On a cold and sunny day with a view of snow covered mountains looking over at Lake Tahoe, there was a hockey game.
The Boston Bruins (10-3-2) matched up against the Philadelphia Flyers (8-3-3) on a beautiful evening against a stunning backdrop. Carter Hart struggled and couldn’t finish the game as the the Bruins routed the Flyers 7-3.
The Bruins got things started thirty-four seconds in to the game as the Bruins David Pastrnak released a wicked shot that went past Carter Hart, that gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead. Flyers Joel Farabee scored from his knees to tie the game at one at the six minute mark of the first period. Goal was assisted by James Van Riemsdyk and Sean Couturier. With five minutes left in the first period, Flyers Sean Couturier picked up a loose puck and ripped it into the right side of the goal (assisted by Kevin Hayes and JVR). With less than 4 minutes left in the period, the Bruins got a great look when Charlie McAvoy unleashed a dirty slap shot that went through Flyers goalie Carter Hart’s right armpit and slid in for a goal to tie the game at 2.
Bruins David Pastrnak (assisted by Nick Ritchie) again scored very early in a period and the Bruins went up 3-2 quickly. The Bruins then went crazy and scored 3 goals within 99 seconds. Bruins Trent Frederic got control of the the puck and whipped it off the post and off of Carter Hart and then into the goal to make the score 4-2 Bruins. Few minutes later, Bruins Trent Frederic got in to Carter Hart’s head and made him look sick with a strong goal that was assisted by Connor Clifton and John Moore to give the Bruins a 5-2 lead. The Flyers then took a penalty and the Bruins capitalized on the ensuing power play a goal by Nick Ritchie, assisted by Craig Smith and John Moore and the Bruins led 6-2. Ritchie’s goal was a relatively straight forward shot and should have been saved by Carter Hart.
The Flyers offense had some good looks in the third period, but it just wasn’t enough for them catch up to the Bruins. James van Riemsdyk (assisted by Kevin Hayes and Ivan Provorov) got a power play goal by shooting the puck towards the goalie that deflected off Bruin skate and into the net for a goal which made the score 6-3. Pastrnak got the hat trick late in the third period to make the final score a touchdown and a field goal, 7-3.
It wasn’t what Flyers fans were expecting especially on the defensive side and at the goalie position, but the Bruins were by far the more impressive team. Final was 7-3 Bruins, ““To tell you the truth, obviously those are important players, but we had a good team tonight and we showed it in the first period, played extremely smart and hard,” Head Coach Alain Vigneault said. “A couple of shifts got away from us in that second, but our guys battled and competed. And at the end of the day, as a coach, a coaching staff and an organization, you want your guys to go out and compete. We’d like to have a couple of those shifts back in the second but they got away from us a little bit there.”
Sean Couturier said, “We needed to be better in front of him (Carter Hart).” The Flyers are now 8-4-3 on the season.
NEXT UP: Flyers will host the 6-7-3 New York Rangers on Wednesday, February 24th at 7:00pm EST on NBCSN and NBC Sports Philadelphia.
