Tampa gambled by pulling Vasilevskiy very early in the third period, down by three goals. Skating 6-on-5, Steven Stamkos (24th of the reason) ripped a shot into the net from the left circle at 14:34 to cut the deficit to 4-2. The assists went to Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov.
Noah Cates (3rd) bagged an empty-net goal from the neutral zone for a 5-2 lead at 15:22. The lone assist went to Poehling. A long-distance empty net goal by Cam York (7th) made it 6-2 at 17:41. The lone assist went to Sanheim.
Vasilievskiy was not particularly sharp in net for Tampa. He finished with 23 saves on 28 shots.
The Flyers went 0-for-3 on the power play. The Lightning were 0-for-2.
FLYERS STARTING LINEUP
27 Noah Cates - 25 Ryan Poehling - 19 Garnet Hathaway
74 Owen Tippett - 21 Scott Laughton - 71 Tyson Foerster
86 Joel Farabee - 48 Morgan Frost - 10 Bobby Brink
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 14 Sean Couturier - 62 Olle Lycksell
8 Cam York - 6 Travis Sanheim
24 Nick Seeler - 26 Sean Walker
5 Egor Zamula - 18 Marc Staal
33 Samuel Ersson
[40 Cal Petersen]
TURNING POINT
Foerster's backhand goal in the opening minute of the third period opened the floodgates for the Flyers. Except for a brief spell where the Flyers kept trying for empty net goals from their own side of the red line -- ending up eventually in Stamkos' goal -- the Flyers dominated most of the final frame and won comfortably.
POSTGAME 5
1) The Lightning had three of the game's first five shots, but Philly had the lone goal. Ersson made two good stops through traffic on shots by Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point. The first period got interrupted at 6:17 due a power outage.
Laughton broke through the defense and generated a good scoring chance. Hathaway painfully blocked a pair of shots several shifts later.
Frost made a good backchecking play and sent Farabee and Brink off on a 2-on-2 counterattack. Unfortunately, the play went offside. A Zamula shot from the point rebounded into the slot, but Lycksell was unable to get to the loose puck.
Tippett was called for delay of game as he put the puck over the glass from the defensive zone. Ersson made a quick save off the first draw. Kucherov missed a one-timer from the right circle and the puck rimmed out around the boards. Seeler blocked a shot. Steven Stamkos missed the net on a left-circle one timer. Point had a shot on net from the center slot. Ersson made the save.
2) After the power went off, the first period was played with auxiliary power and manual timekeeping at the scorer's table. The scoreboard clock was out and there was no real-time scoring statistics immediately available. First period shots on goal were 8-4 Flyers.
3) The house lights came back up on the ice early in the second period. The public address system followed a little later.
The line of Farabee, Frost and Brink generated two shots on net in the period's second shif. A Flyers odd-man rush a few shifts later blown down on a questionable offside.
The Flyers were called for too many men on the ice at 3:15 of the second period. The Tampa power play was cut short by a tripping penalty on Anthony Cirelli at 3:41. Ersson made a good save on Point during the 4-on-4. Seconds later, Paul scored to tie the game at 4:35.
Hathaway blocked another shot and hobbled to the bench. He then briefly went up the tunnel and then returned to the game. There were four-plus minutes of whistle-free hockey at one juncture.
At 15:56, Hagel went to the penalty box for slashing Poehling. Foerster, off a cross-seam feed from Frost, wristed a shot on net from the top of the left circle.
Walker bounced a tricky shot on net. Vasilevskiy played it carefully and held for a stoppage.
4) Second period shots on goal were 11-8 Tampa. Through two periods, faceoffs favored Tampa by a 23-17 margin (led by Luke Glendening's 11-for-14). Philly blocked 14 shots through two periods.
5) Through the first 5:30 of the third period, the Flyers had a 5-1 shot edge and, more importantly, two goals in the cash register. Philly continued to pressure, building an 8-1 shot edge and a three-goal lead before the period was nine minutes old. Tampa remained hemmed in their own end through the next two shifts. Shots on goal were now 9-1 Philly for the period.
Tampa pulled Vasilevskiy with a little over nine minutes left in the third period. The Flyers iced the puck four times and also turned one over in the neutral zone. Finally, Tampa's Stamkos scored at 14:34. Vasilevskiy returned to the Tampa net but was pulled again moments before Cates scored his empty netter from the Tampa side of the red line. York's empty netter put a ribbon on the four-goal win.
Third period shots on goal were 13-7 Flyers (29-23 Flyers overall). Final faceoffs were 36-31 Tampa.
