Forty minutes of solid play was undone by a lackluster seven minutes stretch in the third period as the Tampa Bay Lightning let a 1-1 game devolve into a 4-1 games as they allowed three Philadelphia Flyers goals over that stretch. A few empty net goals late in the game led to a 6-2 final in favor of the Flyers and brought brought a sour ending to what had been a solid road trip.
Brandon Hagel and Nikita Kucherov continued their point streaks with assists while Nick Paul and Steven Stamkos had the goals for the Lightning. Andrei Vasilevskiy had some deflected pucks go past him, but needed to be better as he allowed 4 goals on 27 shots. Flyers’ netminder Samuel Ersson stopped 20 of 22 for the win.
A brief power outage in the building delayed the game in the first period.
First Period
Well, that was an interesting first 20 minutes. The Lightning had some really good stretches of play, but it was a transition goal by the Flyers that broke the scoreless tie. Following the goal, the power went out for a portion of the building, causing a delay and when action returned there was no in-arena music or sound effects (the horn) and the scoreboard wasn’t operating.
As for the goal, it was prototypical John Tortorella hockey. The Flyers were extremely conscious of protecting the middle of the ice in their own zone, allowing the Lightning to work the perimeter, but blocking shots or forcing them wide. They waited for their opportunities to counter or score off of the rush, and that’s what happened.
They flipped the puck out of their zone and controlled it in the neutral zone. A nice pass by Morgan Frost sent Bobby Brink into space. Calvin de Haan played it fairly well and forced a shot from the top of the circles. It appeared to catch part of de Haan’s stick and then the underside of Vasilevskiy’s blocker and in.
Bobby Brink (Morgan Frost, Marc Staal) 1-0 Flyers
The Lightning did have a power play towards the latter part of the period, but weren’t able to find the back of the net despite a large amount of time spent in the zone. Stamkos and Kucherov ripped shots wide, VictorHedman had a shot blocked by Nick Seeler, and Ersson somehow stopped a shot from Brayden Point from the slot.
As time wore down, Nick Perbix defended a one-on-one rush from Joel Farabee really well, not allowing a shot at all. It wasn’t a bad period for the Bolts, but the scoreboard had them down a goal (well, not really since it wasn’t working, but you know what we mean).
Second Period
When a team is defending like the Flyers were in the first period, the best way to counter that is to create space. One way to do that is to have fewer players on the ice. After Anthony Cirelli was whistled for tripping during a Lightning power play, there were only eight skaters on the ice. With the added space the Bolts were by far the better team at 4-on-4.
First it was Emil Lilleberg with a golden opportunity as he was open on a rush, but Ersson knocked his shot aside. Shortly after that Brandon Hagel did his thing. He maintained possession despite losing his footing. While he had the puck, Nick Paul was able to slip the coverage of Owen Tippett for a brief moment. Hagel found him an Paul whipped it into the net for his 17th goal of the season.
Nick Paul (Brandon Hagel) 1-1
The Lightning had some jump to their game in the middle frame, especially in their own zone where they were quick to exit the zone and didn’t let the Flyers get their forecheck going. Neither team was allowing much in the way of high-danger chances, even when Philadelphia had a power play late in the period, they weren’t able to really test Vasilevskiy too much.
Kucherov was all over the place in the offensive zone and came close to giving the Lightning the lead a couple of times. First he danced and toe-dragged his way through the defense before setting up Point for a shot that blocked. Then in the back-half of the period he sent Point into the zone with an outrageously pretty cross-ice pass from the boards. Ersson stopped the initial shot as well as Point’s follow up attempt.
Third Period
As good as the Lightning were in the second period, they fumbled away their hard work with a slow start to the third. All of that jump they had early in the game disappeared and they allowed the Flyers way too much room in the neutral zone. First it was Tyson Foerster who made a nice move on the rush and backhanded it past Vasy on the shortside. Honestly, Nick Perbix plays this pretty well to force him to his backhand, but it looked like the puck might have caught part of his stick and ramped up a little on Vasilevskiy. However, it was a turnover and a lost puck battle that allowed Morgan Frost to set up Foerster to enter the zone so easily.
Tyson Foerster (Morgan Frost) 2-1 Flyers
After a pretty good shift by the Lightning’s top line, the Flyers countered again and Noah Cates fought off a backcheck from Kucherov before zipping a pass of to Travis Sanheim. With Vasy screened, Sanheim picked a spot and put it past him.
Travis Sanheim (Noah Cates, Ryan Poehling) 3-1 Flyers
But wait! There’s more. Another easy transition into the zone for the Flyers left Sean Walker open for a shot that appeared to tick off of Hedman’s stick and over Vasy’s blocker for the fourth goal of the night and third in less than seven minutes for the Flyers. A bad line change (look at all of those Bolts along the boards) led to the open space.
Sean Walker (Joel Farabee, Tyson Foerster) 4-1 Flyers
Coach Cooper likely decided that if his team wasn’t going to play defense in front of Vasilevskiy, they didn’t deserve to have a goaltender at all as he pulled Vasy with 9:15 left in the game. In front of a vacated net, the Lightning held the Flyers off of the scoreboard for about four minutes, and managed to get one back.
Steven Stamkos fired home a rebound for his 24th goal of the season to make it 4-2 with five minutes to go. There was enough time to wonder if they could pull it off.
Steven Stamkos (Brayden Point) Six-on-five, 4-2 Flyers
Noah Cates (Ryan Poehling) Empty Net, 5-2 Flyers
Cam York (Travis Sanheim) Empty Net, 6-2 Flyers
A late power play for the Flyers ended the game and sent the Bolts back to Tampa with a disappointing 6-2 loss.
