Philadelphia Flyers Keep Playoff Hopes Alive with Shootout Win vs Toronto

The Philadelphia Flyers hosted the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Wells Fargo Center in hopes of earning their 37th win of the season.

Coming into the game riding a two game losing streak, the Philadelphia Flyers hoped to avoid a third and to keep their slim playoff hopes alive as they took on the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Carter Hart received the start and opposed Frederik Anderson in-net. Anderson had a 2.76 Goals-Against Average with a .917 save percentage entering the matchup. This was a now or never situation for the Flyers and they had to give all they had to keep their small postseason chances alive.

Philadelphia brought pressure early on to start the game, but failed to convert any of the scoring chances created. That eventually came back to bite them, as Connor Brown scored his 7th goal of the year to put Toronto ahead by one. Tyler Ennis set-up Brown beautifully behind the net, giving Hart nearly no chance to make the save. The Leafs would tack on another goal in the form of Nazem Kadri’s 16th tally to take a two goal lead into the second. Sean Couturier turned the puck over in his own zone, quickly resulting into the Kadri goal.

Travis Konecny put his team on the board to start the second, sniping the puck passed Anderson to make it a 2-1 game. This snapped an eight game goal-less drought for Konecny and puts him within one goal of tying his career high. The Flyers kept on pressing in the offensive zone, eventually leading to Radko Gudas’ game-tying tally about halfway through the period. Ryan Hartman provided a nice screen in front of Anderson, allowing Gudas’ shot from the point to find its’ way into the back of the net.

Couturier went on to make up for his turnover in the first, re-directing a Travis Sanheim shot to gift the Flyers a 3-2 lead after 40 minutes of play. This goal broke Coots’ career high in tallies, possessing 32 now on the 2018-19 campaign.

The Maple Leafs tied the game back up in the beginning of the third thanks to Auston Matthews who scored off of a rebound from Hart to make it 3-3. The only thing the young goaltender could’ve done was not give up the rebound attempt, but the shot Matthews took was a tough one, so Hart shouldn’t take a whole lot of the blame.

Shortly after Philadelphia’s first man advantage expired, Hartman put a shot home from the front of the net to give the Flyers a 4-3 lead. Scott Laughton made a nice pass to find Hartman all alone for the goal. William Nylander tied it right back up minutes later off of another Flyer turnover and the two teams needed extra time to settle the 4-4 contest. The Flyers would go on to get the shootout victory in the fifth round, finally defeating Toronto 5-4.

Philadelphia kept their super skinny playoff chances on life support with this win, and honestly, I’ll take it. The team showed a lot of fight in this game, never gave up, and earned the victory because of it. Defense was still an issue, but Hart did just enough to keep Philly afloat in his first shootout win.

The Flyers are now 37-32-8 this year. Next game is Saturday against the Carolina Hurricanes.