In a game that originally looked promising, the Philadelphia Flyers squandered a golden opportunity to leave TD Garden with two points as they fell 4-3 to the Boston Bruins in overtime.
The Flyers jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period, and then 3-1 in the second period, before coughing up the lead and the game amid a flurry of penalties.
“I thought we played our ass off. I thought we played really well,” said head coach John Tortorella after being asked about his team’s 5-on-5 play in the opening frame.
Their performance for the rest of the game is probably up for debate, however.
FIRST PERIOD
The Flyers didn’t start out too hot, taking a bad too many men minor just 1:41 into the contest. Boston couldn’t generate much on their first attempt and the Flyers killed it off.
The Flyers would get their first power play just over seven minutes into the period after Mark Kastelic tripped up Egor Zamula near the penalty box. Just 12 seconds into the man advantage, Emil Andrae wired a shot that was blocked in the slot. Sean Couturier found the puck and dished it over to a wide open Matvei Michkov for the first goal of the day.
Only 18 seconds after Michkov’s 10th goal of the season, Cam York was called for a slash on John Beecher to put Boston back on the power play. The Bruins were much more crisp with the puck this time around and created some great scoring chances. However, the Flyers’ penalty killers stood tall and even generated a shorthanded look by Travis Konecny, who dangled around a defender but then looked for a pass when he had a shooting opportunity.
Shortly after York was let out of the box, the two teams went back and forth with no whistles for over five minutes, displaying great pace.
With only 96 seconds remaining, Michkov racked up his second goal of the game – and the period – after Travis Sanheim spotted him on a fantastic feed at the doorstep to beat Jeremy Swayman.
The Flyers would take a 2-0 lead heading into the first intermission.
SECOND PERIOD
York took his second penalty of the game after tripping Justin Brazeau at 3:32. The Flyers’ penalty kill was scrambled a bit and relied on Aleksei Kolosov to make some big saves, including a show-stopping right pad save. However, it was all for naught as Trent Frederic capitalized in the dying seconds of the power play.
The Flyers would restore their two-goal lead with 4:29 to play in the middle frame as York collected a pass from Sanheim and made up for his penalties with a dart that beat Swayman to make it 3-1.
Just over a minute later, all hell broke loose after Charlie McAvoy attacked Michkov, leading Owen Tippett to step in and knock the Bruins blueliner down and scrap with him.
McAvoy’s actions earned him a double minor versus Tippett’s single, putting the Flyers on the power play. While they did not score on the power play, Philadelphia’s second period was still something to be happy about. They outshot the Bruins 12-10 in the period and evened the total count 19-19 and took a two-goal lead on the road into the locker room at that point.
THIRD PERIOD
Trent Frederic potted his second goal of the game at 5:18 of the third period to pull Boston back within a goal.
Not long after that, Konecny took an egregious interference penalty against McAvoy. Undisciplined play was something that cost the Flyers a win on Thursday as well. Konecny did not serve his penalty as he was pulled from the game for a concussion evaluation after an earlier hit.
Konecny did return to the bench but did not play again in the game.
“He was pulled by the spotter and I stopped playing him,” said Tortorella. “He’s undisciplined. He’s just too undisciplined.”
The Flyers would be shorthanded yet again later on as Garnet Hathaway was called for a trip that may have been the sell job of the year by Mason Lohrei.
“We’ve got to play an honest game,” said Tortorella. “There’s no cheating, there’s no embarrassing referees. You don’t embarrass the referees, and the shit that went on here tonight is just ridiculous, so I’m proud of the way our team played. Did we piss another one away? Yeah. But other people had a little bit to do with that also.”
Philadelphia killed off Hathaway’s “penalty” but noted pest Brad Marchand made the Flyers eventually pay on a breakaway goal with 5:22 remaining.
To make matters worse, Sean Couturier tripped David Pastrňak with less than two minutes left in regulation.
During the kill, Nick Seeler was taken down and there was no call, much to the chagrin of the Flyers bench.
“One thing I teach my team to do is not dive,” said a fiery Tortorella postgame. “Maybe I should start teaching them that. The way that this has gone here, the way this shit goes on, maybe I should start teaching them how to dive.”
Luckily, the Flyers would make it to the end of regulation and to overtime we went.
OVERTIME
Boston only carried over 4 seconds of power play time before it went to 4-on-4 until the next whistle. The Flyers had a golden opportunity to win the game with Joel Farabee on a breakaway but Swayman shut him down.
Eventually, after the Flyers seemingly had an opportunity to gain possession, Tippett misplayed the puck and created a battle with Pastrňák. The Bruins forward took the puck, beat Tippett around the net, and fed Pavel Zacha for a laser that Kolosov had no answer for to win the game.
3 STARS OF THE GAME: 1) Pavel Zacha – BOS, 2) Trent Frederic – BOS, 3) Matvei Michkov – PHI
OBSERVATIONS
– Matvei Michkov is just insanely good at hockey. He is currently on pace for 35 goals and 41 assists this year and just seems to get better with every passing game. Michkov now has 7 points in his last 3 games and should be the easy early favorite for the Calder Trophy.
– Aleksei Kolosov responded well after Thursday’s debacle. He made some key saves, including a few that will definitely make the highlight reels. Although he allowed 4 goals, it doesn’t paint the whole picture of his afternoon, which was very impressive.
UP NEXT
The Flyers host the Utah Hockey Club for the first time on Sunday (7:30pm; NBCSP) and will try to avoid a three-game losing streak.
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