Flyers Squander 2-Goal Lead in Loss to Ducks

By Adam Kimelman, Flyers.com

Growing up in Montvale, N.J., Kyle Palmieri made numerous trips south to Philadelphia during his minor hockey days.

He made his first trip to town as a professional a successful one.

Palmieri scored the tying and winning goals to help the Ducks rally for a 3-2 win Tuesday against the Philadelphia Flyers.

“I grew up playing against the Philadelphia Junior Flyers and felt like I was down here a lot during my youth career,” he said. “They were definitely one of our biggest rivals. It was always a tough game. So, it was pretty cool to come here and play the big club like that.”

Andrew Cogliano had a goal and Jonas Hiller made 26 saves for the Ducks, who won their third straight game and improved to 3-2 on their eight-game road trip.

The win did come at a cost, however, as the team lost forward Teemu Selanne early in the third period when he was hit in the mouth by the stick of Flyers defenseman Luke Schenn.

Schenn was leaping to avoid a check by the Ducks’ Bryan Allen when he accidentally struck Selanne in the face. A Ducks official said Selanne lost teeth and needed stitches to close a cut in his mouth. There was no word on how long he may be out; the Ducks next play Thursday at the Boston Bruins.

Matt Read and Vincent Lecavalier scored for the Flyers. Wayne Simmonds had two assists and Steve Mason stopped 34 shots as Philadelphia saw its two-game win streak ended.

The Flyers were coming off their best effort of the season, a 5-2 win against the New York Islanders on Saturday, and carried that into the first period against Anaheim, when they jumped out to a 2-0 lead.

However, the Ducks continued to chip away, getting Cogliano’s goal with 3:35 left in the second to start the rally. Ryan Getzlaf skated the puck into the Philadelphia end and fired a shot from the left side that missed the net. The rebound came out to Cogliano on the right side, and he one-timed it into the net before Mason could get over.

“They were really ready,” Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said of the Flyers. “They came out and they skated … everything that we wanted to do in the first period, they did to us. We were sitting back in awe of them almost. And then it’s like after the first period we realized they were human and if we just do what we do as well as we do it, that we might have a chance.”

They had more than a chance when Palmieri blocked a Lecavalier shot at the Anaheim blue line, tipped the puck past Lecavalier and broke in alone on Mason. He deked to open Mason’s pads before sliding the puck along the ice through the goalie’s five-hole at 1:01 of the third.

“I was just trying to take away his time and space up there,” Palmieri said. “Obviously, it was kind of a weird play … the puck took a nice bounce for me, and I was able to get off to the races.”

Then Palmieri capped the comeback after an outstanding play by Ducks defenseman Sami Vatanen to hold off Lecavalier and Mark Streit to keep a puck in the Philadelphia end. Palmieri jumped on the loose puck and created a short 2-on-1 with Nick Bonino. Bonino got the puck in the high slot and gave it back to Palmieri as he drove to the net to redirect the puck behind Mason with 4:09 left in the third.

It was Palmieri’s first multi-point game of the season, giving him three points in the past two games. That came after he had one goal and one assist in his first eight games and was a healthy scratch Oct. 24 at the Montreal Canadiens, the second game of the team’s current trip.

“I think during the Columbus game (Oct. 27) I started feeling better about my game,” Palmieri said. “There were a couple things I needed to do to get myself back into it. It was a slow start, but it takes a couple games to get yourself back into it. Just go from there.”

“Palmieri was due,” Boudreau said. “You could see it breaking a little bit. He got an assist last game, and he was starting to get more involved. When he gets involved, good things happen. He was involved, and then shots start opening up and chances because he’s a great skater. Those things happen for him.”

It wasn’t happening for the Flyers, especially in the third period when they were outshot 16-6. They’ve either been tied or ahead entering the third period in eight of 11 games, but they’ve been outscored 14-5 in the final 20 minutes of games this season.

“We stopped moving our feet and started watching the puck,” Flyers captain Claude Giroux said. “In the first period, I think we did a good job of skating and getting our feet going, but in the third period, we were puck-watching, and you can’t do that against a good team like the Ducks.”

The Flyers thought maybe they had moved beyond that aspect of their game when they outscored the Islanders 2-0 in the final period Saturday, but the Ducks proved that wasn’t the case.

“I thought maybe we were past that, but we weren’t [Tuesday] obviously,” Flyers coach Craig Berube said. “We didn’t do much in the third until the power play and we got the goalie out. … It wasn’t a good period, and it’s something we’ll definitely have to work on, but you can’t be that sloppy with the puck and expect to win.”

The Flyers started the game strong, getting Read’s third goal in as many games 3:40 into the first period.

Nicklas Grossman dumped the puck behind the Anaheim net for Wayne Simmonds. As two Ducks defenders converged on Simmonds, he found an open Read next to the left post. Hiller got his right pad on Read’s first attempt, but Read lifted the rebound over Hiller.

They extended the lead to 2-0 with 3:26 left in the first period on Lecavalier’s fifth goal of the season. With the Flyers on their first power play of the game, Giroux held the puck along the wall on the left side of the Anaheim zone. He snapped a pass across the zone to Lecavalier alone in the right circle, and he ripped a one-timer past Hiller for his fourth goal in two games.

That was as good as it would get for Philadelphia.

The Ducks move on with their road trip, one that has seen them improve to 5-3-0 away from Honda Center. And with stops this week at the Bruins and Buffalo Sabres, Boudreau said his team leaves Philadelphia with a good mindset.

“It makes it easier when you start the week off well,” he said. “Because if you don’t, then the pressure mounts that you’re on a long trip, you have to press to win, so you get ahead of the game. Our goals are always weekly goals; we want to win the week. This would be a three-game week, so it’s a good start.”