Flyers Hurricanes Game 3 in Philadelphia. This pivotal game had such huge implications for the young upstart Flyers. As the puck dropped in Philly everything about this 2nd round series was about to change.
Philly vs Carolina
The Flyers came surging out of the gate creating dangerous chances and putting Carolina goaltender Frederik Andersen right to work.
Konecny, Martone, Grundstrom, York, and Foerster all coming within inches of opening the score sheet. Once the Hurricanes finally got a turn with the puck Dan Vladar confidentially turned their chances aside.
The Flyers got their 1st power-play of the game and it immediately turned the faucet off. They did not register a shot on goal, or an attempted shot for that matter.
With 2:33 left in the 1st period and Shayne Gostisbehere quarterbacking the Canes power-play Jordan Staal picked up a fortunate rebound off the backboards and quickly put the puck through Vladar and into the net.
The Flyers bounced back and resumed their attack. Andersen made another huge stop on Martone. Slavin pulled a Rasmus Ristolainen shot off of the goal line.
Just 2:31 into the Second period on a delayed penalty call Trevor Zegras sniped a sharp angle rebound up and over the glove of the Carolina netminder. Martone fired the initial shot that made it all come together. The home town crowd raised the roof.
Porter Martone has returned to the offensive confidence that marked his debut. This needs to be his regular setting. He was consistently dangerous in this game and should never find a reason to hold back.
Bump accidentally rolled the Carolina netminder then seconds later Martone set him up with the puck right on the doorstep. Bump stayed cool and made a crafty attempt. Anderson answered with his most dynamic save of the game.
Falling Apart
What had started out as a beautiful and exciting period of hockey started to unravel in the final five minutes of play.
Taylor Hall crunched a falling Travis Sanheim’s head into the boards, popping his helmet off, and taking him down to the ice. The Flyers showed great restraint.
A five minute major was called and then sent for review. The call was downgraded to a two minute minor. Things continued to degrade.
Eleven seconds into the Flyers power-play Carolina scored shorthanded. Drysdale got poked on a pinch at the blue line leading to a 2-on-1 break in the other direction. A fantastic opportunity for the Flyers turned into a 2-1 Hurricanes lead.
Moments later Seth Jarvis took an intentional swing at Travis Konecny with his stick making full contact. The blade caught Konecny directly in the face. A two minute minor was assessed. Not that the Flyers were producing on the power-plays but the game was getting out of hand and part of that was the leniency being shown by the on ice officials.
A collection of creative calls led to variations of non 5-on-5 hockey throughout the rest of the 2nd period and into the 3rd. The Flyers went 0-for-5 with the man advantage. Luckily the Hurricanes only went 2-for-9.
There was a haunting sequence in this game where the Flyers were having much difficulty entering the Carolina zone with a two man advantage. The Flyers worst in the NHL power-play was eventually going to take it’s toll on the team’s ability to compete at the higher levels.
Carolina scored on the power-play 3:52 into the 3rd period. Then again three minutes later. This game had quickly slipped away from the Flyers. Down 4-1 with just minutes to go in this contest the Flyers who had been restrained in their retaliations all night long eventually began to allow their anger and frustration to vent.
More penalties kept the pace choppy and the game out of reach for the Flyers. They had put forth a valiant effort but now things were pulling apart rapidly. With 25.2 remaining on the clock a stream of orange jerseys were being sent up the tunnel as scrums erupted all over the ice. At one point Shayne Gostisbehere was attempting to fight Rasmus Ristolainen. Again with one eye on the ref the entire time.
The Flyers were losing their discipline to passion and frustration. The Hurricanes continued their bazar soccer-style performative communications with the officials throughout.
Everyone knew this game would have huge implications going in. Either the Flyers would fully enter this series by cutting the Canes lead in half. Or they would go down three games to none digging themselves a hole that not many before them have successfully dug their way out of.
The Flyers stand just one loss away from elimination. With the type of team that they have proved themselves to be this season it should be interesting to see how they handle this challenge.
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