The Flyers controlled the proceedings at Xfinity Mobile Arena for the first 20 minutes and then had to fight through the second 20 before tying the score in the third period and taking an eventual 2-1 overtime win over the Minnesota Wild.
Synopsis
The Wild were in the second game of a back-to-back after dropping a 5-1 decision in Washington last night, and the Flyers looked to take advantage in the first period. They controlled play through the first 20 minutes, with the official shot count coming in at 6-3, but total shot attempts and possession time leaned much more in the Flyers’ favor. However, the Flyers couldn’t find the back of the net and the game was scoreless at the first intermission.
Minnesota came out in the second period looking like a team that was not very happy with how they’d played their last four periods of hockey, and they took it to the Flyers for most of the frame. Their goal came early, 1:55 into the period, on a perfectly-placed Vlad Tarasenko laser into the top right corner. Philadelphia did not record a shot on goal in the first 13 minutes of the period, exacerbated somewhat by having to kill off two penalties – one on a failed challenge to the Tarasenko goal, and another on an Owen Tippett tripping penalty a minute after the first one expired.
But it was Tippett who got the Flyers going later in the period and into the third. He had the first shot on goal of the period with just over seven minutes remaining, and then after the Flyers settled down a bit from that point, he drew a tripping penalty on former Flyer Ryan Hartman with 7.7 seconds left in the period.
The Flyers didn’t capitalize on the man advantage at the start of the third, but it set them in the right direction. It was hard work from Tippett that generated his goal with 12:50 to play – he took a shot on goal that Jesper Wallstedt fought off, but then Tippett reached to poke it away from the goaltender before he could cover it. The puck went to the end boards, where Tippett picked it up and threw it back past the goalpast. It hit Wallstedt and banked into the net to knot the score at 1-1.
Neither team found the net the rest of the way, as the Flyers ended up outshooting the Wild 9-4 despite having to kill off a penalty on Jamie Drysdale at the halfway point of the period. That set the stage for the successful overtime.
Rav4 Keys To The Win
Four-Man Contribution In Overtime
Noah Cates was the overtime hero, but it was a goal that benefitted from contributions from all four Flyers on the ice at the time. Dan Vladar made a save at the other end and realized that the Flyers would be better off if they could quickly go the other way, detecting that some of the Wild players had been out for a while. It wasn’t the smoothest of transitions, but Vladar was able to get the puck on the ice to his left and give it to Jamie Drysdale. The fleet-footed defenseman was then able to get away from Marco Rossi, who had been on the ice for over a minute and didn’t have much energy to follow Drysdale up the ice.
Drysdale in turn found Tyson Forester at center ice, who carried it through the neutral zone and over the blue line before dropping it to Cates. Jonas Brodin and Marcus Johansson were defending for Minnesota, and Johansson isn’t a defenseman. After dropping the pass, Foerster made sure Brodin wasn’t going to be involved – first he swatted Brodin’s stick off the ice so he couldn’t pokecheck Cates, and then he simply stopped so Brodin couldn’t get around him to cut Cates off. Meanwhile, Drysdale had rejoined the play and arrived in the left-wing circle, and non-defenseman Johnasson was thinking about preventing the pass. But Cates wasn’t passing, and he placed it perfectly inside the left post for the winner. If we had a third assist, it would go to Vladar, but it was a full team OT goal.
Vladar – Big When Needed
The Flyers held the Wild to 16 shots; this, coupled with the 15 shots for Winnipeg on Thursday, marked the first time in almost 20 years that the Flyers had held their opponent to 16 or fewer shots in two consecutive games according to the NHL Stats bureau. But that didn’t mean Dan Vladar was without work. For one thing, the Wild set up in the Flyers zone for what seemed like 10 consecutive minutes in the second period, but only got the one goal. There were no TV timeouts until more than 12 minutes had passed, and Minnesota poured on the pressure almost that whole time while also operating on two power plays. But Vladar’s biggest and perhaps most underrated save came on Marco Rossi with 7:40 to play. Rossi swooped in from behind a three-man screen to Vladar’s right, took a pass from the corner and had a bid from just inside the right faceoff dot that came at a tricky angle. Vladar was able to handle it, keep the game tied and held steady the rest of the way.
A Patented Nick Seeler Special
Nick Seeler turned in 18:06 of work stuffed with quintessential Nick Seeler stuff – he had four hits and five blocked shots along with a shot on goal. He had a shift in the first period where he jumped into a play offensively, then had to switch sides with Cam York to do so, and then defended a Minnesota rush the other way that ended with him starfishing across the ice on his stomach to prevent Zeev Buium from doing anything with a 3-on-2 rush. Later, during a power play, Seeler forcefully introduced Buium to the Xfinity Mobile Arena boards.
From the Pregame: The Box +1
So far, the Flyers’ defensive zone system seems to be effective. January 2006 was the last time they held opponents to 16 or fewer shots in consecutive games, according to NHL Stats, and the heat map at Moneypuck.com indicated the Flyers allowed Minnesota a very minimal number of scoring chances in the slot. Instead, they kept most of them to the middle of the circles and outward from there. They are certainly still refining the system, but the early returns are fairly encouraging. Stick taps to another huge game for Travis Sanheim at 29:58 of ice time, and Cam York gobbling 26:10 with 39 seconds of power play time in his second game back.
