Philly Sports Jabronis
Report From Philadelphia Flyers
* Wayne Simmonds recorded his 16th career multi-goal game and third this season – All but two of those 16 games have come with the Flyers. Simmonds finished the night with seven shots on goal to go along with four hits.
* Jake Voracek got back on the scoring sheet with an assist and is now tied with Sidney Crosby for the NHL’s scoring lead – Both players have nine goals and 24 assists for 33 points.
* Claude Giroux recorded six shots and in doing so pulled within one of Alex Ovechkin for the league lead in shots.
* Scott Laughton now has a two-game scoring streak after posting an assist for the second consecutive night.
* The eight combined shots in the first period were the fewest in a period during a Flyers game since March 15, 2013 when the Flyers (3) and New Jersey (5) combined for eight shots in the third period of a 2-1 Flyers shootout win at the Wells Fargo Center.
* The Flyers lost their ninth consecutive shootout, including four this year and the last five of last season… Their last shootout win came on Dec. 30, 2013 at VAN… The Flyers lost both contests to the Ducks this season in a shootout.
* The Flyers have gone six consecutive games without a win (0-4-2) for the first time since Oct. 11-22, 2008, which were the first six games of the 2008-09 season (they were 0-3-3 in that stretch).
GAME RECAP
ANAHEIM – Corey Perry swooped in from the right side and used his shootout prowess to end a roller-coaster game at Honda Center.
Perry scored the deciding goal in the second round of the shootout and goalieFrederik Andersen stopped two of three attempts in the tiebreaker to help the Anaheim Ducks beat the Philadelphia Flyers 5-4 Wednesday night.
Perry beat Flyers goalie Steve Mason to the blocker side before Andersen stopped Flyers captain Claude Giroux to end the game.
Perry’s quick wrist shot was his Plan B.
“I faked a shot and he didn’t bite, so I knew I had him right away,” said Perry, who improved to 27-for-73 in career shootout attempts. “If I faked a shot and then shoot it right after, he doesn’t have time to react. That’s just one of the reads I have to make as a player going in.”
Andersen also stopped Sean Couturier to start the tiebreaker and made 31 saves through 65 minutes in his 13th straight start. He stopped Matt Read on a breakaway and made a glove save on Wayne Simmonds in overtime.
“He’s back there to help us out and he’s been making some big saves at crucial times,” Perry said. “Those are big-game savers for us, and they’re keeping us alive. That’s why he’s back there. That’s why we trust him.”
Simmonds forced overtime by scoring his second goal of the game with 1.8 seconds left, capping a frantic sequence after the Flyers pulled Mason for an extra attacker. Simmonds got open on the right side in heavy traffic and lay prone on the ice in celebration after scoring his 10th of the season.
But the relief turned to disappointment for Philadelphia, which blew a 3-1 lead and is winless in six straight games (0-5-1), its longest streak since it went 0-3-2 in March and April of 2011. The Flyers are 0-7-2 in their past nine road games, their longest drought since they went 0-7 with two ties in 1999.
“I thought we lost the point tonight,” Philadelphia coach Craig Berube said. “We’re up 3-1. We’ve got to shut the door there. We’ve got to play just smarter hockey in that situation. I thought we let them back in the game with defensive mistakes.”
Anaheim was poised to win in regulation after Patrick Maroon ended Anaheim’s 0-for-19 power play slump by snapping a loose puck past Mason from the left circle with 5:02 remaining before Simmonds took the air out of the building.
Perry’s deciding goal finished a Jekyll-and-Hyde-like game, which was scoreless through the opening 25 minutes before the teams combined for five goals in a 5:29 span of the second period. Anaheim outshot Philadelphia 19-10 in the middle period.
Berube scratched center Vincent Lecavalier and defenseman Michael Del Zotto for a second straight game, and Philadelphia put itself in position for victory with a 3-1 lead midway through the second before Anaheim came alive.
Ducks defenseman Sami Vatanen capped a combined six-goal second period with a great drive to the net and finish to tie the game 3-3 going into second intermission. Vatanen split Simmonds and Scott Laughton, put the puck on net and was open to backhand Maroon’s pass into the right side of the net at 19:06 for his career-high seventh goal.
Vatanen played a superb, high-tempo game and seemingly had the Flyers chasing him around the rink.
“He knows when to go,” Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau said. “He took it upon himself. You always think he’s going to get checked, but he finds a way to wiggle his way through everybody. I hope he doesn’t stop doing that.”
Ryan Getzlaf pulled the Ducks to 3-2 with a wicked bar-down wrist shot on a 2-on-1 at 11:15 of the second to start a comeback that Simmonds thought the Flyers should have managed better.
“I think we’ve got to do a better job when we go up 3-1 there,” Simmonds said. “They came back and they got two quick ones … and they get that power play goal late in the third. We did a good job battling back to even it up but it’s just the little things that make the difference in the game, but the effort was definitely there. It’s been there the past few games. We’ve just got to keep going.”
The Flyers took leads of 1-0, 2-1 and 3-1 on goals by Simmonds, Michael Raffl and R.J. Umberger.
Simmonds opened the scoring on a 2-on-1 wrist shot. Raffl got his first goal since Oct. 30 and Umberger his first since Oct. 22 to end a 17-game drought.
The shot totals were 4-4 after the first period even though there were three power plays. The Flyers put one shot on goal in the first 16:52.
