BOSTON — They lost their top defensive forward off a dirty hit from — who else? — Zac Rinaldo.
They were atrocious during a five-minute power play. And gave up a shorthanded goal, too.
If that wasn’t enough, they lost their starting goalie.
All that should have doomed the Flyers. Yet it didn’t, as they overcame a two-goal deficit to defeat the Bruins 5-4 Wednesday night in overtime at TD Garden (see Instant Replay). The last time the Flyers won in Boston was Oct. 6, 2011.
Claude Giroux, who had a brutal start to the game, won it with a power-play goal from the left circle.
“A lot of things happened,” Giroux said. “When you miss players, they leave, the lines get a little mixed up. … Yet there was not one time guys were confused who was with who. Everybody was pretty dialed in tonight.”
The critical difference was Steve Mason’s rollover save on David Pastrnak that gave the Flyers a lift at 6:34 of the third period. That was quickly followed by Wayne Simmonds' goal that eventually forced overtime.
“It was a big moment,” Mason said of the save. “But at the same time, those are things I expect of myself. … It kinda kick-started things.”
Mason came in cold to start the second period after Wednesday's starter Michal Neuvirth took a stick to the face on Patrice Bergeron’s goal that made it a 2-2 game with less than three minutes left in the opening period.
Shortly after that, Rinaldo threw an elbow to Sean Couturier’s head. Couturier left the game with a suspected concussion/whiplash injury, while Rinaldo was thrown out with a five-minute major for charging. He’ll be suspended, too.
“I’m not even gonna comment on that,” said coach Dave Hakstol, angrily. “Not going to comment on that hit at all. There’s no place for it.”
You might think that the injury to Couturier would ignite the Flyers when the second period started with a five-minute power play.
Instead, the Flyers looked and played as though they were the ones killing the penalty, not the Bruins. Boston had two shots and scored on the last one, a tip from Chris Kelly, to break the 2-2 tie.
“That was horrible power play,” Simmonds understated. “I think that was the worst power play we’ve had in the last 4½ years since I have been here. That was unacceptable, but we showed great character coming back from that.”
Boston scored twice in the second period to take a 4-2 lead, but the Flyers owned the third.
“We didn’t let it faze us,” Simmonds said. “We came out in the third and wanted to direct everything to the net and got a couple goals.”
Giroux finished the game with two goals and credited Mason for making a difference.
“His second-effort save,” Giroux said. “We kinda had a breather after that and said, ‘That’s the turning point.’ The whole team began playing with second effort after that.”
Mason was outstanding in the third period (six saves), atoning for a weak goal after coming in cold earlier.
He admitted being caught off-guard by Neuvirth’s injury.
“You kinda prepare for anything and I was on the ice this morning preparing as I normally would,” he said. “Unfortunate for Michal it ended that way.”
So, the Flyers salvaged two points from their back-to-back games after losing to Dallas on Tuesday, 2-1.
“The way the second period went, not a lot of things went right,” Hakstol said. “Guys went into the room and regrouped and came out with a good mentality [for the third period]. I think that is most important.”