Postgame 5: Leafs Pull Away from Flyers

The Philadelphia Flyers dropped a 5-2 decision to the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena. John Taveres notched a hat trick and an assist for the Maple Leafs, while Auston Matthews had a goal and an assist and Mitchell Marner chipped in a pair of helpers.

The Flyers scored first but trailed 2-1 at the end of the first and second periods. Toronto pulled away in the third with three goals to one for the Flyers. Ultimately, the Flyers' habitual tendency to get heavily outshot and outchanced manifested in a three-goal loss on this night.
Joel Farabee (3rd goal of the season) got the Flyers on the board first in the opening period but Toronto struck back for tallies by Auston Matthews (PPG, 4th) and John Tavares (5th) to take a 2-1 edge to intermission. The second period was scoreless.
In the third period, a Zach Aston-Reese tally (1st) was answered by an Owen TIppett goal (PPG, 2nd). However, the Flyers had no reply to back-to-back goals by Tavares (5-on-5 and PPG, 6th and 7th).
Felix Sandström dropped to 0-3-0 on the season. He was peppered with 44 shots, stopping 39. Ilya Samsonov saved 22 of 24 Flyers' shots.
The Flyers went 1-for-6 on the power play. Toronto went 2-for-4.
Morgan Frost and Justin Braun were healthy scratches in this game in favor of Tanner Laczynski (10:41 TOI, one shot attempt, one hit, 2-for-6 on faceoffs) and Egor Zamula (17:08 TOI, two hits, two takeaways, one block).
FLYERS STARTING LINEUP
86 Joel Farabee - 13 Kevin Hayes - 11 Travis Konecny
49 Noah Cates - 21 Scott Laughton - 74 Owen Tippett
20 KIeffer Bellows - 58 Tanner Laczynski - 17 Zack MacEwen
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 23 Lukas Sedlak - 57 Wade Allison
9 Ivan Provorov - 77 Tony DeAngelo
6 Travis Sanheim - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
24 Nick Seeler - 54 Egor Zamula
32 Felix Sandström
[79 Carter Hart]
TURNING POINT
Tavares late first period goal sent the Maple Leafs to intermission with a 2-1 lead after Philly scored first. Toronto played from ahead the rest of the game.
MELTZER'S TAKE
1. The Flyers were in bend-but-don't-break mode for much of the first period. Early scoring chances belonged to Michael Bunting (twice) and David Kampf.
The Flyers found themselves with back-to-back penalties to kill. Nick Seeler was sent off for hooking at 5:38. Travis Konecny was sent off for high-sticking TJ Brodie at 7:54. The whistle came after a Justin Holl scoring chance on the delayed call. The Flyers killed it off in good shape.
Toronto maintained a territorial edge but the Flyers scored first (for just the second time this season) at the 13:09 through sheer hard work. Kevin Hayes won a puck battle behind the net to start the sequence. The puck was worked out to Travis Sanheim at the point. Konecny then passed to Farabee, who hammered a shot from the top of the left circle off the post and into the net. The assists went to Farabee and Sanheim (first point of the season).
Philly had their first power play of the game at 13:48. Victor Mete cross-checked Wade Allison. The Flyers generated no pressure of note.
The Flyers had a defensive mismatch on the ice and Nicolas Dealauirers was called for tripping Matthews at 16:10 to put the Leafs on their third power play. At 16:40, the Leafs tied the game at 1-1. Tavares centered a pass to Matthews in the slot. Sandström made an initial save but Matthews scored on the rebound. The assists were credited to Tavares and Marner.
A little over two minutes later, at 18:33, the Maple Leafs took the lead. Tavares fell down, got up, took a pass and hammered a shot from high in the zone rose over Sandström's glove into the top of the net. It was hard to tell if the puck deflected off Konecny's stick. If not, it was a clear-sighted shot from distance that should have been stopped. The assists went to William Nylander and Morgan Rielly.
The Leafs made one last push in the final minute of the period. Sandström made stops on Calle Järnkrok and Brodie.
2. First period shots were 16-6 in Toronto's favor. Shot attempts were 26-11 Maple Leafs. Scoring chances were 15-4 per Natural Stat Trick (6-0 high-danger).
3. The Flyers were sloppy with the puck early in he second period, hurting themselves with no fewer than five turnovers. Key saves by Sandström -- and help from the post on a 2-on-1 kept it at a one-goal deficit before the Flyers got going and stabilized the play.
The Flyers had a pair of power plays in the first half of the middle frame. The first one (Denis Malgin cross-check at 4:32) generated little of note. The second (Marki Giordano holding at 9:36) produced heavy pressure and near-miss chances for Konecny and Wade Allison.
Egor Zamula made a good defensive stop on WIlliam Nylander. The Flyers then went back to the power play at 13:59 as they drew an interference penalty. The Flyers' fourth power play of the game generated no pressure. With play back at 5-on-5, Sandström stopped a Pierre Engvall blast from the right side.
With 1:33 left in the period, Nylander clipped Sanheim with a high stick. The Flyers went right back to the power play. Hayes was stopped on a shot from the left dot. Tippett, who has improved significantly as a defensive player, made a strong backchecking play to short-circuit a counter chance. Philly dropped to 0-for-5 on the man advantage pending 27 of carryover power play time into the third period.
4. Second period shots on goal were 13-9 in the Leafs' favor (24-19 Leafs in shot attempts). The Flyers ended up with an 11-9 overall scoring chance edge in the middle frame (2-2 in high-danger chances per Natural Stat Trick). Ivan Provorov led the team with five credited hits through two periods while Nick Seeler blocked three shots.
5. The Flyers worked a set play off the opening faceoff of the third period with both defensemen moving up ice. Provorov fed across to DeAngelo, who was stoned by Samsonov just seven seconds into the frame.
At 1:25, after a Farabee scoring chance and a DeAngelo turnover, Matthews had a prime scoring chance at the doorstep at the other end.
The Maple Leafs made it 3-1 at 2:5 .The Flyers blocked two shots attempts by Malgin (first by Ristolainen then by Hayes). The second one went directly onto the stick of Aston-Reese who found the open right side of the net at 2:49. The assists went to Malgin and Kampf.
DeAngelo turned over another puck, No harm ensued. At 5:08, Zamula blocked a shot out of play Shortly after that, MacEwen made a strong play with the puck and put a back-hander from close range on net.
The Flyers went to their sixth power play with 13:26 remaining as Laughton drew a holding penalty on Tavares. After a tight-space offensive zone entry, and a pass across to the left circle, Tippett scoring a short-side goal from the left circle. The assists went to Konecny and Laughton (first assist of the season) on the power play goal.
Tortorella juggled his line combinations.Zack MacEwen was placed at 2nd line RW with Laughton and Farabee. Tippett (who was buzzing) was moved up to Hayes line with TK. Cates was with Sedlak and Allison. Laczynski played sparingly on a line with Bellows and Deslauriers.
At 12:48, Tavares went to work one-on-one with Sanheim, chipping the puck past him and firing a shot on net. The save was made but Tavares followed up his own rebound to make it 4-2. Marner and Mete got the assists.
MacEwen took an offensive zone tripping penalty on Brodie at 14:46. Sandström's skate blade came off. He was unable to move over for a shot by Tavares from the right circle. The assists went to Matthews and Rielly at 15:23.
Things turned feisty with the outcome sealed. Amid a lengthy scrum, Hayes dropped the gloves and grappled with Giordano at 18:16 amid a slew of penalties.Konecny got a roughing double minor and a 10-minute misconduct. The Leafs went back to the power play. No further scoring ensued.
Third period shots were 14-10 Leafs (44-25 overall). Final shot attempts were 61-29 Leafs. Final scoring chances were 43-21 Toronto (17-5 high-danger edge for Toronto).