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Rick Tocchet’s Philadelphia Flyers (36-24-12) defeated the Detroit Red Wings, 5-3, at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday evening. Owen Tippett led the way with a hat trick and an assist. Philly built a cavernous 4-0 lead in the game’s first 55 minutes. They turned out to need every bit of it, withstanding a three-goal charge by Detroit in the latter part of the third period.
Philadelphia has won eight consecutive road games. In the process, they have tied a franchise record for their long road winning streak.
In the first period Tippett (25th goal of the season) scored a breakaway goal to give the Flyers a quick 1-0 lead.Tippett struck again (26th) for a two-goal lead in the middle stages of regulation. Noah Cates (PPG, 17th) built a 3-0 lead late in the period. In the final frame, Tippett (PPG, 28th) scored his third goal of the night. Back-to-back goals by Mason Appleton (6th) and Alex Debrincat (31st) cut the lead in half.
Detroit scored their third goal in 2:31 to narrow Philadelphia’s lead to 4-3. Lucas Raymond (24th) did the scoring honors. Finally, Sean Couturier (ENG, 10th) iced the victory.
Dan Vladar earned the win with 29 saves on 32 shots. John Gibson struggled for Detroit (four goals allowed on 22 shots) before he was relieved in the third period by ex-Flyer Cam Talbot (four saves on four shots).
The Flyers went 2-for-2 on the power play. They were 2-for-2 on the PK.
The Good
- Owen Tippett continues to play dominant hockey. He’s a threat to score every time he gets moving up ice.
- Cates and Couturier have continued their offensive runs. In Cates’ case, it’s lasted ever since the Olympic break ended. Meanwhile, Couturier has scored in three straight games.
- The Flyers checked very well for the game’s first 55 minutes, especially through the neutral zone.
- Vladar was sharp. John Gibson was not.
- A rare dominant night on special teams. The Flyers went 2-for-2 on the power play at 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.
- Phily blanked Dylan Larkin on the score sheet. They also held him to 3-for-12 on faceoffs.
The Bad
- The Flyers had two lulls during the game. They had a bit of a sloppy start to the second period before they settled in. The latter part of the third period saw Philly shut down the engines too soon and nearly pay dearly.
- 16 Flyers turnovers: Eleven giveaways and five Detroit takeaways. Several came with Philly comfortably — and then not-so-comfortably — ahead in the game. Philly can’t afford to do that against the Dallas Stars on Sunday.
- Travis Sanheim hobbled off late in the second period on a very painful blocked shot. He returned for the third period at played 28:36 overall. Hopefully, the Flyers dodged a bullet.
The Ugly
- The Flyers struggled to close out the game. They lost focus rather than closing the game out with authority.
- Both teams had a goal disallowed upon challenges for offside entries. Neither one was even close to onside. The plays should have been whistled down at the blueline.
Flyers Starting Lineup
Alex Bump – Christian Dvorak – Travis Konecny
Denver Barkey – Trevor Zegras – Owen Tippett
Carl Grundstrom – Noah Cates – Matvei Michkov
Sean Couturier – Luke Glendening — Garnet Hathaway
Travis Sanheim – Rasmus Ristolainen
Cam York – Jamie Drysdale
Nick Seeler – Emil Andrae
Dan Vladar
[Samuel Ersson]
Postgame Press Conference
Flyers Playoff Chase Update: 72 GP (84 points)
Metropolitan Division
- The Columbus Blue Jackets (87 points) sustained a 3-2 home loss to the San Jose Sharks. Columbus dropped into fourth place in the Metro Divison.
- The New York Islanders captured a 5-2 home win over the Florida Panthers. New York (89 points) sits second in the Metro.
- The Pittsburgh Penguins suffered a 6-3 home loss to the Dallas Stars. Pittsburgh (88 points) is third in the Metro.
The Flyers hold one game in hand over Columbus and Pittsburgh. Philly has two games in hand over relative to the Islanders. However ,all three teams hold regulation wins tiebreaker advantages over Philly (23 RW): Penguins (29 RW), Islanders (28 RW), Blue Jackets (27 RW)
Eastern Conference wildcard
- The Boston Bruins hold the upper wildcard (90 points, 30 RW) through 73 games. With one game in hand, Philly trails Boston by six standings points plus an almost insurmountable seven regulation wins in a tiebreaker contingency.
- Columbus hold the lower wildcard seed; the final playoff position in the East.Philly has 10 games to outpoint the Blue Jackets by five points to beat them in the standings.
- Right below the playoff cutoff, the Flyers still trail Detroit by five points (four standings points and a 28-23 RW tiebreaker. Philly holds one game in hand. There are still two head-to-head meetings left.
- Meanwhile, Philly trails the Ottawa Senators by four standings points and a 32-23 RW tiebreaker (I.e., five points).
Bottom line
The NHL record for the most points by a team in a single season without qualifying for the Stanley Cup playoffs is 96 points. This happened as recently as last season (Calgary Flames via tiebreaker with the St. Louis Blues).
If the Flyers went 7-1-2 over their final 10 games, they’d finish with an even 100 points. Unfortunately, that may not even be enough to get a wildcard spot in the East.
Reason: The West is extremely weak this year behind the elite teams. The current Western Conference wildcard teams have 80 points (Utah Mammoth) and 77 points (Nashville Predators) respectively.
Flyers Farm Report
- NCAA: Michigan State’s end-of-season struggles culminated on Saturday with a 4-3 overtime loss to Wisconsin. The Spartans have been eliminated from the Frozen Four tournament. Michigan State saw a 3-1 lead disappear in the final five minutes of the third period. In his likely final collegiate game, Porter Martone had one power play assist. Shane Vansaghi did not record a point.
- OHL playoffs: Jett Luchanko returned to the Brantford Bulldogs lineup from injury for Game One of their series with the Sudbury Wolves . He did not record a point but was plus-one in Friday’s 6-2 home win over Sudbury. Luchanko had 26 points (5g, 21a) in 27 regular season games after coming over to Brantford.
- OHL playoffs: Jack Nesbitt has been hot late in the season for the Windsor Spitfires. On Saturday he earned second-star honors (1g, 1a) in a 4-1 win over the Guelph Storm. Windsor leads their series, two games to zero. Nesbitt finished the regular season on a seven-game point streak (7g, 6a, 13 points).
- Phantoms (AHL): Boris Katchouk notched a hat trick and an assist for Lehigh Valley in a 4-2 win over Hershey on Saturday. The Phantoms at least temporarily moved back into a playoff spot (6th place) in the Atlantic Division. :Lehigh Valley is right back in action on Sunday afternoon. The Phantoms (28-30-16) finish their 3-in-3 gauntlet on the road against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (40-16-8). The Phantoms are 4-7-1 head to head against the Baby Pens this season.
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