Postgame 5: Flyers Unable to Close in 3-2 Loss to Vegas

The Philadelpha Flyers played two strong periods against the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday evening. Unfortunately for the Flyers, they succumbed to a third-period rally by Vegas. The Golden Knights skated off with a 3-2 win in regulation.

After trailing 1-0 early on an Ivan Barbashev tally, the Flyers pushed back to take a 2-1 lead to the first intermission on tallies by Noah Cates and Cam Atkinson. The lead held until Paul Cotter knotted the score at 2-2 in the middle stages of the third period.

The Golden Knights opened the scoring at 6:54. Atkinson tried unsuccessfully to play the puck around the wall behind his net. Jonathan Marchessault came up with the puck and centered out to Jack Eichel. Hart stopped an initial 25-foot shot from the slot, but Ivan Barbashev (2nd goal of the season) followed it up and scored from 10 feet away on the backhand. Eichel and Marchessault earned the assists.

Philadelphia drew even at 13:05. Noah Cates backhanded his first goal the season into the net on a rebound after an initial tip opportunity by Joel Farabee on a Cates backhander directed toward the net. Travis Sanheim picked up the secondary assist for an initial stretch pass to Cates.

Philly grabbed a 2-1 lead on at 17:19 of the first period. On a harmless looking shot from the half boards by Atkinson (4th goal), Thompson misplayed the puck off his own blocker and then off his left pad and into the net. Owen Tippett, who made a dart of a long pass to Atkinson, and Cam York received assists on the play.

The Flyers staged a generally strong second period, especially over the first 10 minutes. Vegas surged in the final four-plus minutes. There was no scoring.

In the third period, the Golden Knights made a heavy push, and the Flyers were frequently hemmed in their defensive zone.

Vegas forged a 2-2 tie at the 12:06 mark, Cotter turned Zaluma inside-out, dragging the puck around him. As Hart went down, Cotter (2nd goal of the season) beat the goalie to the blocker side. The assists went Karlsson and Korczak.

The game seemed to be headed for overtime when disaster struck the Flyers following a costly turnover by Cam York in attempting to stickhandle past two Vegas players on a defensive zone exit.  Receiving the puck from Eichel, Theodore (2nd goal of the season) moved in and beat Hart to the short side at the 19:27 mark. Brayden McNabb received a secondary assist.

Carter Hart stopped 25 of 28 shots in a losing cause. Logan Thompson shook off the mistake on the Atikinson goal to deny 26 of 28 shots.

The Flyers went 0-for-2 on the power play. The Golden Knights were 0-for-3.

FLYERS STARTING LINEUP

11 Travis Konecny - 21 Scott Laughton - 71 Tyson Foerster
74 Owen Tippett- 14 Sean Couturier - 89 Cam Atkinson
86 Joel Farabee - 27 Noah Cates - 10 Bobby Brink
44 Nick Deslauriers- 25 Ryan Poehling- Garnet Hathaway

8 Cam York - 6 Travis Sanheim
18 Marc Staal - 5 Egor Zamula
36 Emil Andrae -24 Nick Seeler

79 Carter Hart
[33 Samuel Ersson]

TURNING POINT

Head coach John Tortorella warned during training camp that the learning curve for the team's young defensemen would likely contribute to some losses during the season. That was the case in this game, as Zamula was beaten on the tying goal by Cotter and York tried to do a little too much in the sequence leading up to Theodore's game-winner in the final half-minute of regulation.

POSTGAME 5

1)  The game got off to an even start with two routine shots apiece in the first four minutes. Vegas attempted a couple of stretch passes unsuccessfully. Seeler made a good block of a Nic Hague attempt on the next shift The Golden Knights then started to take over the opening stanza.

Shea Thedore had the game's first scoring chance, and a follow-up shot a moment later. When Barbashev scored at 6:54, shots were 5-3 Golden Knights. 

At 9:01, Hart stopped a Michael Amadio from close range. On the next shift, a Tippett shot attempt from the wing was blocked out of play. 

The Flyers had a scoring chance at 9:45 on a clever play by Brink to get the puck on it, and it almost squeezed past Thompson. The Couturier line had a good shift their next time on the ice. Finally, at 13:07, Cates got Philly on the board,

Brink drew a cross-checking penalty on Kaeden Korczak along the left side boards to generate the game's first power play opportunity at 17:47. The Flyers were unable to capitalize.

2) The Flyers had to weather an early storm from Vegas in the first period and then started to assert themselves as the period moved along. First period shots on goal were 8-7 Flyers. Shot attempts were even at 20-20. Faceoffs were 12-10 Vegas (Cates was 5-for-10). Credited hits were 7-2 Flyers (Deslauriers led with three). 

The Flyers blocked nine first-period shot attempts (Tippett led with two) while Vegas blocked seven (two apiece for Brayden McNabb and Shea Theodore).  Scoring chances were 8-5 Vegas per Natural Stat Trick, with 4-1 high-danger edge to Vegas.

3)  Vegas went on their first power play at the 34-second mark of the second period. With play in the Flyers' zone, York was called for holding Eichel (although it seemed to be Atkinson who committed the infraction). Hart stopped an early blast by Marchessault with a clean glove save. Theodore fired a shot attempt wide.

Vegas' fourth line had a potential scoring chance but a hustling Deslauriers broke it up. At the other end of the ice, Foerster was unable to get to a loose rebound of a Walker shot. Then Hart stepped up for two big saves on Eichel.

Vegas had a long possession shift in the Philly zone. Hart stoned Marchessault in close. At 15:07, shots for the period were 11-4 Flyers as the Flyers took an icing. Vegas' Willam Karlsson beat Cates on the next faceoff. Hart denied Karlsson from down low. The Flyers were finally able to get a much-needed line change.

In the final 33.7 seconds of the second period, Foerster was called for a one-handed slash to Roy's glove in the neutral zone. The slash was far from forceful but connected with the glove. The Golden Knights took 1:27 of carryover PP time into the third period. 

4) Second period shots ended up 12-9 in the Flyers' favor (20-15 Flyers through two periods) after Philly controlled the play for the first half of the period and Vegas came on over the latter minutes. Shot attempts were 23-21 Vegas (43-31 Golden Knights through 40 minutes). 

The Flyers blocked 10 second period shot attempts (19 blocks through two periods, led by four blocks by Andrae) while Vegas had five second-period blocks (12 through 40 minutes). Second period scoring chances were 13-11 Vegas (4-2 high-danger edge to Vegas) with a 21-17 overall scoring chance edge (9-3 high-danger) to Vegas per Natural Stat Trick's calculations,

5) The Golden Knight went straight to the attack on their carryover power play at the start of the third period.  The Flyers survived the kill. Scott Laughton hobbled to the bench after taking a slapshot off the inside of his leg.

Through the first 3:30, there were no shots on goal for either team; a couple of attempts each way missed the net or were blocked. However, the Flyers generated a good possession shift. 

The Flyers went back to the penalty kill at 4:11 as Sanheim was called for a defensive zone hold along the wall. The kill only lasted 26 second as the Cates broke up a play in the defensive zone was tripped up by Stone.  Play moved to 4-on-4 for 1:34 with a 26-second Flyers power play at the end.

Zamula was beaten one-on-one by Cotter and then Cotter beat Hart one-on-one to make it a 2-2 game at 12:06. The Golden Knights resumed possession in the Flyers' zone on the nexy shift after the goal. Finally, Cates had a near-miss scoring opportunity from the doorstep at 13:23 (third period shots were 12-4 Vegas at this point). 

Overtime -- and at least one point -- were well within the Flyers' sights entering the final minute of regulation. But the Golden Knights capitalized on a final, fatal mistake.

Third period shots on goal were 13-8 Vegas (28-28 for the game). Third period shot attempts were 25-16 Vegas (68-58 Vegas for the game). Third period scoring chances were 9-5 Vegas (3-1 high-danger in Philly's favor, at least per Natural Stat Trick). 

The Flyers finished with 30 blocked shots for the game (led by four apiece from Sanheim and Andrae) to 18 for Vegas (Alec Martinez led with four). Credited hits were 18-17 Flyers for the game, led by four for Deslauriers. Final faceoffs were 44-35 Vegas. Couturier was 11-for-21 for Philly, Cates was 7-for-23. Roy was 10-for-13 for Vegas and Stone went 10-for-14.