Young B’s fall to Philly
Swayman solid making 34 saves
A group of mostly Providence-bound Bruins took the Philadelphia Flyers to overtime, but Ivan Provorov scored the winner 50 seconds into the extra session to lift the Flyers to a 2-1 preseason victory at Wells Fargo Center on Monday.
Despite the loss, Jeremy Swayman continued to make a good argument that he should be the opening night goalie, stopping 34of-36 shots and keeping the B’s in it at stretches.
Linus Ullmark will get the preseason finale on Wednesday against the Washington Capitals at the Garden.
“Sway’s been rock solid. Ullmark, just in terms of the exhibition play — he’s going in on Wednesday — hasn’t been as sharp as Swayman. We know that,” said Cassidy. “Some of it could be (Ullmark’s) ramping it up a little bit. He didn’t finish last year playing (because of injury). Some of that will factor in our decision. But either way, we’re going to be comfortable with whoever goes in there and they’re both going to see time in October. We knew going in there’d be a certain level of competition. But we know that Sway, he looks like he left off form last year. He’s solid and and the goals that are getting by him are good goals. He’s sealing well and challenging how he needs to. He looks sharp.”
After a scoreless first period in which the Flyers held a 9-4 shot advantage, the young Bruin hopefuls started to play a little more in the Philly end when they weren’t finding themselves on the penalty kill.
It was during one of the kills that the B’s got their first power play when Ryan Ellis got stick up high on Connor Clifton. After the short 4-on-4 was over, Jack Studnicka continued to make it hard for management to send him to Providence. After Jakub Lauko hit the post post, Studnicka knifed through traffic and backhanded home the rebound past Carter Hart.
Whether there’s a spot for Studnicka on the Boston roster remains to be seen. Charlie Coyle will see his first preseason action in the finale on Wednesday and Cassidy said he’ll have to take a look at him at second line center before starts overhauling the lineup.
“I liked (Studnicka’s) game. I liked his commitment to the 200-foot game, how he managed pucks. He hasn’t not turned over pucks like he has in the past,” said Cassidy. “We’ll have to look after Wednesday’s game. Do we push someone to wing or not? That’ll be a conversation. We like how we look in the middle of the ice, but if our lineup looks better because he’s ready and we have to move someone around, we’ll do it.”
But the Flyers tied it with just 19 seconds left in the period on their fourth power play of the game. Jeremy Swayman had been excellent, stopping 25-of-26 shots in the first two periods, but he could not get a handle on Sean Couturier’s backdoor shot.
It stayed that way until OT, when Provorov took a feed from Travis Konecny on a 2-on-1 and beat Swayman.
Odds & Ends
■ Trent Frederic, who had not been great in any of his previous preseason games, gave Cassidy more of what he wanted. Frederic doled out seven hits and had a couple of shots on net. The combination of Frederic, Curtis Lazar and Chris Wagner — three of the four players in the mix for fourth line duty — had a strong game, delivering 11 hits and having a couple of shifts in which they occupied.
■ John Moore is competing to take away the sixth open defense spot from Connor Clifton, who has the inside track because he’s a right shot. Moore, not known as a fighter, dropped the gloves with Elliot Desnoyers in the second period.
■ Big defenseman Nick Wolff had a rough night. He took two penalties that could have been penalty shots. During his second stint in the box, the Flyers scored the equalizer.