Postgame 5: Blown out in Beantown

The Boston Bruins swept a back-to-back set with the Philadelphia Flyers. On the heels of a third-period Boston comeback and eventual 5-4 shootout win on Thursday, the Bruins crushed the Flyers, 6-1, on Saturday. Philadelphia mustered only 17 shots on goal for the game.
Patrice Bergeron (power play, 2nd) scored the lone goal of the first period. Kevin Hayes (3rd) and Craig Smith (1st) traded off closely spaced goals early in the second period before a one-handed tip-in by Charlie Coyle (2nd) late in the frame established a two-goal lead for Boston.
Brad Marchand (2nd and 3rd) added to the lead early in the third period with even strength and power play goals. Bergeron then tacked on another power play rebound goal (2nd of the game, 3rd goal of the season) to build a 6-1 lead.
Carter Hart allowed six goals on 26 shots. Jaroslav Halak stopped 16 of 17 shots on goal.
TURNING POINT
Special teams was one factor in the lopsided outcome: the Flyers were only 1-for-4 on the PK and barely got through their one successful PK. The lone Flyers' power play of the game went poorly, with Philly struggling to get over their own blueline without a turnover or errant pass. But the single biggest turning point, arguably, was Smith's fast response to the Hayes goal after the Flyers very briefly tied the score at 1-1.

MELTZER'S TAKE
1) The first period was mostly a tight-checking one. The Flyers defended better than in the opening period on Thursday. However, Philly struggled to generate any significant offense. Thw Flyers needed 10-plus minutes to register their first shot on goal. Boston also blocked seven shot attempts. The Bruins made a late-period push.
2) A weak hooking penalty on Mark Friedman called by the trailing referee ended up hurting the Flyers, who have allowed opposition power play goals in all but one game this season. A lost battle in the defensive zone started the sequence and Nick Ritchie caused havoc near the net before Bergeron slid a rebound under Hart's pad.
3) There weren't many Flyers highlights in the second period apart from holding the Bruins to six shots via positionally sound five-on-five defense. A great pad save by Hart at one end resulted in a goal in transition the other way as Hayes redirected a Jakub Voracek setup. In the latter stages of the middle stanza, it took a great save in close by Halak on Hayes off a setup from Voracek to prevent a second goal.
4) Smith's go-ahead goal came off an initial blocked shot by Ivan Provorov that came out to the goal-scorer in the slot, The Flyers struggled on their second penalty kill of the game but got through the two minutes. Late in the frame, Boston took a two-goal lead as Coyle went to the net and made a one-handed tip-in from the crease off a pass from Trent Frederic.
Through two periods, the Flyers were outhit 22-13 in a game where the Bruins had most of the puck possession (52.3% unblocked shot attempt edge at 5-on-5). The Flyers fared significantly better on faceoffs through two periods than they did throughout Thursday's game but struggled to win the next puck battles thereafter.
5) The wheels fell off without enough competitiveness by the Flyers as the game turned into a blowout in the third period.
Alain Vigneault juggled line combinations to start the third period: Raffl-Hayes-Voracek, JvR-Giroux-Konecny, Bunnaman-Patrick-Farabee, Lindblom-Laughton-Aube-Kubel. The Bruins made it 4-1 as Bergeron took Gustafsson off the puck on a fairly routine retrieval and a wide open Marchand scored from point blank range to make it 4-1. Marchand then scored a power play goal to the short-side from the right circle dot off a cross-seam pass from Ritchie to build a four-goal lead. Bergeron struck for a back-door power play rebound goal as the Bruins made it 6-1.