Philadelphia Flyers shutout 3-0 by Halak, Boston Bruins

The Philadelphia Flyers hit the road to face the Bruins in Boston, looking for their fifth win on the season.

After losing 4-1 to the Avalanche, the Philadelphia Flyers once again found themselves looking to get their record back to an even .500. Their opposition didn’t get any easier, either, as the Flyers headed to Boston to take on the Bruins.

Brian Elliott started in-net opposing Jaroslav Halak. Michal Neuvirth was active for the first time this season after suffering a groin injury in the preseason. Corban Knight entered the lineup for an injured Michael Raffl, and Andrew MacDonald was in for Christian Folin as well.

There wasn’t much happening to begin the first period. The Flyers had a two-to-one shots on goal advantage through seven minutes of play. Claude Giroux and David Pastrnak received offsetting penalties, and the teams played four-on-four hockey for two minutes. Once play returned to five-on-five, Robert Hagg took a slashing penalty and gave the Bruins the first power-ply opportunity of the game.

While Boston had their opportunities, Philadelphia killed off the penalty with some more good penalty killing work from Scott Laughton. Zdeno Chara returned the favor, taking a delay of game penalty late in the first. The Flyers couldn’t take advantage, as there was only five seconds of power-play time remaining after the period ended. The teams were tied in shots-on-goal at the end of the period with seven.

The Bruins started the second period creating a couple of good scoring chances, but Elliott stood tall. After struggling to sustain consistent pressure early in the period, the Flyers had a prime opportunity to score on a Giroux breakaway attempt. Halak said no, and kept the game tied at zero. The Bruins eventually scored the game’s first goal on a slap-shot from Chara. It was Chara’s second goal of the year and assisted by Danton Heinen.

The Flyers took a too many men penalty minutes later, and gave the Bruins their second man advantage of the game. This proved to be costly, as Jake DeBrusk scored with five seconds of power-play time remaining on a deflected shot and gave Boston a 2-0 lead to end the period.

Steve Kampfer and Laughton got into a fight early on in the third that led to the Flyers getting a power-play opportunity out of it. Head coach Dave Hakstol made a change to the top unit, replacing Wayne Simmonds with Nolan Patrick. The Bruins took a tripping penalty with five seconds to go on the minor, giving the Flyers a great chance to get within one. The team could not convert, and were still scoreless in the period.

Travis Konecny, then, took a tripping penalty of his own and gave Boston their third power-play. MacDonald drew an interference penalty during the kill,but it was negated by Laughton trying to get his revenge on Kempfer. The Bruins received an extra power-play after this, but the Flyers killed it off. Right as the penalty ended, Oskar Lindblom made the mistake of playing the puck while he was still in the box, giving Boston a power-play to end the game.

Chara scored an empty netter as Hakstol pulled Elliott to make things even skater wise, and the Bruins won the game 3-0.

This is the second time in ten games that the Flyers have been shutout this season. Their power-play struggled the entire game and went 0-for-3 on the night.

The Flyers are now 4-6-0 on the season, and face the New York Islanders at home on Saturday afternoon.