POSTGAME 5: Wild Down Flyers, 4-1

The Flyers concluded a five-game road trip with a 4-1 loss against the Minnesota Wild in St. Paul on Tuesday. The Flyers finished the trip with a 1-4-0 record. From midway through the first period onward, the Wild dominated the game for roughly the next 30 minutes of game play. Trailing 4-0, the Flyers made a push in the third period but it was too little and too late.

The Flyers have been mathematically eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs. It will be the first time since the 1992-93 and 1993-94 seasons that the Flyers will miss the playoffs in back-to-back years. The Wild have won seven straight games.
Matt Dumba (6th goal of the season) opened the scoring at 14:29 of the first period. A Kirill Kaprisov power play goal (37th) at 16:23 doubled the lead. Jordan Greenway (8th) made it a 3-0 game at 1:35 of the second period and then Kevin Fiala (23rd) scored from a very flat angle on a delayed Flyers penalty at 18:49 of the second period. Morgan Frost (power play, 3rd) got the Flyers on the board at 4:21 of the third period.
With Carter Hart day-to-day with an undisclosed physical issue, Martin Jones made his second straight start in goal. The Flyers recalled Felix Sandström on an emergency basis to back up Jones. Jones stopped 33 of 37 shots in a losing cause.
Marc-Andre Fleury made his second start for Minnesota after being acquired from Chicago at the trade deadline.Fleury earned the win with 32 saves on 33 shots. Sixteen of the saves came in the third period.
The Flyers went 1-for-4 on the power play. The Wild went 1-for-3.
Noah Cates made his NHL debut in this game. He was impressive, logging 14:52 of ice time including 1:13 of penalty killing duties. He was credited with three takeaways, three hits and three shots on goal. In the third period, it took a spectacular save by Fleury to deny Cates his first NHL goal.
TURNING POINT
The first half of the opening period actually saw the Flyers overcome an early push by the Wild and then get the better of the play by far -- after the Flyers started the game with an 11-4 shot on goal edge -- until the third period. The James van Riemsdyk turnover and defensive confusion that ensued on Dumba's goal that made it 1-0 put Minnesota in the driver's seat. The Flyers didn't regain equilibrium until they were in a deep hole on the scoreboard. The late push was too little and too late.
MELTZER'S TAKE
1) Cates received his first NHL shift as part of the Flyers' starting five for the opening faceoff. Morgan Frost blew a tire on the game's first shift and Kevin Fiala tested Jones right off the bat. The teams then traded off chances for Joel Eriksson Ek (wide of the net) and then James van Riemsdyk off a 3-on-2 rush.
Play settled down after the initial Minnesota push. Through eight minutes, shots were 5-3 in the Flyers favor.
Former Minnesota defensemen Nick Seeler dropped the gloves with Nic Deslauriers at 9:12. Seeler did a good job of standing in against Deslauriers, who has 20 pounds of weight and many more fights of experience. Deslauriers ended up nursing a cut although he threw more punches in the fight.
Cates took the puck away from a Wild player in the neutral zone at the start of a shift that later saw the Wild generate a series of shot attempts -- one attempt by Brandon Duhaime was stopped in close by Jones, another by Matt Dumba from the bottom of the right circle was blocked by Rasmus Ristolainen and a follow attempt by Duhaime was tucked wide. At the other end of the ice, Frost made a cross-ice feed to Owen Tippett but Tippett's shot from the deep right slot was blocked by Dumba.
At 11:15, Jones denied a tough deflection in front from the dangerous Kirill Kaprisov. With 6:08 left in the period, Konecny was in discomfort on the bench after blocking a shot off the inside of the knee. He stayed in the game.
The Wild took a 1-0 lead at 14:29 of the opening period. van Riemsdyk turned over a weak clearing attempt over the middle and the Flyers never recovered. Frederick Gaudreau started a three-way passing sequence to Boldy and then to a pinching Dumba. Dumba made no mistake from the low slot.
Minnesota got the game's first power play when Ivan Provorov was called for holding Jordan Greenway in the defensive zone at 16:04. The power play cashed in against the Flyers' struggling PK at 16:23. Eriksson Ek won a left circle draw cleanly back to Jared Spurgeon, who passed to Kaprisov. The sniping forward carried into the left circle, moved just to the outside of the dot and fired off a shot that beat Jones high to the short side through an Eriksson Ek screen for a 2-0 lead.
The Wild kept on attacking. Matt Boldy fired off a right circle shot off a give-and-go. Frost iced the puck. The Wild won the next draw and generated a point shot on net for another o-zone draw. Once again, the Wild controlled the faceoff, and Mats Zuccerello snapped a shot on net right off the faceoff.
2) First period shots were 16-12 in Minnesota's favor after being 11-4 in the Flyers' favor at one point. Shot attempts were 19-18 Wild (51.35% Corsi). Scoring chances were 11-9 Flyers (high-danger chances were 4-3 Wild). The Flyers, other than the first shift or two of the game, did fine for about the first 11 minutes of the period. The latter portion, however, was all Minnesota and the Flyers found themselves down by a pair of goals. A bright spot: Two takeaways, three shot attempts (one on net) for Cates. Minnesota won 13 of 19 faceoffs in the opening period.
3) The Wild extended the lead to 3-0 at 1:35. Cam York attempted a stretch pass up the middle, which was intercepted at the Minnesota blue line. An Eriksson Ek shot from above the top of the left circle produced a fat rebound directly into the slot. Greenway pounced and scored on the backhand. Marcus Foligno got the secondary assist.
The Wild had a would-be Kaprisov goal immediately disallowed at 3:05 as Ryan Hartman took out Jones' skate going to the net. As play resumed, the Flyers went to their first power play at 3:15 when Hartman was called for hooking. A backchecking Konecny bailed the Flyers' out on a dangerous-looking counterattack for Minnesota. Late in the power play, van Riemsdyk was denied in close.
Minnesota went back to the power play at 6:02 as Brown was penalized for high-sticking Hartman (two-minute variety). Cates did some good PK work including getting the puck away from Dumba and clearing it.
For about six minutes, neither team generated a shot -- the Flyers were outshot overall, 7-1, through 11 minutes of the second period.
The Wild went back on the power play at 11:45 when Ristolainen was called for cross-checking Hartman -- needlessly with the play over -- below the goal line. Gaudreau had a good chance from the right hash marks saved by Jones. As the penalty expired, the Flyers generated a counterattack with Farabee and then Ristolainen putting the second and third shots of the period on net for the Flyers.
The Eriksson Ek line hemmed the Hayes line in for an extended time in the defense zone. Foligno very narrowly missed a tip-in chance at the net.
At 18:49, skating 6-on-5 on a delayed penalty against the Flyers, the Wild opened a 4-0 lead. Fiala took a pass from Kulikov and, from a very severe angle along the goal line out by the boards, somehow beat Jones high to the long side. The secondary assist was credited to Gaudreau.
4) The Flyers got out-competed and out-skilled in the lopsided second period: a bad combination. Jones allowed a bad rebound on the eventual Greenway goal. The team took some undisciplined penalties, continued to get eaten alive in the faceoff circle (Hayes and Frost were a combined 4-for-18 including Frost going 1-for-7), and lost the lion's share of the puck battles. Shots on goal were 13-4 Wild. Shot attempts were 20-5 Wild (80 percent Corsi).Scoring chances were 8-4 Wild (6-2 high danger).As a team, the Flyers fared poorly in 50-50 puck battles, and were caught puck watching too often defensively.
5) Fleury robbed a wide-open Cates at the doorstep on the opening shift of the third period, as he started out on Joel Farabee's line. Cates couldn't quite elevate the puck enough. van Riemsdyk moved to a line with Frost and Tippett.
Farabee took a stick to the face at the 3:00 mark on a careless high-stick by Tyson Jost. A double-minor was called. The Flyers generated a lengthy scramble around the net off the hop on the loose rebound of a Travis Sanheim point shot. At 4:21, an Atkinson rebound was unable to be cleared to Spurgeon. Spurgeon sent it right to Frost, who scored his first goal since Dec. 29. As the power play continued, the first unit coughed up the puck and nearly gave the goal right back. Late in the power play, the second unit nearly got another goal but Ivan Provorov was stopped.
Tipppett turned Kulikov inside out and went on a breakaway but was slashed by Jon Merrill for a delayed penalty on Minnesota. Fleury then made a 10-bell glove save on van Riemsdyk to protect the 4-1 lead before the whistle. The Flyers generated heavy pressure in the waning seconds of the power play and after its expiration. Atkinson had perhaps the best scoring chance.
With 8:00 left, a tipped shot by Hodgson bounced out in front. Hayes had a half-empty net but the puck was bouncing. Hayes batted it on the backhand off the post. The puck stayed out.
At 14:35, Tippett and Frost had room to make a play but Tippett's pass across was out of reach. Later, Tippett fired the puck through traffic. Fleury didn't see it until the puck was on him. With 1:30 left, Foligno and Tippett collided heavily in the Flyers' zone. Both players were shaken up momentarily but went off seeming OK.
Third period shots were 17-8 in the Flyers favor. Shot attempts were 19-11 Flyers (68.9 percent Corsi). Scoring chances were 14-5 Flyers (8-1 high danger). Final faceoffs were 31-21 Wild.