Postgame 5: 2nd Period Sinks Flyers

A deluge of four unanswered goals in the second period by the Boston Bruins ultimately sent the Philadelphia Flyers down to a 7-3 blowout loss at the NHL Outdoors event at Edgewood Tahoe Resort in Lake Tahoe, NV, on Sunday night. The Flyers fell to 0-3-2 against the Bruins this season. They are 8-1-1 against the rest of the East Division.
In the first period, Boston's David Pastrnak (7th) and Charlie McAvoy (2nd) bookended goals by the Flyers' Joel Farabee (8th) and Sean Couturier (3rd). Boston punished the Flyers in the second period. Pastnak's second of the game and 8th of the season was followed by goals from Charlie Coyle (3rd), Trent Frederic (1st) and Nick Ritchie (power play, 6th), In the third period, James van Riemsdyk completed a three-point game with a power play redirect (8th) before Pastrnak (9th) finished off a hat trick.
Carter Hart struggled in two periods of work, stopping just 17 of 23 shots, of which three or even four looked like makeable saves. Brian Elliott came in for the third period, stopping 11 of 12 shots, Tuukka Rask denied 16 of 19 Flyers shots.
Both teams went 1-for-3 on the power play.

TURNING POINT
The entire second period was a debacle for the Flyers, as the game went from tied, to trailing but within reach to a blowout. A Pastrnak snipe (3-2 Bruins) and a Coyle shot off the post and goaltender Hart (4-2) after a turnover by Robert Hägg were the biggest killers.
MELTZER'S TAKE
1) For the most part, the Flyers played a solid first period. They forechecked well, skated well as the period moved along, played physically (13 credited hits), and outshot Boston, 12-9. Nonetheless, the game went to the first intermission tied at 2-2.
2) On the game's first shift, Patrice Bergeron blocked a Phil Myers shot and start a 2-on-1 for Brad Marchand and Pastrnak that Pastrak finished for a 1-0 lead at the 34-second mark after defender Ivan Provorov took away neither the pass. After being on the receiving end of a high hit, Couturier chipped the puck into the Boston corner and Farabee hustled to the long carom and, falling to the ice, beat Rask through the five-hole at 6:41. James van Riemsdyk earned a secondary assist for his 500th career point.

At 14:48 of the first period, after Charlie McAvoy broke a stick at the other end of the ice and Couturier exited the penalty box, the Flyers attacked on a 3-on-2 and three separate in-close looks at the net. Finally Couturier buried the puck point blank from the right side, with the assists going to Kevin Hayes and JVR.

At 15:27, Boston got the goal right back to the score at 2-2..Provorov and Myers lost a battle on the wall and Marchand outjockied Myers to get the puck back out in front. Provorov, dealing with Bergeron, then accidentally provided a partial screen on Hart, who failed to track a McAvoy point shot until it was in the net.
Rask made a tough latter-period save on Mark Friedman (playing right wing rather than defense) from the slot after a centering feed from Andreofff.
3) The second period was an abject disaster as the game got away from the Flyers. Pastrnak struck again just 46 seconds into the second period, taking advantage of a gap between him and Travis Sanheim to snipe a filthy-looking shot under the crossbar to the short side. Boston controlled most of the middle frame, although the Flyers briefly stepped up for a strong PK after being called for too many men on the ice. A Philly 2-on-1 set up by Michael Raffl went awry when Myers pondered what to do for too long, didn't have a pass and his shot got blocked by McAvoy. Later, Hayes narrowly missed on an against-the-grain shot, moving left, shooting right.
4) Thereafter, the Flyers got buried under an avalanche of 3 goals in 99 seconds: First came the Coyle goal, That was followed by a stoppable Frederic short side high goal, and a Ritchie deflection power play tally.
5) In the third period, the Flyers competed but Boston remained in firm control. The Flyers had a couple of power play opportunities. On the second, JVR tipped the puck as Hayes put it at the net from the left side, with the puck going off the skate of defenseman Urho Vaakanainen and into the net to cut the deficit to 6-3. From the left circle, Pastrnak finished off a Jack Studnicka pass and scored before Elliott could get set moving across at 17:04.