Flyers Game
Flyers Outlast Lightning in Shootout, Get Their First Win of the Extended Homestand
The Philadelphia Flyers won their first game of the seven-game homestand in their sixth game Thursday night, defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning in a shootout.
A night powered by Bobby Brink and the newly formed Flyers’ third line got the game to overtime. It was Matvei Michkov, Owen Tippett, and Sam Ersson who helped defeat Tampa Bay in the shootout.
With the win, the Flyers’ record improved to 28-31-8 for the season.
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Back-and-Forth
The first 40 minutes of Thursday’s contest was a lot of back-and-forth.
It all started with Gage Goncalves (4) cashing in on the power play. A Ryan Poehling delay of game penalty put Tampa on the man-advantage, and they did not look back. A great feed from Yanni Gourde (13) made it an easy tally for the Lightning.
Bobby Brink (9) tied the game up at one with just over five minutes left in the first period on the rush after a great feed from Olle Lycksell (2) set Brink up for the wrister. The game would head into the first intermission all even at one, but that would not take long to change.
Zemgus Girgensons (2) would make it a 2-1 Lightning lead just 15 seconds into the second period. It was a goal that should not have snuck past Flyers’ goaltender Sam Ersson, but it did nonetheless.
Who else other than Bobby Brink (10) to knot the game back up at two. Fresh out of the penalty box, Brink sped past the Lightning defense and tallied his second goal of the game with just over nine minutes remaining in the period.
Right when the game looked like it was heading into the second intermission, even at two, Ryan Poehling had a different plan. Poehling (5), with some crafty hands close to the net, was able to give the Flyers the 3-2 lead heading into intermission number two.
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60 Minutes Wasn’t Enough
The Flyers had their first lead since the first period of the Seattle game on March 8th, but it did not last too long.
Three minutes and 50 seconds into the third period, Cam Atkinson, the former Flyer, would tie the game back up for the Lightning.
Tampa Bay dominated puck possession for most of the third period. Each team traded chances, but the Lightning seemed to have the upper hand in the period. Despite that, the game would head to an extra frame, as 60 minutes was not enough to determine a winner.
Scratch That… 65 Minutes Wasn’t Enough
Tampa Bay dominated the extra period, but were unable to score.
They spent most of the period passing the puck around the offensive zone, which kept Travis Konecny and Jamie Drysdale on the ice for more than half of the overtime period.
However, nobody scored, and the game headed to a shootout.
Matvei Michkov and Brayden Point traded goals in the second round of the shootout, the last to score before the fifth round. It was in frame number five where Owen Tippett would score, and Sam Ersson slammed the door on the Tampa Bay Lightning, securing the win for the Flyers.
What’s Next for the Flyers
The Flyers will conclude their homestand on Saturday when they host the Carolina Hurricanes.
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The two points tonight caused them to leapfrog the Ducks into slot #8. Pick #5 is the best they can hope for assuming that the Ducks, Pens and Kraken start winning. Evaluating the youngsters for the future should be top priority, including getting Jett L into five games in a few weeks.
Yeah, I was hoping to extend the losing streak! Oh well, they need to immediately start the next bad streak! At least NASH and ANA play each other tonight.
Pittsburgh won too, it didn’t kill the Flyers. Root for ANA tonight and the win didn’t harm a thing!