Bruins 4-Goal Second Sinks Flyers

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

Second periods have been a problem of late for the Flyers. On Tuesday in Buffalo, they allowed three goals. On Thursday against Vancouver, they allowed three more.

Saturday's game they did one better, allowing four to the Bruins in a 6-3 loss to Boston on Saturday afternoon at TD Garden.

For the first time in eight games, it was the Flyers who got on the board first. At 2:05, a point shot by Ivan Provorov was deflected in front by Pierre-Edouard Bellemare up and over Tuukka Rask to open the scoring.

The Flyers had a chance to extend the lead with the game's first power play, but it was the Bruins getting the better chances, and eventually capitalizing.

Brad Marchand took advantage of a Flyers turnover and took the puck the other way on a breakaway, scoring five-hole on Michal Neuvirth to tie the game at one.

Shots were 10-10 after one period and both teams failed to score on their only power-play chances of the period.

In recent games, the second period has been a rough one for the Flyers and that was no different on Saturday.

The Bruins took the lead on the power play at 2:00. After two failed clears by Wayne Simmonds, Austin Czarnik set up David Krejci and he wristed a high shot top-shelf past Neuvirth.

Four minutes later, the Bruins cashed in on a defensive breakdown and poor backchecking by the Flyers. David Pastrnak and Marchand led a rush as Torey Krug jumped up into the play. Krug was left wide open and Marchand found him for the easy tip-in goal.

The Flyers cut the lead back to one with a power-play goal of their own. Right off a face-off, Mark Streit's shot from the blue line was deflected in by Brayden Schenn.

Seconds after the Schenn goal, Jake Voracek took a boarding major for an awkward hit on Kevan Miller. The Flyers successfully killed of over four minutes of the major before the Bruins finally scored as Patrice Bergeron's shot hit Andrew MacDonald's stick and went up over Neuvirth.

The Bruins tallied again just over two minutes later. With a full-on shooting gallery coming at Neuvirth, Pastrnak set up Zdeno Chara for a one-time blast and he scored to make it 5-2.

The Flyers did get a chance to cut into the lead at the end of the second with a late power play. Moments after that, Chara was called for a delay of game penalty, giving the Flyers a 5-on-3. With just 3.2 seconds remaining in the second, Voracek threw a cross-ice pass that went to Simmonds for the slam dunk goal to cut the lead to two and give them 1:37 of power play time to start the third.

The Flyers failed to take advantage of the power play to start the third, keeping the deficit at two.

The Flyers never were able to apply pressure in the third and the Bruins got a 5-on-3 of their own at one point, which the Flyers successfully killed of.

With no real pressure ever really established, the Bruins finished off the game with strong defensive play and an empty-net goal for Marchand, his second goal of the game and fifth point of the game.

Rask made 22 saves in the win. Neuvirth made 33 saves in the loss. Pastrnak had two assists. Krug had two points as well. Giroux had a pair of assists for the Flyers.

The Flyers play one more game before their five-day bye week, traveling to face the Washington Capitals on Sunday afternoon. Game time is 1 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• PHI Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (3) (Ivan Provorov, Chris VandeVelde) 2:05
• BOS Brad Marchand (16) SH (Unassisted) 7:48

2nd Period

• BOS David Krejci (10) PP (Austin Czarnik) 2:00
• BOS Torey Krug (4) (Marchand, David Pastrnak) 6:00
• PHI Brayden Schenn (15) PP (Mark Streit, Claude Giroux) 8:16
• BOS Patrice Bergeron (9) PP (Marchand, Krug) 13:04
• BOS Zdeno Chara (3) (Pastrnak, Marchand) 15:18
• PHI Wayne Simmonds (18) PP (Jake Voracek, Giroux) 19:56

3rd Period

• BOS Marchand (17) EN (Unassisted) 19:06

Game Statistics