Jets Tie Game Late, Beat Flyers in Shootout

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

The Flyers finally snapped their scoring drought early in the first period of their game on Thursday. But after finally being able to finish on a scoring chance, they weren't able to finish off a potential two points.

The Jets tied the game in the final minute of the third period and claimed the win in a shootout by a score of 3-2, handing the Flyers their third straight loss. 

The Flyers didn't waste much time putting an end to their scoring drought. At 2:27, they finally managed to get a quality chance from a high-percentage area and made it count.

Sean Couturier took a shot from the right face-off circle as Claude Giroux cut through the sightline of Connor Hellebuyck. The rebound went to the slot where Jake Voracek was able to put it home for his fifth goal of the season, ending the Flyers scoreless streak at 158:36.

Less than three minutes later, the Flyers were on a power play and made their first man-advantage opportunity count as well. Voracek got the puck to the net where Wayne Simmonds was waiting. Simmonds had two chances stopped before Couturier was able to come in and pound home the rebound to make it 2-0 Flyers.

The first period from there was a showcase of the Flyers goaltending and penalty killing. With the Flyers already killing a penalty, Radko Gudas and Mathieu Perreault got into it and were both given penalties. But after the officials saw the replay on the scoreboard and heard the uproar from the crowd over the intensity of Gudas' slashing penalty, Gudas was assessed a five-minute major and game misconduct. 

The Flyers managed to kill off the final 40 seconds of 4-on-3 power play time and three minutes of power play time after Perreault's minor, but had to power through with five defensemen for the remainder of the game.

Brian Elliott stopped all 10 shots faced in the first 20 minutes, several of them challenging shots from the Jets power play. The Flyers also had 10 shots in the first.

The Flyers were doing a good job again on the penalty kill and keeping the Jets top players from getting into dangerous areas. But upon giving the Jets their fifth power play of the night, the Flyers and Elliott couldn't silence Winnipeg any longer. Off a face-off win for the Flyers, Travis Sanheim turned the puck over in the offensive zone that sent the Jets the other way with a two-on-one. Joel Armia put a pass into the slot for Perreault and he made a move and scored through the five-hole of Elliott to cut the lead in half at 2-1.

The Jets were outshooting the Flyers through two periods, 22-21.

The Flyers held the 2-1 lead through the third period, holding the Jets off on a power play early in the period. They also got a power play of their own, but failed to add to their lead.

That proved costly late in the game. With the Jets net empty, bad positioning by the Flyers allowed Mark Scheifele to be left open in the slot. Blake Wheeler got a pass to him and Scheifele didn't miss, tying the game at two with 48.4 seconds to play in regulation and forcing overtime.

The overtime was a hellacious, back-and-forth affair, with both teams getting opportunities to end the game. Elliott had to make several more big saves. The Flyers missed the net multiple times on some close scoring chances as well.

Ultimately, through two penalties and a lot of back-and-forth offense, neither team scored, forcing a shootout.

The strong goaltending stopped there, as both teams scored on their first two shootout opportunities. Wheeler was stopped by Elliott in the third round, giving Giroux a chance to win the game. He was stopped by Hellebuyck.

Bryan Little scored in the fourth round, and Travis Konecny was stopped the other way to decide the game.

Elliott made 31 saves in the loss. Hellebuyck made 30 saves in the win.

The Flyers are back in action on Saturday afternoon against the Calgary Flames. Game time is at 1 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• PHI Jake Voracek (5) (Sean Couturier, Claude Giroux) 2:27
• PHI Couturier (11) PP (Wayne Simmonds, Voracek) 5:15

2nd Period

• WPG Mathieu Perreault (2) PP (Joel Armia, Tyler Myers) 13:05

3rd Period

• WPG Mark Scheifele (11) (Blake Wheeler, Patrik Laine) 

Overtime

• No Scoring

Shootout

• Mark Scheifele – Goal
• Jake Voracek – Goal
• Patrik Laine – Goal
• Jordan Weal – Goal
• Blake Wheeler – Save
• Claude Giroux – Save
• Bryan Little – Goal
• Travis Konecny – Save

Game Statistics