Evgeni Malkin ejected, Flyers fail to take advantage in 4-2 loss to Penguins
The Flyers had their chances, but the momentum stayed mostly with the Penguins, who started fast and stayed on the front foot throughout the game.
PITTSBURGH — Both the Flyers and the Penguins were on the second night of a back-to-back, but Pittsburgh had an energy boost — the excitement of Kris Letang’s 1,000th game — to power them to a 4-2 win.
While the Flyers had a few chances right off the bat, the Penguins pulled it together and played a first period to make their teammate proud in his historic game. With 15 shots on goal to the Flyers’ seven, the Penguins jumped to a two-goal lead. The first was a fluky goal by Rickard Rakell halfway through the first. The second, also by Rakell, was scored in a more traditional manner — on the Penguins’ power play.
Helped by a host of power plays in the second, the Flyers slowed the Penguins’ momentum and evened the shot count, but they weren’t able to get on the board. Instead, they fell further behind when Bryan Rust scored off a Sidney Crosby pass on the rush.
The Flyers finally ended the shutout in the third when Tony DeAngelo found Nicolas Deslauriers in front of the net, and he beat Casey DeSmith on the blocker side. Travis Konecny made it a one-goal game in the final minutes, but the Penguins’ empty-net goal put it away.
Like he never left
Konecny might have missed a month, but he looked like the Konecny of old. He flew around the ice, battled in front of the net, and chirped in Crosby’s ear.
Konecny had multiple scoring opportunities, and almost all of them were quality chances. He was millimeters away from a goal but got robbed byDeSmith. In the third, he came close again, with a shot from the point on the power play, but hit the post.
Konecny finally got his goal, his 29th of the season, in the final minutes. His teammates and coaches praised his game, but Konecny wasn’t satisfied. While he scored his first since his return, he also took a penalty at the end of the game.
“I’ve been making some bad plays and kind of reading the play a step behind and putting the team in bad spots at times,” Konecny said.
Goalie replay
The goalies had their fair share of work and showed up with highlight-reel saves. Samuel Ersson stopped Jake Guentzel on the rush and came up big on the rebound attempt. DeSmith blocked Konecny’s point-blank shot, then his rebound, then his second rebound.
But what made the goalies stand out were the bizarre moments. Rakell’s first goal was about as fluky as a goal can get. He blasted a one-timer but missed badly. However, the puck ricocheted off the glass so hard it made it back to the goal. Ersson had lost track of it behind him, and it hit off his back into his goal.
“I don’t really know what to say,” Ersson said with a frustrated laugh. “How are you supposed to expect that one when it hit the (glass) like that?”
Konecny almost put the Flyers on the board in the second when Noah Cates hit him with a beautiful pass through the crease. DeSmith reached behind him and got his glove in front of Konecny’s shot, but the force of it pushed it back. However, after a review, it was determined the puck didn’t cross the goal line.
“I thought their goalie quite honestly, even though it’s 3-0, I thought he was the difference in the game,” Tortorella said.
Gift return
Evgeni Malkin alone gifted the Flyers three power plays before being ejected. The Flyers rejected these gifts and did nothing with any of their power plays.
Their first came when Mikael Granlund was called for hooking, but it was cancelled out by York’s embellishment penalty. One of Malkin’s penalties was offset by a Travis Sanheim penalty. But the other three all gave the Flyers the man advantage.
The Flyers created one shot on the first power play and spent the rest of the time passing or chasing the puck. They had one shot on goal and gave up one shot on goal on the second. On the third, they improved to two shots on goal. But on top of not creating shots on goal, the power plays also didn’t create momentum. Once the Penguin came out of the box, they went back to dominating puck possession. The Flyers went 0-for-5 on the power play.
To Tortorella, it came down to finishing. While they didn’t score goals or record a high number of shots on goal, they did create chances. But their inability to do anything with them made the difference.
What’s next
The Flyers had to St. Louis for a game against the Blues on Tuesday.