Instant reactions: Trevor Zegras leads impressive first, but Flyers can’t end losing streak to Hurricanes

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The Philadelphia Flyers played a tremendous first 25 minutes of the game, highlighted by Trevor Zegras picking up his 12th goal and 18th assist of the season to give the Orange & Black a 2-0 lead at the first intermission.

Bobby Brink also get a measure of revenge for his disallowed OT goal in Carolina back on October, netting his eighth goal of the season to open the scoring.

But after an aggressive start the second period for the Flyers, Ty Murchison, Emil Andrea and really every Flyer wilted under the pressure of Carolina’s forecheck, leading to a string of turnovers that allowed Nikolaj Ehlers and Alexander Nikishin to tie the game in what was a dominant middle frame for the Canes.

The teams traded goals in the third, and Sam Ersson was huge in overtime, but finally got beat in the shootout by Jackson Blake after Zegras, Matvei Michkov, Travis Konecny and Bobby Brink all failed to beat Pytor Kochetkov in the skills competition. Big let down for the Flyers, who end a six-game homestand 2-2-2, and now have to go to Carolina and do it all over again tomorrow evening.

First period

In the opening 90 seconds of the game, Trevor Zegras turns the puck over to Sean Walker as he exited the defeinsive zone, and Walker caught the Flyers in a line change with a lead pass to Seth Jarvis to send Jarvis on a mini-breakaway against Sam Ersson, but luckily the backhand bid went high. Not the most heads-up start to the game.

Speaking of a lack of thinking, Matvei Michkov is headed to the box for tripping Walker less than four minutes in. The kid has to stop with the minor penalties, especially the stick penalties. If you’re going to put the team at a disadvantage, at least get your money’s worth.

Sean Couturier creates a turnover at the blueline and gets a 2-on-0 with Carl Grundstrom, but when he made a move and then sent a late pass basically across the crease to Grundstrom, who was pretty much on the left post, it was obvious they weren’t going to get their first shorthanded goal of the season. The Hurricanes got a few chances that Ersson was up to, and Philly gets the kill against Carolina’s struggling power play.

BOBBY BRINK GETS REDEMPTION FOR THE DISALLOWED GOAL IN CAROLINA! 1-0 FLYERS! As the first period reached its midpoint, Trevor Zegras carried the puck through the neutral zone and over the blue line, dropping it for Brink as he cut to center, allowing Brink to cut into the high slot, and rip a wrister moving left to right, beating Pytor Kochetkov on his glove side.

The Flyers are really piling on the chances against the Hurricanes right now. The shot total isn’t reflecting Philly’s recent possession, but this feels good against a Carolina team that has won eight straight in Philadelphia. With just under six minutes left, shots are 5-5.

Really solid defensive play by Noah Juulsen to

TREVOR ZEGRAS PUTS THE FLYERS UP 2-0! Thursday’s goat, Travis Konecny, handled the puck below the goal line and made a backhand feed to a cutting Zegras in front, and Ziggy buried it from in tight. I’m having fun watching a Flyers/Hurricanes game, I can’t believe it!

Ty Murchison makes a great sliding breakup of a Shayne Gostisbehere centering pass that would have likely resulted in a scoring chance with about 1:15 left. Murchison made a similar sliding breakup on the earlier PK. In his first NHL action, Murchison is really making a case for himself.

After 20 minutes the Flyers find themselves in a fairly unfamiliar position, leading by two goals, and they’re even outshooting the notoriously stingy Canes, 7-5. Carolina’s four wins when trailing after the first period is the third most in the NHL, but they’re 4-5-2 overall in these situations. The Flyers are 6-0-1 when leading after twenty.

Second period

Philadelphia came out aggressively to start the first period, with Owen Tippett getting a wraparound chance on his backhand after skatingh around Sebastian Aho. Michkov may have had a chance to bang it home on the doorstep but on replay it looks like the puck slid off Tippett’s stick before it got into the crease. Travis Sanheim got a pass in the left wing circle seconds later, but he took half-a-second too long to let the shot go and it got blocked. I like that they’re not sitting back with the lead. There’s still a lot of time left, obviously, but playing with, maintaining, and building on leads is something this team needs to learn.

The pace is wide open right now, and the Flyers are piling up shots and chances. Zegras and Konecny have had a few rush opportunities, and Noah Cates got a shot in the slot that Kochetkov stopped for his sixth save of the period. Seven minutes in, shots in the period are 6-2 Flyers, but this much more loose play style is probably making Rick Tocchet a little uncomfortable.

Zegras has been very good tonight. A couple points in the first, creating by carrying the puck, gaining the zone, and getting to dangerous areas.

The Canes are building so momentum and getting their forecheck going, but so far Ersson has made every stop he’s needed to, and a few have been high-danger. He’s 7/7 after 28 1/2 minutes.

Well, the eighth shot beats Ersson after a Murchison cross-ice pass in the neutral zone is intercepted by Shayne Gostisbehere who then fed Nikolaj Ehlers for the goal. Philly needs to slow this down and spend some time doing something other than defending, as they’ve been for the last five minutes or so. Really, they need to start with

Emil Andrae, with about eight minutes left, attempted a D-to-D pass with a forechecker bearing down on him amidst a very long shift, and, Jackson Blake picked it off easily and got a backhand chance on Ersson, but Philly’s netminder made the stop. These turnovers are getting out of control.

The Flyers haven’t recorded a shot in nearly ten minutes, and now the Canes have tied it. Alexander Nikishin throws a puck into traffic in front which catches Cates on the skate and deflects directly into the net. That was unfortunate, but it was building for a while. Carolina has been smothering since the first five minutes of the period. The Orange & Black badly need intermission, but there’s still 4:33 left in the period.

TK gets the opportunity to take the puck into what is probably a fairly clean Carolina zone, Philly’s first SOG in quite some time, and now we’re under four minutes to go.

OK, they’re responding a little bit, and have now drawn an icing. This is a chance to get a little attack time. But the Canes are able to break out and now the Flyers have another D-zone draw a puck deflects into the crowd. Now Zegras plays the puck out of play cleanly and he’s going to the box for delay of game. Carolina’s power play is not good, but this is the last thing they needed. Or hey, maybe it’s a chance to get a kill and use that to build some momentum. I’m trying this positivity thing for now.

The Canes got one more chance as the penalty was expiring, but Ersson stopped Stankoven’s bid from the bumper and the Flyers get the kill. Very important kill, but the Canes are remaining on the attack in the final minute of the stanza. But hey, they ice it and Philly will have an o-zone faceoff with 10.5 seconds left. The Flyers win the draw and get one bad angle shot towards Kochetkov but nothing more.

The score is knotted at two after 40 minutes, and despite the Carolina onslaught, Philadelphia is still ahead in shots, 9-8 for the period and 16-13 overall. There is going to need to be a big reset at intermission if the Flyers are going to finish the homestand with a winning record (currently 2-2-1), and defeat the Canes in South Philly for the first time since a week before Covid shut down the 2020 season.

Third period

Brink got an early chance to put the Flyers back in the lead on a feed from down low but he lifted the puck a tad too much and found the crossbar. Not cashing in on early period chances in the second and now here have been a storyline. This could be a much different game, even with Carolina’s dominant 15 minutes in the second.

Not a ton has happened in the first five minutes, with each team registering one SOG a piece.

These are the two of the five best shot suppression teams and two of the top-ten in goals allowed, so it’s not surprising to see a tight third. With 12:50 left shots are 17-15 in favor of the Flyers, and we’re still tied at two. Shot attempts, however, are 51-27 for Carolina.

The Canes are starting to get their forecheck going once again, and the Flyers are helping them with failed breakouts even when the pressure isn’t intense. The entries are also much less effective now, as Philly is just doing what it can to get the puck out of their end and chip pucks into the offensive zone, to mostly no effect. Very little room for the Flyers to create on offense when they do happen to have the puck.

Seth Jarvis puts Carolina ahead with 7:34 left. Jarvis got a lead pass from and deked Ersson out to stuff one on the forehand BUT ON THE NEXT SHIFT CARL GRUNDSTROM RE-TIES IT! A failed pinch at the Flyers line allowed Rodrigo Abols to poke the puck ahead to Grundy and create a 2-on-1, and the recently recalled Grundstrom snapped it over Kochetkov’s glove. 3-3!

It seemed in the final few minutes each team was content to get a point and resolve the game after regulation, but a little bit of sloppy play allowed a few chances for Carolina, and then Michkov iced the puck, setting up a tense D-zone draw, but the Flyers were able to survive thanks to a Michkov block.

With under 10 seconds left Carolina got one more chance but didn’t convert and now we get OT! AGAIN!

Overtime

Will Michkov play? After floating to center on the sequence that allowed Carolina a late chance, I’ll be surprised if Tocchet rewards him with a 3v3 shift despite still having scored triple the number of OT winners than any of his teammates since last season.

The Canes are 4-1 in the 3v3, Philly is 2-4.

Jarvis nearly ended it, driving to the net with a man all over him, but Sanheim checked his stick and Jarvis’ one-handed bid went wide. Phew!

Michkov got a shift with Tippett and fired a pass into Tippett’s skates that allowed Carolina to regain possession. A Tippett turnover in the D-zone resulted in another chance and more possession for the Canes. Not a ringing endorsement for the pair of wingers. After a regroup and some high-zone cycling/drop-pass puck movement, Gostisbehere got an open look but Ersson swallowed it up. Sean Couturier needs to win this draw, and does. but Sanheim turns it over allowing Jarvis another highlight possibility, but the Flyers survive.

The Flyers get a 2-on-1 with TK and Zegras, and despite a little mishandling he gets it across to Zegras, but Zegras shanks the bouncing puck with 30 seconds lieft. Dammit! That would’ve been sweet. ERSSON STONES JORDAN STAAL WITH FIVE SECONDS LEFT! To the shootout we go!

Shootout

Zegras: STOPPED! OH NO!

Jarvis: Save.

Michkov: Save (poke-check).

Svechnikov: Miss.

Konecny: Save.

Aho: Miss.

Brink: Save (poke-check).

Blake: Goal.

Canes win, their ninth straight in Philadelphia. BOOOOO!

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