The Tampa Bay Lightning came into Philly on Monday night as winners of their last nine games, the second hottest team in the NHL behind Anaheim, and real Stanley Cup contenders. They left with a 4-2 loss.
From a possession standpoint, the Philadelphia Flyers were excellent against a very good possession team in Tampa. With the limitations of the roster, Dave Hakstol and Co. have cobbled together an average possession team but it's not very often that you say, "Man, they really drove play." That is exactly what the Flyers did on Monday night, but they just couldn’t beat Tampa's backup netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy for the first 37 minutes.
Through two periods, the Flyers had 63 shot attempts (31 on net) to 27 for the Lightning (9 on net) and yet the score was only tied at one.
As has been the case of most of the year, Shayne Gostisbehere came to the rescue. He scored one goal on a scramble in front of the net, and then added a power-play tally in the third period on a beautiful one-timer courtesy of Claude Giroux. The rookie defenseman allowed the Flyers to cash in on the ridiculous territorial advantage they enjoyed all night.
Brayden Schenn broke through in the third period to make the score 3-1. Starting his second straight game, Steve Mason had 16 saves on 18 shots. With the win, the Flyers pull to within three points of Pittsburgh and two points of Detroit in the wild-card race. All three teams have played 65 games.
The goals
1-0 Lightning, Ondrej Palat (4:07 1P). Steve Mason gives up the big rebound, and Palat made no mistake:
1-1, Shayne Gostisbehere (16:51 2P). Didn’t feel like the Flyers were ever going to beat Vasilevskiy, and it took a loose puck that dribbled right to Gostisbehere:
2-1 Flyers, Shayne Gostisbehere (PP, 7:21 3P). This one was quite simply a laser:
3-1 Flyers, Brayden Schenn (13:57 3P). Fortunate bounce from Schenn on the deflection:
3-2 Flyers, Vladislav Namestnikov (14:53 3P).
4-2 Flyers, Wayne Simmonds (19:33 3P). Simmonds sent the fans home happy with an empty-netter:
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann