Philly Sports Jabronis
By Dan Rosen, Flyers.com
The Philadelphia Flyers look nothing like the team that was blown out by the Washington Capitals 19 days ago. Instead they’re looking like a team that should be in the thick of the Stanley Cup Playoff race for the rest of the season.
The Flyers extended their season-high points streak to five games Tuesday with a 5-2 win against the Ottawa Senators at Wells Fargo Center. The Flyers are 4-0-1 in their past five games and 5-1-2 since the Capitals left Wells Fargo Center with a 7-0 win Nov. 1.
Flyers captain Claude Giroux scored his second goal of the season, Sean Couturier and Kimmo Timonen each scored his first, Wayne Simmonds netted his third, and Adam Hall added an empty-net goal to provide the offense. Steve Mason made it hold up by making 32 saves for his sixth win.
The Flyers (8-10-2) have two games left on their homestand and can get to .500 if they win against the Buffalo Sabres and New York Islanders.
The Senators continue to struggle to find consistency. They lost their second in a row and third in four games, a sour stretch that comes after a five-game point streak (3-0-2).
Ottawa scored power play goals by Clarke MacArthur and Kyle Turris but gave up 42 shots on goal. Robin Lehner made 37 saves.
Turris had a chance to make it 4-3 with 5:06 left, when he was awarded a penalty shot after being hauled down by Timonen on a shorthanded breakaway. Mason made a right pad save to preserve the Flyers’ two-goal lead.
Turris, whose power-play goal tied the game 2-2 with 16:48 to play, also had a great chance to give the Senators the lead with 10:30 to go when he had the puck on his stick at the top of the crease and what appeared to be an open net in front of him. However, Flyers defenseman Nicklas Grossmann got in the way and used his skates to block Turris’ shot.
The puck deflected off of Grossmann’s left skate then glanced off his right skate before going out clear of the left post. The referee standing behind the net immediately waved it off, ruling it no goal. Video review was inconclusive in determining whether the shot completely crossed the goal line, so the call on the ice stood.
Timonen joined Couturier as Flyers who scored their first goal of the season when he gave Philadelphia a 3-2 lead with 8:30 to play in the third period. Timonen, who previously scored April 16, snapped a 21-game goalless drought; he walked down the goal line on the left side and used his backhand to beat Lehner through the five-hole.
Twenty-three seconds later, Simmonds made it 4-2 when his shot from the high slot went in over Lehner’s left pad.
Turris tied the game at 2-2 with his fifth goal of the season 3:12 into the third period. It came 10 seconds after Zac Rinaldo went to the penalty box for hooking Zack Smith. Marc Methot’s shot from the left point banged off the end boards and came back into the slot. The puck eluded Bobby Ryan, but Turris used his backhand to swipe it past Mason, who was lying on his back. Mason was not in the crease because Ryan had dangled his way in near the right post to draw him out.
MacArthur cut into the Flyers 2-0 lead with his power-play goal at the 8:13 of the second period.
Philadelphia also gave up two power-play goals in its 3-2 shootout loss at the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday. The Flyers have allowed five power-play goals in the past three games after giving up one in the previous five.
The Flyers held on to the 2-1 lead because Mason came up with a masterful save on MacArthur with 31.2 seconds left in the second period. Ryan whipped a backhanded pass from the left circle to MacArthur, who was in the slot and a few feet out from the right post. MacArthur used his backhand to redirect the pass on net, but Mason came across the blue paint to make the highlight-reel save. It was his 24th save of the game.
The Flyers had a 2-0 lead on goals by Giroux and Couturier. Giroux scored on the power play with 2:16 to go in the first period, and Couturier scored his first goal since April 15 (25 games) at 5:18 of the second.
Giroux’s goal came off a near-side shot from the left circle thanks to a pretty, tape-to-tape seam pass by Jakub Voracek, who collected the rebound of Timonen’s point shot in the right circle and wheeled it across to Giroux. Lehner was stuck on the left post and couldn’t get over in time to stop Giroux’s shot.
Couturier broke his scoring slump and made it 2-0 when his shot from the corner near the Zamboni entrance found a hole between Lehner’s right pad and the left post. The puck had crossed the goal line in the corner before Couturier shot it.
