Philadelphia Flyers Fall To Vancouver Canucks 3-2 In A Shootout

The Philadelphia Flyers began their Western Canadian road trip by taking on the Vancouver Canucks.

Following an impressive 4-0 shutout victory over a Metropolitan Division rival in the New Jersey Devils, the Philadelphia Flyers hoped to earn their third straight win to start the year as they faced the Vancouver Canucks at the Rogers Arena. Carter Hart received the start and opposed Jacob Markstrom in-net. Markstrom entered the game with a 2.38 Goals Against Average and a .922 save percentage, earning his first victory of the year in Vancouver’s last game against the Los Angeles Kings. The Flyers needed Hart to stay in form after registering his first career NHL shutout vs. the Devils, as the Canucks possess plenty of talent on the offensive end of the ice.

Vancouver opened the scoring just five minutes into the contest, as Brock Boeser netted his first goal of the year on a rebound to make it a 1-0 game. Hart made a nice save on the initial shot, but had nearly no chance to get to the rebound chance with how quickly Boeser pounced on the puck. The Flyers were given the games’ first power-play after a tripping penalty from Alexander Edler but couldn’t find the equalizer on the opportunity due in large part to Markstrom robbing Jakub Voracek early on. Vancouver failed to capitalize on a man advantage of their own later on, leaving the score at 1-0 as the first period came to a close.

Philadelphia obtained their second power-play of the contest early in the second, and even though they moved the puck well during the two-minute frame, they couldn’t cash in on a goal. That soon changed as the team kept amounting pressure, as Carsen Twarynski potted his first NHL goal to tie the game at one. The 21-year-old forward absolutely sniped the puck by Markstrom from the right circle, earning every part of his first tally at the NHL level.

The Canucks regained the lead soon after because they’re rude and don’t like fun, thanks to a deflection goal from Tanner Pearson, who I’ll always think is a character on This Is Us. Again, there wasn’t a whole lot Hart could do, as the redirect and traffic in front of the net prevented him from making the save. Both teams traded chances throughout the middle stanza went on, but neither found the back of the net, keeping the score at 2-1 going into the final 20 minutes of regulation.

The Orange and Black came out swinging to begin the third, applying tons of pressure in the Vancouver zone. Markstrom continued to stand his ground, though, making a few tough saves to keep the Flyers from tying things up. Philadelphia eventually figured out the 29-year-old netminder for the second time, knotting the game up at two on a power-play goal from Oskar Lindblom. Travis Konecny made a tremendous pass to set the Swedish forward up, going cross-ice to find him on the left circle. Both of the young forwards also extended their point streaks to three on this play, as they’ve each had tremendous starts to the 2019-20 campaign.

The Flyers were able to force overtime following Lindblom’s tally, and after neither team could score during the five minute period, Vancouver ended up getting the win in a shootout. A shocker, I know. As always, shootouts are bad, and a skills competition shouldn’t decide the outcome of a team-oriented game.

Philadelphia is now 2-0-1 on the year. Next game is Tuesday against the Calgary Flames.