The Philadelphia Flyers’ overtime woes continued as they dropped their 9th 3-on-3 session in 10 attempts this season, this time to the Nashville Predators by a score of 2-1.
This was the second consecutive game they headed into overtime and the 4th time in their last 6 – losers in 3 of the 4. It was a tightly contested game between two teams with not too much firepower, especially compared to their last game against the Edmonton Oilers. The shots were dead even heading into overtime, there was a combined 83 bodychecks that were thrown around, a lot of blocked shots, and 2 fights.
Through it all, Matt Duchene prevailed for the Predators by first setting up Nino Niederreiter for the game’s opening goal and then scoring the overtime winner. Kevin Hayes tied the game in the second period on a breakaway goal and almost scored on another late in the third period. Carter Hart made 23 saves in the defeat as Juuse Saros prevailed with an identical 23 saves.
Looking to build off of their 2-1 shootout victory against the Edmonton Oilers from Thursday night, the Philadelphia Flyers welcomed the Nashville Predators for an early matinee. After a 34-save performance and then making 2 saves in the shootouts, Carter Hart earned his 6th consecutive start and 39th of the season, and entered the game posting a 3-1-2 record with a .944 SV% over his last 7 starts. He was looking to pad his stats further against the Predators – a team Hart defeated in an October matchup where he made 31 saves on 32 shots. Kieffer Bellows was waived yesterday and Olle Lycksell got the late callup, so Justin Braun entered the lineup as the Flyers went with an 11/7 lineup.
As for the Predators, they entered today having gone 5-5-0 in their last 10, are only 4 points out of the final wild card race but hold 2 games in hand on the Minnesota Wild, and carry a dynamic defenseman in Roman Josi who held a 7 game point streak. Juuse Saros earned his 39th start of the season and was set to duel with another workhorse in Carter Hart. Saros was second in the NHL in shots against at 1,272, while Hart was fifth at 1,208 shots. The Predators lost their last game – Tuesday night – against the Vegas Golden Knights and only fired 6 shots in the first 40 minutes, so they’ve been stewing ever since.
FIRST PERIOD
It was a typical start to a game when facing the Nashville Predators, really tight and defensively structured. The Flyers recorded their first shot on goal at the onset of the game but then went nearly 9 minutes without recording their next one. By the first commercial break, the Predators held a 3-2 edge in shots, the Flyers held a 7-4 blocked shot advantage, as the Flyers looked a little mystified by the slow pace and strong forechecking of the Predators compared to the high octane Oilers from the game before.
Things remained at a lull until the final few minutes of the period when Kevin Hayes set up Owen Tippet in front of Saros but the Finnish goaltender stretched out his pad to stop Tippett’s deke. Then Yakov Trenin found himself all alone on Carter Hart and fired Nashville’s first shot in over 4 minutes and their 2nd shot in over 15 minutes, but the young goaltender stood his ground to keep the score tied.
Then with less than 20 seconds left on the clock, James van Riemsdyk playing in his 500th game as a Flyer, came in all alone on Saros and fired a shot off the post – using the same move that won the Flyers their shootout on Thursday. The Flyers held the edge in the latter half of the period as the Predators were the ones who had trouble entering the zone or even getting past the neutral zone with momentum.
With time close to expiring, Rasmus Ristolainen finished a check on Filip Forsberg who remained on the ice in obvious pain for quite some time. The referees blew the whistle with 2 seconds left as the Swedish sharpshooter was barely moving. They conferred for awhile in front of the penalty box but it was a clean check, no penalty was called, however the Predators were rather miffed. The period ended with the Flyers holding a slight 7-5 shot advantage as things ratcheted up in the final 2 minutes after a lull of a start.
SECOND PERIOD
Tanner Jeannot was the most vocal Predator after the Forsberg injury and as expected, he delivered a big body check on Ivan Provorov and then dropped the gloves with Nicolas Deslauriers 26 seconds into the second period. It was a spirited bout for both enforcers with the slight edge going to #44 in Orange and Black.
The fight represented the 10th time that Deslauriers has dropped the gloves this season and 9th major for Jeannot. Shortly after the scrap, Nino Niederreiter scored the game’s opening goal at the 1:43 mark of the second period.
It started from behind their own net with Saros playing the puck. Cody Glass jettisoned the puck from his own blue-line to Matt Duchene who was coming down the wing. The Flyers’ defense backed further and further away from the puck carrier, which allowed Duchene a lot of time and space to walk in and then set up the streaking Swiss power forward for an easy deflection goal as he recorded his 14th of the season.
Then 5:02 into the period, Cam York was called for a holding minor, sending the Predators on the power play for the first time in the game – also the first penalty called against the Flyers since their game against the New York Islanders on Monday. The Flyers’ 19th ranked penalty kill made easy work of the 28th-ranked power play of the Predators, keeping the deficit at 1.
The Flyers lost most of their momentum and mojo from the back-end of the first period as the Predators were swarming in the neutral zone and weren’t allowing the Flyers room to roam. However, with the Flyers needing a spark, they received one from Wade Allison, who had a strong shift that ended with a big body check on Dante Fabbro.
On the next shift, Patrick Brown won a board battle in the neutral zone before feeding the puck to Joel Farabee who then quickly set up Kevin Hayes on a breakaway, pegging All-Star versus All-Star. Hayes slowed up, made several moves on the Finnish goaltender, before finishing it off in style for his 17th goal of the season at the 10:40 mark.
Similar to their tilt in October, the gloves dropped yet again, this time with Joel Farabee versus Jusso Parssinen after he hit Noah Cates from behind, with the Flyer taking down the Predator with relative ease.
The Flyers rode a wave of momentum after Hayes’ tying goal but were unable to take advantage of several grade-A chances. The Predators finished the period very strong but even with all their offensive zone time, were unable to get pucks to the net. The period ended with both teams tied again, this time at 1 apiece, with the Flyers still holding a slight shot advantage at 17-14, the Predators had a 34-29 hit edge – Deslauriers had 7 of them – while the Flyers had blocked 20 shots through the first 40 minutes.
THIRD PERIOD
The third period started with Mattias Ekholm whose point shot rang off the post and then on the other side of the ice, Owen Tippett’s heavy wrist shot hit the post with Saros heavily screened by his own defender. Like the previous 2 periods, the Predators started out the final frame strong and with plenty of offensive zone time but once again could not find the shooting lanes to trouble Hart. With Owen Tippett, Morgan Frost, and James van Riemsdyk hemmed in their own zone for well over 2 minutes, the Predators were zipping passes around and firing shots towards the net but only one made it through.
In a quickly moving third period, the Flyers had lost some of their early edge as they were caught icing the puck several times, were hemmed in their own zone for a lengthy amount of time, and were being outshot 9-4 through the first 15 minutes, but their shot blocking was at the forefront of this game as they weren’t allowing Nashville to generate ultra dangerous chances.
Out of all the lull, Kevin Hayes was sprung onto another breakaway by a perfect stretch pass from Tony DeAngelo but Hayes’ shot was stopped by the glove of Saros, the puck bounced off the glass and back in front of the goaltender, but Allison’s spin-around chance was blocked away – that was the Flyers’ first shot in over 8 minutes of play.
For the second straight game and fourth time in their last six games, the Flyers headed into overtime, tied at 1 apiece. Both teams had 24 shots on goal, both teams had over 40 hits, but the Predators had over 25 more shot attempts however, and the Flyers handedly had more blocked shots. Not much to separate the two teams however, neither one stood out more than the other in a more tightly contested contest compared to their last handful of games.
OVERTIME
It only took the Predators 34 seconds to win their 4th 3-on-3 affair in 9 attempts, sending the Flyers to their 9th loss in overtime 10 sessions. The main issue today, similar to last game, was that the Flyers’ defense kept backing away from the shooters and allowed them to walk in closer and closer on Hart. Matt Duchene came into the zone with speed and with Provorov focused on the other winger, York kept backing away which allowed Duchene to rip a shot through his screen and through the five-hole of Hart for his 16th of the season.
UP NEXT
The Flyers are right back at it tomorrow as they host Dave Hakstol’s Seattle Kraken at 1:00pm at Wells Fargo Center.
