As soon as the buzzer sounded to end the 3-on-3 overtime session, the outcome seemed preordained. It was.
Though a Shayne Gostisbehere goal would tie the contest with less than two minutes remaining, the Philadelphia Flyers failed to capitalize on a power play in the overtime session and eventually fell in a shootout, losing to the Florida Panthers by a score of 5-4. With the point, Philadelphia did move to within two points of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, but were unable to cut the deficit further with an outright win. Roberto Luongo made 22 saves, but stopped both Sam Gagner and Nick Cousins in the shootout to earn the victory. Steve Mason took the loss and stopped 25, but allowed both shootout attempts to get past him.
It was a choppy first period, as both sides did their best to disrupt plays in the neutral zone and keep the other side out of the high-danger areas on the ice. Still, the two teams had their lapses. First, Brandon Manning misplayed a loose puck at the Florida blue line, leading to an odd-man rush for Florida that Reilly Smith would bury to give his club a 1-0 lead. The Flyers got that one back by forcing a rare error from young franchise defenseman Aaron Ekblad. Sam Gagner muscled his way around Ekblad below the red line, creating enough space for him to find a crashing Nick Cousins in front, who directed the pass through Luongo to tie the score.
Little changed in the second period, although there was a bit more action as the Flyers and the Panthers began to extract a bit more value out of their offensive zone time. But scoring chances were again at a premium, and long, drawn-out cycles became the name of the game. Philadelphia able to briefly grab their first lead of the game after Ryan White deflected a Sam Gagner shot past Luongo — the second power play unit’s third goal in their last two games.
But only 18 seconds later, the Flyers’ old friend Jaromir Jagr helped to make their lead short-lived. Jagr entered the offensive zone with speed and warded off defenseman Nick Schultz, before finding teammate Jonathan Huberdeau for the game-tying tally. After two periods, Philadelphia held a slight 20-19 shots on goal advantage, but the scoreboard was all knotted up at 2-2.
The tie would hold for only 88 seconds in the third period before Michael Raffl put the Flyers back in front, tipping an Evgeny Medvedev point shot by Luongo to make the score 3-2. But following the goal, the ice tilted in Florida’s direction. Call it fatigue due to playing in the second game of a back-to-back or merely poor execution, but the Panthers took full control of play. Mason stood tall for a while, but was finally beaten by an Aleksander Barkov power play snipe that tied the game. But Florida didn’t stop there. A little over a minute later, Reilly Smith scored his second of the night on a quick transition rush. Just like that, the Flyers would be forced to pull off a comeback if they even wanted to add one point in the standings.
It was the hometown kid who saved the day for Philadelphia. Gostisbehere, in his first game back in the area where he grew up, wristed a shot from the point at the 18:05 mark of the third period that just caught the edge of Roberto Luongo’s glove before bouncing into the net. It was Gostisbehere’s 15th goal of the season, and considering the state of the playoff race, maybe his most important goal yet. He gave his team yet another golden opportunity in overtime, drawing a penalty just one minute into the extra session. But the Flyers could not capitalize on the 4-on-3 chance, and the game ended with the dreaded shootout.
Questions to Answer:
- Can the Flyers get out to a good start on a back-to-back against a rested Florida team? The first period was relatively even, but Philadelphia did look fatigued late.
- Back-to-back games for Steve Mason due to Neuvirth’s injury. How’s he hold up tonight? He made some tough saves, especially in the third period, but four goals allowed and not one shootout attempt stopped will not have many fans satisfied.
- Tough night for the top-6 last night. Do they bounce back? The Couturier line was dominant on the cycle, and Claude Giroux’s unit certainly had their chances. It’s not like the floodgates opened up, though.
- Any heroics from Shayne Gostisbehere in front of his hometown crowd? Oh my yes.
- Does Jaromir Jagr find a way to set any new records during this game? He finished with two assists and to my eyes, was the best player on the ice for the Panthers. The guy is simply incredible.
Comment of the Night:
“Jagr is Jagr’ing all over everybody”
Is my new go to description of the Panthers in general.
— Hooneriphic
