’s net-front opportunity trickling wide of the crease.
The second period came to a close with the Devils outshooting the Flyers 11-9 but the latter half of the period belonged to the Orange and Black after a hesitant start to the frame. Once again, Andrae paced the defense in ice-time with 14:38 with Atkinson (13:31) and Couturier (13:23) leading the forwards.
THIRD PERIOD
10+ minutes into the third period, both teams were playing rather tentatively with 2 shots apiece and a lot of neutral zone play. Emil Andrae and Curtis Lazar ended up in an awkward collision behind the Flyers net with the latter getting the worst of the incident over the former. Andrae seemed fine but Lazar got back up slowly and headed towards the bench.
With 8:03 remaining in regulation, Noah Cates set up Ristolainen with a nifty no-look-behind-the-back-pass with the shot ringing iron and going out of play. The Cates line – with Brink and Allison – were extremely noticeable all game and had created several dangerous chances.
The Flyers offense was finding ways to get through the Devils defense but Vanecek had all the answers. They were getting good chances from Couturier, Atkinson, and Brink but to no avail. With 3:06 left in the third, Rhett Gardner jumped on a puck right in front of the Devils goaltenders and buried the shot to tie the game.
Gardner sent the puck behind the net where Tuomaala and Brown got to work trying to retrieve the puck and win 50/50 battles. Tuomaala was able to get the puck loose with Brown retrieving and he was able to send a back-handed pass in front of the net to Gardner for his first as a Flyer.
Similarly to the second period, the Flyers took control of the back-half of the period and really made things difficult for New Jersey. Vanecek made some big saves as the Flyers peppered 12 shots in the period but 10 in the final 9 minutes.
Andrae had 23:06 TOI, Couturier was at 20:45, and Atkinson at 19:26. Other notables included Ristolainen 20:06, Walker 19:54, and Staal 17:25.
OVERTIME
We headed back to overtime for the second straight night, starting with Cates, Atkinson, and Ristolainen.
Couturier, Andrae, and Konecny came out for the second shift and nearly ended the game but Andrae was stoned by Vanecek who came out aggressively to stop the young Swede. He took Meier into the boards before the Flyers jettisoned ahead but passed it a little too much in the offensive zone, where it became a predictable opportunity.
Erik Haula – after all the chances he had in this one – was the overtime hero after he ripped a shot passed the glove of Hart. Dawson Mercer raced up the zone with three tired Flyers still on the ice, he dropped it to Haula who was tailing, and he made no mistake with his blistering shot to gather their 4th victory in as many games.
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