POSTGAME 5: Late Leafs Deluge Buries Flyers, 6-3

The Philadelphia Flyers lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs, 6-3, at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday evening. The game was 0-0 after the first period and 2-2 after the second. Toronto proceeded to pull away in the third period.

After a scoreless first period, Kevin Hayes (8th goal of the season) converted an Ivan Provorov pass for a 1-0 lead at 3:56. The Leafs then struck back for a pair of closely spaced odd-looking goals on a flubbed Wayne Simmonds breakaway (5th) and a Timothy Liljegren (3rd) carom off the end boards that went off goalie Carter Hart and into the net. The Flyers struck back at 14:33 for a Provorov goal (6th) set up by Hayes.
In the third period, Auston Matthews (51st), Pierre Engvall (shorthanded, 12th), Morgan Rielly (9th) and John Tavares (24th) scored for the Leafs. Provorov got a goal (7th) that briefly cut the gap to 4-3 before the subsequent deluge.
Hart ended up having a rough night in goal. He stopped 22 of 26 shots and would have like a couple of the Toronto goals back. Jack Campbell got the win with 29 saves on 32 shots.
The Flyers went 0-for-2 on the power play and coughed up a shorthanded goal. The Maple Leafs went 0-for-1.
Flyers defenseman Keith Yandle was scratched for this game. His NHL record ironman streak of 989 consecutive regular season games played came to an end. Paired with Nick Seeler, defenseman Ronnie Attard made his NHL debut (15:53 TOI, minus-four, one shot on goal, three shot attempts blocked, two hits, one block).
TURNING POINT
With the score tied at 2-2 in the third period, Mitchell Marner found operating room and drew Hart out to commit all the way to his side. He then passed to Matthews, who buried a shot from the right circle. The Leafs led the rest of the way.
MELTZER'S TAKE
1) Morgan Frost had back-to-back scoring chances in the left slot. Campbell stopped both. Through four minutes, shots were 5-0 Flyers. The first shot Hart saw was a close-range tester from Pierre Engvall. A couple shifts later, Nick Seeler broke up a 2-on-1 rush for Toronto.
Through 7:46, shots were 7-2 Flyers. At 11;05, Zack MacEwen was tripped up by Ilya Lyubushkin and the Flyers went on the game's first power play. Hart had to be sharp to deny a shorthanded 2-on-1 from the NHL's No. 1 shorthanded scoring team. Late in the power play, Owen Tippett was a bit off the mark on a deflection opportunity.
With 1:21 remaining in the period, Campbell made a very tough save on a double-screened shot. The Flyers maintained possession for most of the remainder of the period.
2) Good process, no payoff: The Flyers finished the first period with an 11-6 shot on goal edge, a 19-14 shot attempt edge (57.6% Corsi), and 7-5 scoring chance edge (4-2 high-danger chance advantage).
The Flyers were up on their skates on the forecheck, generated multiple clean breakouts from their own end, and committed only one giveaway (two Toronto takeaways) to five by Toronto. Faceoffs were split evenly at 10-10 with Joel Farabee going 5-for-7 but Kevin Hayes going 0-for-4. On several shifts, Tippett and Frost in particular showed good burst.
3) The Flyers opened the second period with the first four shots and a goal at 3:56 to take a 1-0 lead. It was a four-way tic-tac-toe sequence: Travis Konecny to Oskar Lindblom to Ivan Provorov to Hayes for a slam dunk at the right post.

Ivan Provorov was called for holding at 4:47. Hart made a strong positional save on a Mitchell Marner one-timer.
Midway through the second period, the Leafs struck quickly for back-to-back goals. TJ Brodie caught the Flyers in a line change and sent a stretch pass ahead to ex-Flyer Simmonds. Simmonds lost the handle on the puck but the knuckleball eluded Hart and went into the net at 10:23. Then, at 11:32, a Liljegren point shot caromed off the end wall, came out and hit Hart's skate and went in the net for a very leaky goal. The lone assist to went to Mark Giordano.
The Flyers did not sag after the two Toronto goals. At 14:33, Philly got the game re-tied at 2-2. It started with good forechecking work by Oskar Lindblom. Hayes then centered a feed to a pinching Provorov, who scored from the slot.

With about a minute left in the middle frame, Cates had room inside the right post but directed the puck just wide. In the waning seconds, Provorov blocked a dangerous-looking shot by Matthews. Matthews then fired a buzzer-beater attempt wide at the horn.
4) Second period shots were 13-12 Flyers (attempts were 21-17 Leafs with the Leafs attempting five shots on their power play). Scoring chances were 11-8 Leafs (high-danger chances were 5-4 Leafs).
The Flyers have had issues handling adversity during various junctures of this season. They responded the right way to the back-to-back funky goals by the Leafs and found a way to get the game to the final stanza in "win a period, win a game" territory. Overall, the second period was pretty even after the Flyers were the better team in the first. A standout from the period: Noah Cates' attention to detail in all three zones, with and without the puck. At one juncture, he made a nifty chip pass off the boards for a breakout by his line.
5) The third period started with a tight-checking nature. Through the first 6:06, shots on goal were 2-0 Toronto. The Leafs forged ahead, 3-2, at 7:41 on Marner's setup of Matthews.
The Flyers got their second power play of the game at 9:50 of the third period. Farabee made a very slick play on the entry and then drew an interference penalty on Justin Holl. It turned into Toronto's 12th shorthanded goal of the season as a cross-crease pass attempt was broken up and Toronto's Morgan Rielly for a counter attack. Pierre Engvall scored at the other end to make it 4-2.
The Flyers got briefly back within 4-3 at 12:23. The goal was credited to Provorov but appeared to be deflected -- possibly by MacEwen -- Initial assists went to Patrick Brown and MacEwen.
Right after that, the Flyers started to make high-risk plays and the Leafs generated 2-on-1 then 4-on-1 rushes. The Flyers survived those but then a broken play turned into a Rielly goal at 13:47, assisted by Michael Bunting and Marner.
An offensive zone turnover and then a defensive miscue by Attard led to a Tavares snipe at 15:49. Michael Nylander got the lone assist.
With 2:47 left, Zack MacEwen dropped the gloves with Simmonds. Simmonds got the better of the fight.