In our preview, we hoped we'd be spared a shootout tonight in Colorado. The Avalanche have fared well in the trick-shot competition, and we all know the Flyers' history in it. Well, like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, we probably should have just kept it out of mind, because there it came, stomping down buildings along the way.
But, also like Mr. Stay-Puft, the shootout was actually kind of awesome, even though the Flyers lost. Regular readers of the site know I'm not a big fan of ending a game in shootout, and I'm not going to rehash those reasons here. Tonight, it felt like a fitting way to end a close but somewhat unremarkable 3-2 game, and the goals weren't hard to look at.
Notes and video of the action below.
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Scott Hartnell got back on his goal-scoring track, netting his 16th of the season and seventh on the power play late in the first. With the Avalanche down Gabriel Landeskog for 4 minutes, the Flyers worked the passing lanes well and found open man after open man, culminating in Jake Voracek sliding a pass across the crease to Hartnell for the dunk.
The Flyers had yet to lose a game they'd been leading after the first period this season. That streak is over, due almost entirely to a poor effort in the second period. They were great in the first period, then flat in the second. The Hartnell-Briere-Jagr line had some trouble getting going in particular.
Landeskog would get his revenge, scoring the first of two Colorado goals in the period. TJ Galiardi had the other, although it was a total fluke play. Brad Malone appeared to be trying to get the puck back to the point, but it hit Tom Sestito's skate, then deflecting into traffic in front of the net and bouncing in.
The Flyers had some good fight in them for the third, but they couldn't crack JS Giguere until there were just 18.1 seconds left on the clock. With a flurry around the net, Briere emerged from his office behind it and slammed the puck in. At least, it appeared to everyone watching the telecast that he did. The official scoring still has Wayne Simmonds credited with the goal as of this posting. Simmer was once again ready to hammer away on the doorstep.
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After a scoreless OT (much of which was played with the teams skating three a side), the shootout came. The outcome of this one might have been the same if neither goalie had taken the striped ice. All three Avalanche shooters beat Bryzgalov, and the first two Flyers (Briere and JVR) beat Giguere. But Matt Read narrowly missed the equalizer, putting a real nice attempt on net, but catching iron like a young Gordon Bombay.
Yeah, but a quarter inch the other way and he'd have missed completely…
Aside from the lapse on the first goal, the Flyers played some solid defense in this one. Hard to find anyone in white and orange to blame for the second, and the shootout, well, yeah, you'd like to see Bryz come up with at least one.
Overall, the shootout goals were all pretty nasty though. JVR scored on his first ever attempt, and it was a beaut, Clark.
How about this play from Braydon Coburn?
Harry Z tried to check Galiardi, missed, and went face-first into the boards. Wasn't pretty, but he seems to have been OK.
The Flyers are now a dismal 19-36 in shootouts…
Video Highlights, sadly including only the final goal of the shootout (we'll see if we can get the rest):