The Philadelphia Flyers blew four leads, including a third period lead to the Minnesota Wild as they iced the game with 2 goals in a span of 25 seconds. The Flyers got to All-Star netminder Cam Talbot with relative ease tonight as they scored 4 goals on 30 shots, but the Wild were relentless all game as they jumped on several Flyers turnovers. This is their 8th loss in 9 games and they are now 1-4-1 on their 8-game home-stand.
FIRST PERIOD
In another home game against a really good playoff team, a quick start was absolutely necessary if the Flyers wanted to get their 2nd win on their 8-game home-stand. When scoring the first goal the Minnesota Wild are 19-6-1 and 18-1-1 when leading after the first, but Scott Laughton felt differently about those stats as he scored the game’s first goal on an abbreviated breakaway.
In the offensive zone and playing in and around the perimeter, Marcus Foligno’s attempted pass to Jared Spurgeon got blocked off and deflected by Laughton. As he sent it out further, he chased it down and had a mini-odd man rush. It seemed like both Foligno and Cam Talbot were expecting pass because they let him walk in and score with a nifty move. Talbot was playing too deep and left his post unattended, while Foligno was more focused on blocking a pass towards Oskar Lindblom.
As you would have it this season, former Flyer Ryan Hartman, who is thriving on the Minnesota Wild’s top line with Kirill Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello tied the game after executing some pretty passes in the offensive zone. Hartman walked into the offensive zone and dropped a pass to Kaprizov along the end-boards, he made a move on Ivan Provorov and feathered a cross-ice pass to Zuccarello. Unmarked and left wide open, Zuccarello sent a perfect pass to Hartman in the blue paint to deflect past Carter Hart for his 20th of the season.
Only 1:26 later the Flyers’ fourth line, playing with gumption, strong forechecking, and aggressiveness, struck to give them a 2-1 lead. After knocking the puck loose along the boards, Patrick Brown sent the puck back to Max Willman, who then played a quick give-and-go with Zach MacEwen. After receiving the puck back, MacEwen made a move and darted a pass into the slot to Brown who snuck the puck over the pad of Talbot for his 3rd goal of the season.
The Flyers were awarded a power play shortly after as James van Riemsdyk was able to draw an interference call on Calen Addison. Like their power plays before them, the Flyers couldn’t win the face-off, weren’t able to set up, had very little puck possession, and little to no opportunities up a man. However, the silver lining of the missed chance was that the Flyers had Rasmus Ristolainen playing the net-front presence on the second unit; something different for a stagnant power play.
With 5 seconds left in the period and a myriad of options he could’ve chosen from, Derick Brassard decided to try and flip the puck out of the zone. Instead of maybe holding onto the puck or rimming it around the unattended boards, Brassard’s failed clearance went right to Frederick Gaudreau at the blue line. Unmarked, Gaudreau faked a slap-shot, composed himself and let loose a wicked wrist-shot that beat Hart glove-side with 2.7 seconds left. In an otherwise good period for Hart and the Flyers, a silly error with 2 seconds left could have turned the tides.
SECOND PERIOD
Luckily that was not the case because Travis Konecny and the Flyers second line struck once again to give the Flyers their 3rd lead of the game. After scoring the first goal, Laughton added an assist as he was left untouched at the blue line.
After whiffing on a dump-in at the blue-line, the Flyers counter attacked on the Wild turnover and entered the zone with numbers. Laughton had the puck poked off his stick but no one went after him as Konecny went straight to the net. 4 Wild players were caught in the middle as he sent a turn-around pass to Konecny as he made no mistake in getting the puck past Talbot’s out-stretched pad to make it 3-2.
As the Wild had done twice before, Ryan Hartman’s second goal of the game tied things up at 3 in quick order. After receiving a pass from Zuccarello at the point, Addison found Kevin Fiala who walked in and took a shot that hit Provorov. The puck landed in front of the goaltender as no Flyer was able to find it and clear it out before Ryan Hartman poked at the loose puck to tie things up at 3.
After tying the game for the third time, the Wild started to take control of the game as they were in the offensive zone for most of the second half of the period. However the Flyers were fortunate that Hart was at least up to task as they headed towards another power play with 1:40 remaining after the Wild were called for too many men.
With 45 seconds remaining in the period, James van Riemsdyk deflected a Claude Giroux shot to give the Flyers their 4th lead of the game. Keith Yandle’s shot was blocked by Nico Sturm but it bounced right to the captain who noticed the screen caused by van Riemsdyk. He held onto the puck for a bit before firing it towards the screened Talbot as van Riemsdyk snapped his 9-game goal-less drought.
THIRD PERIOD
The start of the third period had both teams get some power play time as Konecny was called for a delay of game penalty 2 minutes in and then Foligno was called for a cross-check 4:23 into the period. Both teams killed off their respective penalties as Hart had to thwart several chances, while the Flyers unsurprisingly had issues creating chances on their man advantage.
2 turnovers from the Flyers led to 2 very quick goals in the latter half of the third period, 25 seconds apart. Ivan Provorov’s tough game, and season, continued as his turnover directly led to the tying goal from Matthew Boldy. Provorov tried sending an outlet pass from his own zone but it went straight to Fiala. He made a few moves before passing it to Boldy for the five-hole finish. 25 seconds later after a Patrick Brown failed clearance, Jonas Brodin fired a slap-shot with a jumping Gaudreau serving as the screen. Hart never saw any of that shot and the Wild had their first lead of the game with 7 minutes to go in the third.
The Flyers pulled their goalie with 2:45 left in regulation but couldn’t get one past Talbot to tie the game and send it into overtime. They had a few chances but the Wild also missed a few opportunities to ice the game early with the empty net.
UP NEXT
Up next for the Flyers are the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday at Wells Fargo Center.
