Bruins @ Flyers: Game 11

SUMMARY:

Flyers came out slightly sluggish and improved as the game went on, but instead of finding a way to win they found a way to lose. We can only hope this doesn’t become a trend, especially now that they have begun to find their game, and we are slowly approaching Sean Couturier’s return(which in his injury updates the other day, Chuck Fletcher said could be as early as next week.)

PERIOD ONE:

It took all of 0:12 seconds for David Pastrnak to insert himself into this game as he threw a puck across the net mouth that deflected in off the tip of Ivan Provorov’s stick. We’ve seen Provy do this in a couple other games accidentally, but in those instances Carter and Brian Elliott made the saves; last night it seemed to be an omen of sorts as things were rough for the Gostisbehere/Provorov pairing all night. Carter kept them in the game for pretty much all of the first period. Shots were 8-8, but the Bruins had the better quality chances all period.

PERIOD TWO:

The Flyers finally found their legs and started to truly play the AV style of successful hockey a little more than half way into the second frame as a beautiful cycle and passing setup led to a Kevin Hayes goal at 15:29. The game went to second intermission knotted at 1; shots were 13-11 Bruins.

PERIOD THREE:

Flyers got the third off to a great start as just 1:03 into the frame another nice passing play left Jake Voracek with a gapping net to shoot at, and he made no mistake as he made it 2-1 Flyers. Roughly seven and a half minutes later, Carter negated a would-be-Bruins icing to play the puck behind the Flyers net and fired it up the boards to a waiting James van Riemsdyk, who found Scott Laughton, and he and Joel Farabee created a 2-on-1 that lead to Farabee’s 6th goal of the season when he fired a beautiful shot passed Rask at 8:41. Unfortunately, that would be where the Flyers good fortunes ran out and things got ugly as they began a penalty parade that would ultimately cost them the game. First Nicolas Aube-Kubel closed his hand over the puck which put the Bruins on the powerplay where David Pastrnak once again showed his presence as he beat Carter to make it 3-2 12:05 into the period. The refs did give the Flyers a chance on the powerplay after the Bruins’ Jeremy Lauzon got called for holding Michael Raffl, but the Flyers couldn’t find a way to capitalize. Then Kevin Hayes was called for a ticky tack hooking call, but as AV put it post-game, if Kevin doesn’t get his stick up in the hands/midsection area the refs can’t insert themselves into the game; so while it was a “tick tack” call it was as much Hayes’ “fault” for doing it as the refs “fault” for calling such a seemingly weak infraction late in a close game. But anybody who’s watched a hockey game ever probably could have predicted what was about to happen. With Rask pulled, and one of the Flyers best PKers in the box, the Bruins made it a 2-man advantage, and the predictable thing indeed happened as Pastrnak completed the hat trick and tied the game at 3 at 19:45 of the frame. Flyers weren’t quite done shooting themselves in the foot as Scott Laughton stupidly impeded a Bruin going for a loose puck with less than a second left on the clock and allowed the Bruins the 4-on-3 powerplay to begin OT.

OVERTIME:

Thanks to the Laughton penalty, and the fact the Flyers PK had seemingly fallen apart in the third, it took David Pastrnak(assist) and Patrice Bergeron(goal) all of 0:31 seconds to complete the comeback and end the game, given the Bruins the 4-3 victory and dropping the Flyers record against them to 0-1-2 and their overall season record to 7-2-2.