Amid Elliott uncertainty, resilient Mrazek comes to play
PHILADELPHIA » Brian Elliott might be desperately trying to return (too quickly?) from “core muscle” surgery, and Michal Neuvirth’s groin might be desperately trying to tell him that playing is not a day-today proposition for him.
Along the way, however, Petr Mrazek has been making a daily pitch to get back in the Flyers bosses’ good graces.
Mrazek, whose inconsistency had driven him to the bench recently, turned in a sterling performance against the Bruins Sunday, and was rewarded with a 4-3 victory when Claude Giroux scored in overtime.
Mrazek made 36 saves and for large chunks of the game singularly kept the Flyers atop the hardcharging, Eastern Conference-leading Bruins.
This after making saves on all 17 shots he faced in relief of the injured Neuvirth Thursday in a taut, 2-1 victory in Colorado Wednesday. Mrazek has continued his recent upswing, with the occasional disappointing outing mixed in. But overall he has worked to get back to the form he flashed in his first three impressive outings as a Flyer in February.
The power of positive tinkering, then?
“We have to stay positive,” Mrazek said. “You want to win games like that.”
Mrazek appeared well on his way to helping the Flyers win this very important game when four attempts by the Flyers to clear the zone failed in the final seconds, leading to a terrific goal by Patrice Bergeron with 3.8 ticks left on the regulation clock.
Mrazek and his teammates kept their cool, though.
“Those goals happen,” Mrazek said. “You have to go there and forget about it. Play the overtime as best as you can.”
If his teammates needed any reminders of that, Jake Voracek helped, telling his young teammates that all was not lost.
“He just skated by the bench to let us know there was still overtime,” Travis Konecny said of Voracek. “Don’t be down, there is nothing we can do now.”
Voracek responded with a terrific pass that sprung Giroux on a clean breakaway, and he finished it to send the Flyers to a huge victory ... one that Mrazek could rightly take a lot of credit for.
“It’s always important when a team like Boston is coming into town,” Mrazek said. “You are fighting for a playoff spot, and a game like that is really important for all of us. I think we could see it like a playoff game. Really tight. One goal different.”
*** NOTES » Konecny had a highlight-reel goal where he cut between two Boston players by flipping the puck in the air to himself, then cut right around Bergeron before drilling a shot past Boston goalie Anton Khudobin. No big deal. “I think it’s just instinct,” Konecny said. “I just reacted and then somebody was going to poke it so I just pulled it into the middle.
Honestly when those happen you are just kind of in the moment.” ... Flyers haven’t locked anything up, but beginning Tuesday in Brooklyn they have three games remaining and all are against non-playoff teams (at Isles, home to Carolina and the Rangers).