Vigneault doesn’t use backup in NYC OT survival
Alarms sounded when Alain Vigneault said that Alex Lyon would back-up goaltender Carter Hart when the Flyers opposed the New York Rangers Monday night at Madison Square Garden.
In this age of the coronavirus, was veteran Brian Elliott ill?
“Brian’s healthy,” Vigneault said. “There have been a lot of games close together. Since we don’t have a lot of practices going forward in our morning skate with the practice squad, we put Brian through a hard practice knowing that we’re not going to skate tomorrow. We felt it was better to skate him hard this morning, him have a good practice and have Alex be the backup to Carter.”
Hart wound up getting the win, the Flyers defeating the Rangers, 5-4, on a goal by Jake Voracek in overtime. But it was a struggle.
Hart, who last week was pulled for the third time this season, shut out the Rangers in the first period. But in a seven-minute stretch of the second, Hart played like he might give way to Lyon as the game opened up. The Rangers scored three straight goals, wiping out the 2-0 lead the Flyers brought into the frame on goals by James van Riemsdyk, his team-leading 13th, and Ivan Provorov.
The game was tied three times before Voracek, in overtime, stole a pass that goaltender Keith Kinkaid sent in the general vicinity of Artemi Panarin, skated in on net and faked the goaltender to the ice before sliding the puck into the empty net.
“I just got a good bounce there and I knew I had some time,” Voracek said. “A good thing Kincaid bit on that thing.”
Back to the second period. Panarin ripped a slap shot past Hart with the Flyers spectating to get the Rangers on the scoreboard. The shot flew into the net so fast Vigneault had to watch the replay to believe it.
A few minutes later, the Flyers didn’t get back on defense and Colin Blackwell shoveled a Panarin pass into the net to knot the score.
Van Riemsdyk cleared a puck from the crease to prevent another goal, but Julien Gauthier blew past the Flyers, caught Shane Gostisbehere flatfooted, and backhanded the puck past Hart to give the Rangers a 4-3 lead with 4:44 left in the second period.
Joel Farabee’s power play goal three minutes in the final frame tied the game, 3-3. Claude Giroux skated behind the net and dished it out front to Farabee, who got his 12th goal.
A minute after Chris Kreider was robbed on a leg save by Hart, the Rangers outmuscled and outhustled the Flyers to take a 4-3 lead on a goal by Kevin Rooney at 2:56 of the final frame.
On the power play with 14:27 left, Giroux burst out from behind the net and jammed a Voracek pass past Kincaid to tie the score at 4.
With 3:50 left, Kincaid stopped a breakaway by Voracek.
Forty-six seconds later Hayes gave the Flyers a 5-4 lead on a power play goal with 3:04 remaining, sending a shot from the right faceoff circle into the net.
But a review took the goal away, the officials ruling and replays showing that Sean Couturier was narrowly offside.
While Vigneault insisted the goalie rotation was HartElliott, he’s also not been completely happy with the duo compared to how high they set the bar earlier in the season.
“At the beginning of the year our goaltenders might have been bailing us out a little bit,” Vigneault said. “We have improved our game. Our goaltending is not at the same level as it was initially.”
Elliott, who turns 36 next month, is 7-3 as the starter this season. Lyon, 28, is 5-4-1 in his career with the Flyers. Hart is 7-6-3 this season.
“You’ve just got to keep working and it’s going to turn around,” Voracek said. “He’s too good of a goalie not to get any bounces, any luck. We knew he was going to come around and he definitely made a couple big stops. Especially that save at the beginning of the third with our PK. That stop on Kreider I think was spectacular. It’s a good game for him and something to build on.”
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The Flyers (14-9-3, 31 points) are just one point behind Boston (14-7-4) and the fourth and final playoff berth in the East.
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Forward Michael Raffl returned from a hand injury to center a line with Oskar Lindblom and Nicolas Aube-Kubel.
Raffl had one shot and blocked a shot in 10 minutes.
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With 5:12 left in the first period Nolan Patrick got tangled up in the boards and twisted an ankle yet returned and played 14 minutes.
Farabee limped off in the second period and blocking a rocket with his foot. He played a team-high 23 minutes.
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NOTES » Provorov collected his 100th career assist on Giroux’s equalizer in the third period … The Rangers skated without three regulars, sidelined by the NHL’s COVID protocol, Pavel Buchnevich, Phillip Di Giuseppe and Adam Fox. … The Flyers have given up three or more goals in eight straight games. They’re 4-4 in those games.