There have no doubt been some unusual, perhaps even bizarre finishes to games, but in Craig Berube’s two seasons as coach of the Flyers, this took bizarre to a new level.
“Pretty much,” said the Flyers coach after Tuesday’s wild, 5-4 victory over the Islanders that prevented New York from clinching a playoff spot for the time being (see Instant Replay).
The Flyers had a 4-1 lead and saw it get to 4-3. Then with 28 seconds to go, Claude Giroux lost a defensive faceoff to John Tavares and the puck went to the net, where Anders Lee, all alone, put a move on goalie Steve Mason to tie the game.
“Looks like we’re going to overtime,” Mason remembered telling himself. “But that’s why you play to the last second.”
As such, Sean Couturier gave Brayden Schenn an entry pass with the clock ticking down, and the Flyers winger shot the puck just over the blue on net.
Whether goalie Jaroslav Halak relaxed or not, it went in with 2.1 ticks left to give the Flyers a victory.
“Just trying to get the puck on net and it was a lucky one,” Schenn said. “I heard it hit his stick and don’t know whether it hit his arm or what.”
Schenn’s shot went through Isles defenseman Travis Hamonic’s legs before it arrived at Halak’s crease.
“I don’t think it happens very often,” Jakub Voracek offered. “I would say maybe one percent. That kind of moment with that type of game, maybe even less ... things happen. That’s why you shoot the puck. You never know.”
Berube thought the game was headed to overtime and never saw the winning goal.
“I wasn’t even paying attention,” he said. “I looked up and it’s going in. Things happen. That’s why I always tell these guys put the puck on net, you never know. Never know.
“Other than a couple minutes there, it was a pretty solid game and effort from everybody. We were ready to go and it was big effort from them.”
The Flyers, who unlike the Isles, aren’t headed to the playoffs, are now 12-1-4 in their last 17 games against teams that are playoff-bound.
Their main satisfaction in this one was preventing the Isles from a season series sweep and from clinching here. The Flyers also harmed the Isles’ chances to finish second in the Metro Division.
Berube’s team played spoiler again.
“We finally figured out how to play, I guess,” chirped Mark Streit, who became the first Flyers defenseman since Chris Pronger to score 50 points. Pronger had 55 in 2009-10. “It only took 80 games.
“We talked a lot. This was a rough year. We wanted to finish the right way. We face good teams. If you don’t play the right way, you get burned with bad losses.”
They did so much right.
Mason had a shutout going until the Isles’ 25th shot, and when Carlo Colaiacovo made it 4-1 to start the third period, it seemed over.
The Flyers relaxed, the Isles got an odd rebound off the net’s base for one goal, and then scored twice in the final 1:44 to make it 4-4.
Part of the reason there was the Isles were attacking with six men and the Flyers kept botching chances to ice it with an empty-net goal, even when it was 4-2.
Teammates were trying hard to get Claude Giroux his first regular-season hat trick.
“I had one chance and that was basically it,” Giroux said. “They made a couple good plays to score. You don’t see that [finish] happen too often, but we’ll take it.”