The Philadelphia Flyers, fresh off an overtime victory last night against the Seattle Kraken, looked to extend their point streak to seven games as they faced off against the San Jose Sharks in the second of four games on this road trip. The Flyers, who were giving Felix Sandström his first start in the NHL, tried to make sure their goaltender had a memorable debut, but fell in overtime by a score of 3-2.
FIRST PERIOD
The Sharks came out a bit hungrier than the Flyers did and were actively making Philadelphia work in their own end. Sandström made the game’s first seven saves before the Flyers got a shot on James Reimer at 7:48.
Claude Giroux would take the game’s first penalty on Noah Gregor for holding at 5:09, but the Flyers would be no worse for wear and killed off the captain’s minor. The Sharks had a few good opportunities but Sandström shut them down with relative ease.
The Sharks would earn a second power play with 9:19 remaining in the period after Max Willman was called for interference against Nicolas Meloche, but once again Sandström and the Flyers’ penalty kill fended off San Jose’s dangerous power play.
Philadelphia would start to pepper Reimer a little bit more as time wound down and eventually, they’d find the icebreaker late in the first period thanks to Morgan Frost. Frost, Travis Konecny, and Oskar Lindblom pulled off a beautiful passing play on the rush in the Sharks’ zone that led to an easy tap-in for Frost into an empty cage for a 1-0 Flyers lead with 4:37 remaining in the frame.
That would be about it, and Philadelphia maintained their one-goal advantage heading into the first intermission. San Jose led the shots on goal battle 12-7 and were the better team earlier on, but the Flyers fought back and held the Sharks at bay and took the lead with the all-important first goal.
SECOND PERIOD
The period started with a couple shots on net, a few scoring chances, and then some fireworks. Nick Seeler, who was dressed in place of Kevin Connauton, dropped the gloves with Jeffrey Viel at 3:26 of the period. It was a spirited bout that ended with both combatants respectfully skating away to their respective penalty boxes.
The Flyers would earn their first power play at 5:07 after Meloche was called for roughing against Joel Farabee. Unfortunately, their man advantage was the polar opposite of how it should’ve went. Logan Couture poked the puck through Keith Yandle in the neutral zone and skated in on a breakaway, and promptly beat Sandström five-hole to tie the game at 1-1 on a shorthanded marker. It was already the fifth shorthanded goal the Flyers have allowed this season.
After the power play that seemingly looked like a Sharks power play with how many shots and chances they had against the Flyers, San Jose’s momentum continued to wash over the Flyers and Brent Burns capitalized on Philadelphia’s bewildered play with a snap shot in the slot. He skated in untouched and fired it over the glove of Sandström to make it 2-1 Sharks and cap off two goals in two minutes for the home team.
The Flyers could never really get anything going and the Sharks just dominated play as the period continued on. With 13.8 seconds left, Travis Sanheim was sent to the box for holding against Tomáš Hertl and the Sharks would get their third power play of the night with time winding down. San Jose wouldn’t score and would carry their man advantage into the third period.
San Jose led 2-1 after forty minutes and still held their shots on goal advantage as well at 28-16 for the game, including a 16-9 lead in the middle stanza. Philadelphia had been badly outplayed and needed more energy and consistency in their game to try and mount another comeback.
THIRD PERIOD
The Sharks once again took it to the Flyers early on and peppered Sandström for all he could handle. Luckily for the Flyers, he was up to the task and kept Philadelphia within a goal thanks to some show-stopping saves.
Philadelphia would earn a power play with 12:27 remaining as Timo Meier was the guilty party in a hooking call as he was tangled up with Travis Sanheim as he entered the Flyers’ zone. Right after the ensuing faceoff, it would turn into a long 5-on-3 as Brent Burns tripped up James van Riemsdyk and Philadelphia would have 1:55 of a two-man advantage. Of course, the Flyers could barely enter the zone properly and couldn’t maintain any sustained pressure and promptly wasted their golden opportunity.
With 8:44 remaining, San Jose earned a power play thanks to Zack MacEwen tripping up Radim Simek and the Sharks looked to put away the Flyers for good with some insurance with a man up. Fortunately, the Flyers killed off MacEwen’s penalty and stayed within a goal.
After it seemed like they would get nothing going, Philadelphia miraculously found the back of the net and tied the game at 2-2 thanks to Joel Farabee. After a good defensive play by Keith Yandle, Oskar Lindblom carried the puck into the zone and dished it to Farabee. Farabee skated in and lasered a wrist shot low by the glove of James Reimer to even the game with 4:03 remaining in the third period.
Farabee’s ninth goal of the year would be the tally that would send this game to overtime. This was Philadelphia’s fourth consecutive overtime game dating back to December 16th against Montreal. This also guaranteed the Flyers would earn at least a point in their seventh straight contest after their ten-game losing streak.
OVERTIME
Both teams had some good chances early on, including a wraparound try by Hertl on Sandström that the big Flyers netminder was able to shut down. The Flyers had a couple more chances, but the Sharks would overpower them with 30.1 seconds. It was Hertl once again, who was able to pound home an Erik Karlsson pass on a second try after the initial shot was blocked by Sanheim with Sandström stretching out.
The Sharks won 3-2 despite a fantastic performance by the Philadelphia goaltender, as Felix Sandström set a franchise record for saves both in a team debut and an NHL debut with 43.
UP NEXT…
Philadelphia will head to Los Angeles to take on the Kings on Saturday night at 10:30pm ET as they look to get back in the win column and extend their point streak, as well as trying to put themselves back into a playoff spot.
