The Philadelphia Flyers have now won back-to-back games for the first time since mid-January, have won 3 of their last 4 games, and have recorded a point in 4 straight games after beating the Minnesota Wild in a shootout, 5-4.
Scott Laughton opened the scoring midway through the first period but that was then matched by Oskar Sundqvist less than 4 minutes later. Joel Farabee extended his 4-game goal-streak early in the second period to give the Flyers the lead but Minnesota responded with 2 late goals in a span of 2:35 from Matthew Boldy and Marcus Foligno. Rasmus Ristolainen tied things up with a power play marker with only 22 seconds remaining, setting up a tense final 20.
Matthew Boldy scored his second of the game to give the Wild a 4-3 lead with only 6:28 remaining in regulation, but that was matched by Tyson Foerster only 44 seconds later with a hard shot that clanked off the post before going in.
Overtime solved nothing before James van Riemsdyk scored the lone shootout tally in the second round as Carter Hart secured his 20th win of the season by denying Boldy on the final attempt.
Joel Farabee scored a goal and added an assist, Tony DeAngelo recorded 2 assists, Scott Laughton, Tyson Foerster and Rasmus Ristolainen each scored, and Travis Sanheim, Morgan Frost, Noah Cates, Cam York, and James van Riemsdyk each recorded an assist. Carter Hart wasn’t at his best but made the key saves in the shootout to earn his 3rd consecutive win. He made 20 saves on 24 shots, while Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 30 of 34 shots.
The suddenly-hot Philadelphia Flyers welcomed their 5th consecutive opponent through the doors of the Wells Fargo Center in the form of the Minnesota Wild. The Flyers entered tonight’s game 2-1-1 on their season-long 7-game homestand after dropping a close one to the Vegas Golden Knights, then dispatching the Buffalo Sabres on Friday, losing a nail-biter in overtime to Carolina on Saturday, and then taking down the Florida Panthers on Tuesday.
John Tortorella kept his 11-7 lineup intact after another strong performance and is hoping that the youthful infusion continues against another quality opponent.
Kieffer Bellows replaced Nicolas Deslauriers, who was a late scratch after he was seen warming up in the pregame skate. Bellows returned into the lineup for his first game since the 14th of March an his 4th game this month. Joel Farabee had goals in 3 consecutive games, Noah Cates, Tyson Foerster, and Morgan Frost each had 4 points in their last 2 games, and Travis Sanheim and Egor Zamula each recorded 2 points against Florida – the former scoring 2 goals and the latter recording 2 assists. Carter Hart returned between the pipes looking for his 3rd consecutive win and 20th of the season after a 36-save performance against Buffalo and a 41-save performance against Florida.
The Minnesota Wild, on the other hand, entered tonight’s game on a 2-game winning streak, having won 7 of their last 10, having recorded a point in 9 of their last 10, and had posted the best record since the 17th of February with a 13-1-3 stretch. The Wild are also engaged in a tight battle for the Central Division crown as they entered tonight tied with the Dallas Stars with 90 points with Dallas holding the the edge by 1 ROW.
They are still without Kirill Kaprizov, who leads the team with 39 goals and 74 points in just 65 games, but in his absence have been led by Mats Zuccarello and his 63 points, Joel Eriksson Ek and his 54 points, and Matthew Boldy and his 52 points. Marc-Andre Fleury earned the start as he has entered a timeshare with Filip Gustavsson, who has the 2nd best goals against average and save percentage, while also occupying the twine more often in the last few months. Fleury was the starter the last time these two teams faced off when the Wild won in overtime, and he was looking for his 8th straight victory and 24th of the season.
FIRST PERIOD
The Philadelphia Flyers started the game with gumption and subsequently scored the game’s opening goal, courtesy of Scott Laughton’s 17th of the season.
Laughton, who scored a dazzling breakaway goal last game against Florida, added to his career-year after being set up by an aggressive Travis Sanheim. Sanheim started the play after jumping on a loose puck from behind his own net. He used his smooth skating abilities to move out of the defensive zone before dumping it to James van Riemsdyk who quickly threw it into the offensive zone for Sanheim to pick up. As he entered Wild territory with speed, he threaded a cross-seam pass to Laughton on the other side of the net that beat an outstretched Marc-Andre Fleury.
Fleury tried getting to the puck first with his patented poke-check but he missed the puck, which allowed Laughton to chip it over the goaltender with 7:02 remaining.
With 3:25 remaining and on their 4th shot of the period, Oskar Sundqvist deflected a point-shot right in front of Carter Hart for his 10th of the season.
The Wild, who were rumoured to have been interested in James van Riemsdyk at the deadline, went away and acquired several comparable players and one of them was Sundqvist from the Detroit Red Wings. The Flyers, who had done a splendid job throughout the period thwarting the Wild – recording first shot in 7+ minutes – were caught after they left Sundqvist alone in front of Hart and he made it no mistake doing what he does best – deflecting pucks and scoring the dirty goals.
Jacob Middleton was just able to keep the puck in the zone, passed it up to Frederick Gaudreau, who then passed it back to Middleton for a weak one-timer that was going wide had Sundqvist not gotten his stick to it.
The Flyers were far and away the better team in the first 20 minutes with a 10-4 shot advantage, the better chances were created by the Orange and Black, and they carried sustained pressure all throughout.
The Wild recorded 1 shot in the final 11:33 of the first period, but it unfortunately ended up in the back of the net. The Kevin Hayes, James van Riemsdyk, and Wade Allison line were extremely noticeable and created scoring chances galore on nearly every shift they touched the ice. They had 3-4 shifts alone where they hemmed the Wild defense in their own zone for 45+ seconds but Fleury was up to the task with a little bit of help from the post as well.
SECOND PERIOD
1:59 into the second period, Egor Zamula was called for a holding minor for the first penalty of the game. The 28th-ranked penalty killing unit came out on top against the 13th-ranked power play as the former troubled the latter from start to finish. The Wild were able to sustain too much pressure and the Flyers jumped on a lot of loose pucks for clearances and even scoring attempts.
With the penalty expiring, Owen Tippett raced down before setting up Morgan Frost on an odd-man opportunity but the youngster was robbed by Fleury.
The Flyers continued to throttle the Wild with more offensive zone time and it worked to their advantage as they took retook the lead with 12:34 remaining in the second period.
Joel Farabee scored in his 4th consecutive game and notched his 13th goal of the season after he deflected a Cam York point shot. It started with Ivan Provorov entering the zone with speed before cycling it around the boards and behind the net. Owen Tippett fed the puck to Noah Cates in the corner, who did what he does best as he protected the puck with a defender on his tail, before sending it to York at the point who fired a shot that was deflected in by Farabee.
The Flyers’ relentless pressure wasn’t resulting in as many goals as it should’ve, not only because of the stout goaltending from Fleury, but also some unlucky bounces with yawning cages.
Wade Allison used his speed to rush in towards the goaltender from the wing an although he was stopped on his scoring chance, the puck was in the blue paint for a second or two for van Riemsdyk to hack at, but Middleton cleared the porch just in time.
A few moments later, Brendan Lemieux walked into the slot and fired a hard shot that was blocked, but he picked up his own rebound with a flailing Fleury out of reach but his shot went high and wide.
And as fate would have it, with all the stops from Fleury, the Wild transitioned from defense to offense and tied the game with 4:19 remaining. Matthew Boldy ripped a hard shot past a somewhat screened Carter Hart for his 24th of the season and 7th goal in his last 7 games.
The Wild jumped on a turnover from Owen Tippett from behind their goal-line and quickly jettisoned out of the zone. Joel Eriksson Ek – who just lost his first faceoff of the game – retrieved the puck and passed it to Boldy who set it up to Marcus Johansson – another trade deadline acquisition. Boldy was the trailer and Rasmus Ristolainen, who was originally stationed on the youngster, lost sight of his man who was able to enter the zone unmarked and untouched before ripping a shot with the defenseman reacting far too late and evidently getting in front of his goaltender.
Less than 3 minutes later with 1:44 remaining in the period, Marcus Foligno beat Carter Hart glove-side from the faceoff dot on a shot he would really want to have back.
The Wild once again entered the zone with speed as Ryan Hartman fed Mats Zuccarello who sent a seed of a pass to Foligno who was left all alone on the wing. 3 Flyers were stuck and caught in the middle, however it was a shot that Hart should’ve had as he over-committed with Foligno holding onto it a little longer than he thought as the puck slid through his arm.
Hart also dropped down to the butterfly too soon, which allowed Foligno to find the hole for his 7th of the season.
With 1:23 left, the Flyers earned their first power play of the game after Eriksson Ek was guilty for an interference minor. Ristolainen made up for his earlier gaffe with a bomb from the point with 22 seconds remaining in the middle frame.
The former quarterback of the Buffalo Sabres’ power play unit for years was placed on the power play several weeks ago and used primarily as a net-front presence, however this time around he was waiting at the point and was set up for his slap-shot by Tony DeAngelo.
Morgan Frost entered the zone with speed before dumping it off to Farabee who spun around, and he passed it to Ristolainen who played a little pitch and catch with his defensive partner in DeAngelo – who brought along 2 Wild defenders. It’s not a tool he uses all too often but it’s effective when he does, especially when given all the time in the world to load up.
It’s not how the Flyers wanted to traverse the period, especially with 2 late goals that allowed the Wild to not only tie the game but then to subsequently take the lead, however Ristolainen gave the Flyers life with a back-breaking power play marker. The Flyers outshot the Wild 12-10 in the period and carried a 22-14 edge through 2 periods.
THIRD PERIOD
Similar to last period, the Flyers took an early penalty, this time from Noah Cates for tripping Marcus Johansson only 31 seconds into the third period.
The Flyers survived the penalty kill with the Wild having a few dangerous opportunities. Matthew Boldy made a fake-pass-move towards the net before trying to set up Eriksson Ek with a cross-crease pass, but Scott Laughton just got his stick on the puck to steer it wide. Then Rasmus Ristolainen’s failed clearing attempt landed right on the tape of Mats Zuccarello who waited, waited, waited before trying to zip one blocker-side, but the shot went just wide.
The pace of the game understandably cooled off after a vivacious first 40 minutes. Tie game, third period, and both teams in the bottom-8 for goals scored were bound to get conservative late in the game. The Minnesota Wild are also one of the best teams in the NHL in one-goal games, especially during their 13-1-3 run where they’ve won 7 one-goal games.
Cam York’s point shot with 7:10 remaining in the period was the Flyers’ first shot in 6+ minutes with the Wild starting to have controlled the pace of play.
Half a minute later with 6:28 to go, Matthew Boldy scored a no-look behind-the-back backhander that went through the wickets of Carter Hart for his second of the game and 25th of the season.
Jonas Brodin’s point shot was deflected down by Eriksson Ek, Hart made the blocker save but the puck bounced past a befuddled Ivan Provorov, was in and around the blue paint before Boldy located the puck and threw it on net.
The 2019 12th overall pick – the pick after the Flyers’ original 11th overall slot – had 0 goals in the month of February but now has 9 in the month of March.
44 seconds later, Tyson Foerster used his most lethal weapon – his snap-shot – to tie the game as he blistered a shot past Marc-Andre Fleury for his 2nd of the season.
Morgan Frost dropped a pass to Tony DeAngelo who was revving up from his own end. DeAngelo then used that speed to enter the neutral zone before passing it up to Foerster at the blue-line. The rookie walked in, set up shop, toe-dragged and ripped a laser past Fleury with 5:44 remaining.
With 1:34 remaining in regulation, Boldy drew a penalty on Owen Tippett for a hooking minor after Eriksson Ek initially stripped him off the puck near the blue-line. The Wild, who only had 1 shot in the previous 2 power plays, struggled mightily to get anything going in the remaining 94 seconds of regulation time.
The Flyers clogged the passing lanes, cleared the puck aplenty, and the Wild themselves had trouble puck handling. The game went to overtime, similarly to their last meeting, however this time they would start the 3-on-3 session with 26 seconds of power play time.
OVERTIME
The 1-11 Flyers made easy work of the first 26 seconds and as the penalty expired, Tippett went from defense to offense before ripping a hard shot on Fleury, who was forced to hold on for the faceoff.
It was another infuriating session of 3-on-3 hockey that’s supposed to be fun to watch, but not when Philadelphia is involved. The 2-defensemen set that the Flyers carry on with had them on the perimeter and skating in circles in the offensive zone as they were trying to find the passing lanes.
Rasmus Ristolainen had the best chance as he rang one off the post after winning a board battle. The Wild didn’t really have much of anything to report back on since the Flyers technically controlled the puck for most of the final 4 minutes.
Off to the shootout we went with the Wild having partaken in the most skills competitions in the league this season.
SHOOTOUT
Round 1:
Tyson Foerster: Miss
Mats Zuccarello: Miss
Round 2:
James van Riemsdyk: Goal
Frederick Gaudreau: Miss
Round 3:
Morgan Frost: Miss
Matthew Boldy: Miss
James van Riemsdyk’s goal and Carter Hart’s save on Boldy sealed the deal to give the Philadelphia Flyers not only their second straight win for the first time since mid-January, but it gave John Tortorella his 700th NHL victory as a head coach as well.
UP NEXT
The Flyers will host the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday (1:00pm ET, NBCSP) in the third and final meeting of their season series.
