Claude Giroux scores twice, but Flyers fall in the shootout

It was Andrei Vasilevskiy against Carter Hart, one arguably the best goaltender in the NHL and the other playing like one of the best. This was going to be a great matchup between the two. Aside from that, both the Flyers and Tampa Bay have been playing at about the same level to start the season. Philadelphia came in at 8-4-2 while the Lightning were 8-3-3.

The opening period was all about quality over quantity as Tampa wasn’t afraid to throw whatever they could on the net. But they didn’t generate too many dangerous chances as Hart didn’t have too much trouble stopping all 13 shots he faced. And while the Flyers only put five shots in on Vasilevskiy, they connected on two of them.

Claude Giroux kicked things off with his sixth goal of the season, tied for the team lead with Cam Atkinson. The veteran forward put the moves on the Lightning goaltender, going backhand to forehand and just past the outstretched pad to put the Flyers on the board.

Midway through the period, Travis Konecny decided to get in on the scoring as well. Coming in on a 2-on-1 with Oskar Lindblom, Konecny decided to take this one himself. He put it far side, giving the Flyers a 2-0 lead against a goaltender who doesn’t tend to give up that many goals. From a territorial look, Tampa Bay clearly controlled the pace of play as the first period went on. It made Philadelphia’s first-period lead even more impressive.

It was going to be tough to keep the Lightning off the board altogether, though. After killing off the remainder of a Rasmus Ristolainen penalty, the Flyers went right back on the kill after Justin Braun was called for tripping. Tampa had generated a large amount of momentum towards the end of the first power play.

And as Giroux said before, when you don’t score on the man advantage, it’s important to at least generate that momentum. Well, how about doing both? It took the Lightning just 22 seconds to get their first of the night as Brayden Point fluttered a shot on net that Hart couldn’t quite get all of.

Tampa took advantage of another miscue by Braun later on in the period as Mathieu Joseph bounced on a puck and barely squeaked it by the outstretched skate of Hart. Braun tried to deflect the original shot by Alex Killorn away. However, the puck seemed to die on the ice after that, allowing Joseph to take advantage.

A penalty kill later on in the period seemed to turn the tides for Philadelphia as they started hounding Vasilevskiy. They even had two shorthanded opportunities as their penalty kill generated better chances than their own power play.  But the Tampa netminder didn’t allow them to grab the lead back, setting up a huge third period.

It was mostly all Philadelphia in the final frame as they tried to push for the go-ahead goal. But it was Tampa who, momentarily, put the dagger in the Flyers back with just under two minutes remaining in the third. Steven Stamkos, from a bad angle, threw a shot in that snuck under the pad of Hart.

“I wouldn’t play that any different. It was just kind of an equipment malfunction there. I’m on my post, I’m not leaning over too far. I mean, those pads I’ve used four times so pretty new. You expect that from older sets. Just kind of fluky and something I’ll look into with my gear.”

This was looking like a heartbreaker as that was only Tampa’s third shot of the period so Philadelphia had been doing a strong job of keeping them from getting scoring opportunities. Giroux decided he wasn’t going to let this one end that way, though. With 10 seconds remaining, Brassard won a clean faceoff and Giroux was able to fire it from behind the dot and sneak it through all the bodies in front.

And with that, an entertaining overtime period took place that saw each team with numerous amounts of opportunities to score. Victor Hedman had his own breakaway opportunity that he ended up missing the net on. Almost immediately following that, the Flyers’ best chance came when Scott Laughton rang one off the post.

And after one of the most entertaining overtime periods, it was off to the dreaded skills competition. Sean Couturier and Claude Giroux were unable to find the back of the net while both Steven Stamkos and Brayden Point did, giving Tampa the extra point in this one.

A point lost or a point gained? You could look at it either way. While Philadelphia did surrender a 2-0 lead, they fought until the very end to get it past regulation. It won’t get any easier for them as they welcome in the Boston Bruins on Saturday evening.