Prior to puck drop last night, the Washington Capitals had a 3-0 series lead against the Philadelphia Flyers.
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Philadelphia started the second with complete dominance, having four shots on goal, one wide of net, and three out of three faceoff wins, before the Capitals could even take a shot.
“That was one of the reasons we won the game, ” he said. A two-day break in the schedule gave them time to get composed following a game that included a coach’s challenge negating a goal by Aaron Ekblad and an overtime victor by the Islanders’ Thomas Hickey.
Neuvirth made 12 of his 31 saves in the third period, including a key save in tight on a Tom Wilson rebound with 7:50 to play.
Holtby, who saved 91 of 93 shots he faced in Games 1-3, made 23 saves. The team finally has a pulse after three straight losses, all of which just about the same way.
The game was marred by a scary incident that saw Flyers centre Scott Laughton leave on a stretcher. “We feel like we have a pretty good power play; we have two good power-play units. It’s going to be fine, we have a lot of guys that can step in”. “I think it set the tone”. Capitals defenseman John Carlson and Philadelphia Flyers Scott Laughton got tangled and Laughton happened to take the brunt of it. Laughton stumbled and his head and neck slammed into the back boards. “You can see it this morning, he was excited to have the opportunity to get in there”.
No matter how many times they examined it, player for player, skill for skill, the Flyers never changed one belief. “I’m just trying to defend him”.
The Flyers’ other goal also came on a one-timer from a defenseman.
ST. PAUL, Minnesota (AP) ” Jason Spezza scored the go-ahead goal with a deflection off his skate while Ales Hemsky and Patrick Eaves each scored on a second-period power play to give Dallas’ special teams a lift as the Stars defeated the Minnesota Wild to push their series lead to 3-1. Defensively, the Philadelphia Flyers are allowing 2.6 goals per game and are scoring on 80.5 percent of their power play chances. Their discipline was the biggest key coming into the do-or-die game.
“If you’re playing on my line, the third line, the fourth line, you want to step up and do something”, second-line center Logan Couture said.
While the final five minutes of the game were hectic, the Flyers stayed away from taking penalties and that kept things from getting out of hand. They were able to pull it out with a 2-1 win. Indeed, when Gudas entered the dressing room and tried disrupting the interview by hurling his glove at his goaltender, Neuvirth barely noticed.
“Basically just got nicked up a little bit, went off and we’ll see where he is”, Trotz said. “I was just going minute-by-minute”. Initial thought, “Here we go again…”.
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The situation remains bleak, the Flyers readily admit, with White reiterating they are looking at another “one-game showdown”. Meanwhile out west, the Sharks scored all three of their goals on the man advantage. “That’s for sure”, Claude Giroux said.
