Pastrnak, Bruins Rally Back to Down Flyers in OT

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

Midway through the third period, the Flyers were in position for a fifth straight win despite one of their slowest starts of the season. In a matter of eight minutes, not only was the lead gone, but the Bruins were in perfect position to complete the comeback.

David Pastrnak had a hat trick, scoring his third with 14.9 seconds left in the third to tie the game, then set up Patrice Bergeron for the win in overtime to hand the Flyers a 4-3 loss on Wednesday night at Wells Fargo Center.

It took just 12 seconds for the player who did not play in the last two meetings between the two teams to strike. Right off the opening face-off, Pastrnak got the puck and entered the zone, putting a move on Shayne Gostisbehere and driving toward the net. He centering play went off the stick of Ivan Provorov and into the net to make it 1-0 Boston.

For over half of the period, the Flyers were completely held off the board in terms of shots and barely got any offensive zone time. Boston continued to circle the attacking zone, not generating a lot of shots, but working to create a lot of space and open up opportunities.

As the period progressed, the Flyers started to improve in their execution and generated eight shots in the latter half of the period. Boston was also held to eight shots in the opening period.

The second period was a better one for the Flyers, who slowly kept pace with the Bruins in the shot column, but connecting on passes and winning battles remained an issue. As the period progressed, they continued to generate more, though let a great opportunity get away with the first power play of the game at 10:10.

Finally, at 15:29, they capitalized. After a sustained offensive shift with battles won and crisp passing, Travis Sanheim made a cross-ice feed to Kevin Hayes for a one-timer, beating Tuukka Rask off the glove and in to even the score at one.

The Bruins got their first power play with 1:35 remaining in the period, but the Flyers were able to kill it off to the intermission. Shots through 40 minutes were 21-19 Boston.

After killing off the remaining 25 seconds of the penalty, the Flyers wasted no time grabbing the lead. A turnaround shot attempt by Sanheim got the puck to the side of the net for Jake Voracek to finish for his third goal of the season to make it 2-1 at 1:03.

Midway through the period, the Flyers got another opportunity with an odd-man rush and took full advantage. Scott Laughton escaped with the puck in the neutral zone. He made a perfect pass across to Joel Farabee, who went upstairs on Rask to give the Flyers a 3-1 lead at 8:41.

With just over eight minutes to play, Boston got a chance to get back into the game with a power play and didn't waste it. Just seconds into the man-advantage, the Bruins executed with perfect puck movement as Bergeron set up Pastrnak back-door for his second goal of the game. 

With 2:01 to play, Hayes went to the box for hooking, giving the Bruins a chance to tie the game. For a while, the Flyers looked like they would survive, but with 14.9 seconds remaining, it was Pastrnak completing the hat trick and striking again to tie things up.

Just nine seconds later, Laughton took an interference penalty to put the Bruins back on the power play. That carried into overtime, where it took just 31 seconds for Bergeron to knock in a rebound and finish off the Boston victory.

Carter Hart finished with 31 saves in the loss. Rask made 22 saves in the win.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• BOS David Pastrnak (3) (Charlie McAvoy, Patrice Bergeron) 0:12

2nd Period

• PHI Kevin Hayes (6) (Travis Sanheim, Phil Myers) 15:29

3rd Period

• PHI Jake Voracek (3) (Sanheim, Nolan Patrick) 1:03
• PHI Joel Farabee (6) (Scott Laughton, James van Riemsdyk) 8:41
• BOS Pastrnak (4) PP (Bergeron, Nick Ritchie) 12:05
• BOS Pastrnak (5) PP (Brad Marchand, Bergeron) 19:45

Overtime

• BOS Bergeron (6) PP (Pastrnak, David Krejci) 0:31

Game Statistics