Image courtesy of Rant Sports
After both teams failed to score in 65 minutes of action, it was the St. Louis Blues who grabbed a second point in the contest, as they beat the Philadelphia Flyers 1-0 in a shootout. Ryan Miller had a 31-save shutout and Ray Emery had a 28-save shutout, while both T.J. Oshie and Kevin Shattenkirk provided the only goals in the skills competition. Jaden Schwartz had a game-high six shots on goal, while Matt Read led the Flyers with five shots on goal.
In the first round of the shootout, Oshie waltzed his way towards Emery before he backhanded his attempt past Emery's blocker to give St. Louis the 1-0 lead. Vincent Lecavalier had an impressive move in the first round for Philly, but Miller was able to reach out his right leg far enough to kick away Lecavalier's attempt to keep it 1-0 Blues. The second round saw Alex Steen fumble away his attempt, while Miller gloved Claude Giroux's attempt to put the game on Kevin Shattenkirk's stick. With his attempt in the third round, Shattenkirk placed a shot past Emery's blocker and just inside the post to end the game.
Miller played outside of his mind tonight for St. Louis, as he had a handful of stellar stops to keep the game scoreless. Not only did he prevent the Flyers' surge in the opening minutes of the game, Miller denied a few chances late in regulation and overtime to bail out his teammates. The addition of Miller to the Blues made the squad Stanley Cup contenders, according to many pundits, and the goaltender's performance tonight only proved that theory right. Without Miller in net, there is no guarantee the Blues reach overtime, let alone win the contest.
With that being said, Emery had quite the game as well, as he suffered a rare loss while shutting out the opposition. Although he didn't have nearly as many huge saves in the loss, Emery still had to make a few key saves including an attempt from Oshie in the blue paint.
The Orange and Black came out firing to start the game, as Scott Hartnell had a chance just seconds in and Miller was forced to stone Michael Raffl on a 2-on-1 led by Giroux. The Flyers peppered Miller for the majority of the first period, but thanks to a push back from the hosts, the Blues exited the first frame with an 11-10 shot advantage.
In the second period, it was St. Louis that nearly converted seconds in, as Schwartz grabbed a Braydon Coburn defensive zone turnover and ripped a shot off the pipe.
Miller robbed Raffl for a second time in the game, as the forward had a good chunk of the net to shoot at, but the former Buffalo Sabre prevented him from finding the back of the cage. After Lecavalier found Mark Streit across the ice at the top of the circle to Miller's right, Streit whipped a pass across the slot to Raffl, who was open at the bottom of the opposite circle. Dropping down to one knee to rip a one-timer, Miller managed to slide who and kick it away to keep the game scoreless.
St. Louis, similar to the first period, started to push back later in the frame and nearly scored the game's first goal in the dying seconds of the stanza, as Alex Pietrangelo rocked a slap shot off the post. The game remained scoreless however, as the Blues entered the final period with a shot advantage of 19-18.
In the third period, it looked as though the Blues were finally going to score the game's first goal in the final 1:24, as Giroux went to the sin bin for a high-sticking minor on Oshie in the neutral zone. Fortunately for the visitors, Philly's penalty-killing unit kept the Blues from scoring in the first 1:24 of their man advantage to send the game to overtime.
In the extra frame, the Orange and Black had a pair of magnificent chances after they killed off the remainder of Giroux's minor, as Miller robbed both Nicklas Grossmann and Jakub Voracek. With a cross-ice pass from Streit, who was in the corner to Miller's right, Grossmann one-timed a shot low on Miller's glove side, to which the netminder promptly reached back and grabbed the puck. On Voracek's attempt, it was a pass from along the boards that had Miller moving from his right to his left while Voracek was heading in the opposite direction with the disc. Despite moving away from the puck, Miller provided a ridiculous leg save to keep Voracek from winning it in overtime.
Thanks to the work of both Miller and Emery, the teams entered the shootout, where the Blues squeaked out the second point.
Philadelphia will attempt to bounce back with a home game against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday.
NOTES: Tonight was the first 1-0 shootout decision the Flyers have been involved in since their 1-0 shootout win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on March 10th, 2012. It's the first time the Flyers dropped a 1-0 shootout decision since Evgeni Nabokov made 45 saves on February 7th…Tonight marks the first time the Flyers lost back-to-back games in the shootout since they lost to the Calgary Flames 3-2 on November 26th, 2010 and 2-1 to the New Jersey Devils the following day…Emery recorded his second shutout of the season in the loss, as he now has five shutouts in his career with the Flyers. His 28 saves is the most he's had in a shutout since he had 28 for Philly in the 2009-2010 season opener against the Carolina Hurricanes. It marks the first time Emery has shut out the Blues in his career….Erik Gustafsson filled in for Kimmo Timonen tonight. Gus had a shot on goal and blocked a shot in 15:18 TOI…The Blues improved to 9-3 in the shootout this season. Philly dropped to 3-7…The Flyers dropped to 1-0-1 against the Blues this season. Philly dropped to 15-10-3 against the Western Conference and to 7-4-3 against the Central Division…Tonight marks the first time Miller has shut out the Flyers in his career during the regular season and it's his first shutout with the Blues. His record against Philly improved to 14-13-2 and to 10-3-1 with the Blues…After going 0-for-2 tonight, the Flyers have failed to score a power-play goal in four of their last five games.
You can follow Craig Forsythe on Twitter at @4sytheNthFlyers
