When it comes to playing the Carolina Hurricanes, Shayne Gostisbehere has his share of moments.
The 22-year-old defenseman made an instant impact in his season debut with a nifty move and great shot that was all part of an assist on the game-tying goal.
That was on Nov. 13.
10 days later, Gostisbehere scored his first OT winner. Now, just over a month into his NHL callup, Gostisbehere has three overtime winners. His third, on Tuesday night, was also against Carolina, drawing up a familiar scene at Wells Fargo Center.
"He's been effective in OTs, no question," head coach Dave Hakstol said. "Our team has been pretty good in the 3-on-3 of late."
"It’s definitely fun," Gostisbehere said. "It’s the guys around me between the two shots. It’s the passes from [Claude Giroux]. [Wayne Simmonds] doesn’t get enough credit getting into the goalies eyes. G and I stopped a 2-on-2 there to make a 2-on-1."
It had been a rough night for Gostisbehere and the Flyers on the breakout. Getting chances like the two-on-one that won the game were not coming easy. Gostisbehere didn't have the room to skate. Passing lanes for long passes were cut off. The Flyers were relatively stymied.
"On a night like to tonight, Ghost, in a lot of areas, didn't have his best night," Hakstol said. "I think he recognized that, tried to keep things simple and when he had a chance to make an impact with the game-winning goal and made no mistake on a hell of a play by Jake."
"Of course Jake was tremendous with the pass," Gostisbehere said. "He’s one of the best in the NHL for a reason, and I’m going to go back post every time when we have a 2 on 1.
Jake Voracek's play in this game certainly cannot be overshadowed by Gostisbehere's heroics. Voracek was the Flyers best player on Tuesday and not just because he had three points, his first three-point game of the season.
Playing left wing for the first time with new linemates, Sean Couturier and Simmonds, Voracek contributed with a goal and two assists and was a determined player as the night went on.
"We are all big players so when we are strong on our skates during a game we are going to have some offensive time, and I think we cycled the puck well, we made them tired," Voracek said. "We did it all game pretty well so it’s just one game, we have to stick with it."
"Jake’s a talented guy and he’s very intelligent and has a great hockey sense, so there’s an adjustment to be made there and he did that," Hakstol said. "I’m not surprised at that. As I said, he’s a smart player, made that adjustment, and most importantly he came out and played hard as he has over the last couple of weeks. It was nice to see some things go right for him and have a couple bounces go his way."
In the second period, they did turn on the scoring and found ways to grind out a couple of gritty goals. It had them in the lead. If not for Jeff Skinner, who has certainly had a scorer's touch of late, the Flyers would have won the game in regulation.
But, as good as it would have been to earn the two points without playing an extra 1:42 in the extra session, that just wouldn't have been a good story, not for the kid who has captured the hearts of Philadelphia fans and shocked the life back into the Flyers.
"He’s a special player and he works hard every day," Michal Neuvirth said. "It’s fun to watch him. Obviously, he’s scoring big goals for us. Hopefully he’s going to keep doing what he’s doing."
"He’s a great skater, with a great shot," Voracek said. "He’s smart as well, so he knows when to jump in and what to do with the puck when he has it so that’s why he is where he is right now and that’s why he’s scoring those goals, because he’s a hell of a player."
"He’s been huge right from the beginning," Brayden Schenn said. "Obviously he’s made an impact. He is coring a lot of clutch goals for us. He’s good on the power play, through 15 or 20 games it’s pretty impressive what he’s done so far."
In the 15 games that Gostisbehere has played in Philadelphia, the Flyers have points in 11 of them. Gostisbehere has a total of 11 points in the 15 games himself, six goals and five assists. He had one of each on Tuesday.
The legend of Gostisbehere continues to grow, but on a night when the Flyers didn't seem to have their best, particularly for 40 minutes, they made the other 21-plus minutes count and earned two points, a sign that things are continuing to move in the right direction.
"I think everyone is chipping in every night, but different," Hakstol said. "I think we have to be honest with ourselves, I don’t think tonight was our best. I think we have a lot of things that we will address as a group and try to clean up. But the positive side of that is that we found a way to win the hockey game, so that just all comes back to everybody being on the same page and working hard together. So I give a real credit to the group in the room, they’re doing that.
"You’re not going to get away with that too many nights. Don’t get me wrong, we worked hard, we battled hard, and we made some plays tonight. There are just some things that we have to clean up especially in taking care of pucks. So is it a good sign, it’s a good sign to be able to come out and win a game. This is the third time against this team in the last pretty short period of time and that’s tough to do. So our group stuck with it and got the two points tonight."
Kevin Durso is managing editor for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.
