It was the Flyers third game in four nights when they took on the Calgary Flames. Looking like a tired team, they couldn’t get much done as they dropped the final game of the road trip by a score of 4-0.
There wasn’t much to write home about in the first period. Both teams looked sluggish, not finding many offensive opportunities. Even a power play for each team didn’t result in much as the Flames had just one shot on theirs and Philadelphia wasn’t able to register their own.
It wasn’t until the last few minutes that we began to see some offensive opportunities. And it all came via the Flames. The Flyers were starting to look like a team that had some tired legs. They’ve been on the road for six days as they left for Edmonton on Monday. A few days there, followed by Vancouver, and now to Alberta, it’s been a bit of traveling for Philadelphia.
The Flyers were only able to register three shots in the final 10 minutes of the period, and only had four total after 20 minutes of play. Calgary doubled them up with eight shots and kept that momentum going into the second period.
An intermission break didn’t seem to help the Flyers at all as it turned into an onslaught of opportunities for the Flames. Carter Hart, playing with a fair amount of confidence, was seeing pucks left and right. And he was stopping them all as the shots kept on coming. On their third power play of the night, the Flames finally cashed in. Rasmus Ristolainen, who has taken a penalty in four of his five games, was sent to the box for interfering with Matthew Tkachuk.
Sean Monahan, who came into the evening looking for his first goal of the season, was able to deflect a puck past Hart. It was a nice passing play that saw Elias Lindholm sliding it over to Rasmus Andersson near the top of the zone. He skated in towards the right faceoff dot and sent a pass over that would be tipped in by Monahan.
Up until the 13 minute mark of the period, Calgary had the first 14 shots of the period. It was Zack MacEwen who finally gave Philadelphia their first shot of the period, and fifth of the game. A power play shortly thereafter wasn’t able to get the Flyers going either as they registered just a single shot. And they had to defend a shorthanded opportunity as well.
The Flyers did start to get their legs going towards the end of the period as they fired a few shots in on Jacob Markstrom, who has been hot in his last few games. They ended the period firing just five shots on net, with the Flames adding 16 of their own. Hart was doing everything he could to keep Philadelphia in this one. It was their turn to pay him back for his efforts.
We didn’t have to wait over half of the period for the Flyers to put a shot on net. Though, it did take them almost four minutes to register one. Regardless, it didn’t get any better in the third period. There was just no offensive flow or momentum to Philadelphia’s game. And Hart could only keep them down by one goal for so long. After Zack MacEwen took a penalty in the offensive zone, it didn’t take the Flames long to make him pay.
After a turnover by Justin Braun in the zone, it was a quick tick-tack-toe play that ended with a Tkachuk power play goal. Hart had no chance as the Flames whipped the puck around the zone in a matter of seconds.
Down by two goals, the Flyers finally seemed to kick things into gear. Their best opportunity of the game came midway through the period as Sean Couturier and Travis Konecny came in on a two-on-one. However, Markstrom continued his strong play and shut the door.
Alain Vigneault tried to switch some things around, moving Keith Yandle up to the top pairing at one point to try and get some offense from his backend. The Flyers were able to get under the skin of Tkachuk as they went to an all important power play to generate momentum. They spent a lot of time in the zone but couldn’t get that all important goal.
Emptying the net with 4:43 to go was the obvious choice for the Flyers as they trailed by two goals. It didn’t pay off as Mikael Backlund iced things with the empty netter less than a minute later. At this point, it was about trying to end Markstrom shutout streak. Johnny Gaudreau added a fourth goal with two minutes to make things go from bad to worse.
It was the second shutout in a row from Markstrom who hasn’t give up a goal in 134:35 and has three shutouts in his last four games. The Flyers will head back home and have a few days off before they’ll welcome back Shayne Gostisbehere when they take on the Coyotes on Tuesday.