Flyers Open Round Robin Strong with Win Over Bruins

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

For a number of Flyers players, this was the first chance to make an impression in the playoffs. Yes, it was the Round Robin debut and there was really nothing at stake, but these were considered playoff games.

Carter Hart made 34 saves in his playoff debut and Phil Myers scored a goal as the Flyers depth and young talent came through in a 4-1 win over the Boston Bruins in the Round Robin opener on Sunday afternoon.

The Bruins controlled a lot of the early play, taking a 5-1 lead in shots early. They also had the first power play of the game, but could not convert. 

The Flyers ended the period with a pair of power-play chances. On their first, Claude Giroux hit the post with a one-timer, but the Flyers did not record a shot on goal on the man-advantage. The second came in the final minute of the period, and the Flyers struggled to gain offensive zone time.

Through a scoreless 20 minutes, shots were 12-6 in favor of Boston.

After the Flyers failed to take advantage of the rest of the power play, the scoring started coming. Michael Raffl broke the ice at 5:33 of the second, scoring off a nice pass from Travis Sanheim and lifting a backhand over Jaroslav Halak.

Just less than four minutes later, the Flyers extended the lead. After making a nice zone entry, Ivan Provorov dished the puck to Raffl. The puck drifted off Raffl's stick to open ice and Nate Thompson stepped up and fired a shot high over Halak to make it 2-0.

The Flyers killed off another Bruins power play just seconds after taking the 2-0 lead. The lead held into the final minutes of the game, but that's when the Bruins were finally able to solve Hart.

From behind the net, Chris Wagner worked the puck to the front and was able to bank it off of the sake of Robert Hagg and past the netminder to get the Bruins on the board and cut the lead to one with just 1:09 remaining in the period. But just eight seconds later, the Flyers had an answer as Myers scored on a two-on-one off the face-off to restore the two-goal lead.

Through two periods, shots were 20-17 Bruins.

The Flyers kept the pressure on early in the third, getting the first seven shots of the period. They extended their lead with one of them.

Off a nice chip past a Boston defender by Kevin Hayes, Scott Laughton went the other way on a two-on-one and fired a shot high over Halak to make it a 4-1 game at 4:07.

The Flyers were able to kill off another Boston power play midway through the period and limited the Bruins to just two shots in the final 16 minutes of the period. 

For all of the success that the Flyers had in the final period, there was one moment that led to a loss. Raffl was taken down by Jeremy Lauzon along the boards and left the game with an injury, putting no weight on his left leg. Laughton and Lauzon tangled following the incident and each received slashing minors and 10-minute misconducts as a result.

Hart finished the game with 34 saves on 35 shots. Halak stopped 25 of 29 shots.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• No Scoring

2nd Period

• PHI Michael Raffl (1) (Travis Sanheim) 5:33
• PHI Nate Thompson (1) (Raffl, Ivan Provorov) 9:31
• BOS Chris Wagner (1) (Joakim Nordstrom, Charlie McAvoy) 18:51
• PHI Phil Myers (1) (Unassisted) 18:59

3rd Period

• PHI Scott Laughton (1) (Kevin Hayes) 4:07

Game Statistics