In what was their biggest game of the season to date, the Flyers came out with their best period of the season, building a two-goal lead and hung onto for almost the rest of the way, just barely beating the Detroit Red Wings, 4-3, Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center.
The regulation win gets the Flyers within a point of Detroit for the Eastern Conference’s final playoff spot. And the Flyers have two games in hand on the Red Wings, with 14 more to play to Detroit’s 12. The teams play again on April 6 in Detroit.
Michael Raffl had a huge night for the Flyers, scoring twice for just the second time in his career. His first goal opened the scoring and Wayne Simmonds’ 25th of the year sent the Flyers into the first intermission with a 2-0 lead after outshooting Detroit, 23-3, in the period.
Per War On Ice, an analytical statistics website, the 20-shot advantage tied the largest any team has had in a period this season.
Detroit went a stretch of 9:50 without registering a shot on goal in the period.
Shayne Gostisbehere’s backhand pass attempt late in the second period bounced off Detroit defenseman Danny DeKeyser and past goalie Petr Mrazek to put the Flyers ahead, 4-2, with 1:06 left in the second period.
NHL
It was a cushion they would need. Detroit outshot the Flyers, 21-10, in the third period.
Three times the Red Wings cut the Flyers’ lead to one. The first two times, the Flyers were able to answer. The last time, when Tomas Tatar made it 4-3 with 3:46 to go, the Flyers hung on for dear life for two much-needed points.
They outshot Detroit, 46-37, on the night.
Notable goals
Raffl’s first goal, the first goal of the game, was the game’s prettiest. Off a faceoff win by Sean Couturier, Raffl waited at center ice and received a cross-ice pass from defenseman Mark Streit. Raffl accepted the pass and bursted up the left wing, leaving Red Wings defenseman Kyle Quincey in the dust before making a patient move to his backhand to beat Mrazek.
On a set play off an offensive-zone faceoff, Claude Giroux won the puck back to Brayden Schenn, who quickly fired the puck on net. Simmonds, who had streaked to Mrazek as soon as the puck dropped, was all alone in front for a tap-in goal and a 2-0 lead.
Less than five minutes after Detroit’s Andreas Athanasiou cut the Flyers’ lead to 2-1, Raffl found a soft spot in the Detroit slot, took a pass from Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and let a shot go on Mrazek. The rebound squirted back into the slot and Raffl was in perfect position to get his own rebound and beat Mrazek upstairs with a backhand.
Goalie report
Steve Mason got his fifth straight start in net, the longest consecutive stretch of starts for the 27-year-old in a month, when Mason started six in a row from February 2-11.
After not being tested in the first period, Mason allowed two goals on 13 second-period shots from Detroit. The first goal, Mason overplayed a bit and got beat.
On Detroit’s second goal, Pavel Datsyuk was left all alone in the slot and made quick work of a feed from Tatar to beat Mason and get the score to 3-2 with 5:39 left in the second period.
But Mason held the fort in the third period. He had to be the Flyers’ best player over the final 20 minutes. He stopped 20 of 21 Red Wings shots in the period, including his best of the night, a blocker save on Henrik Zetterberg, who was all alone in front of the net with 7:20 to go.
Tatar’s goal came off a point shot by Datsyuk. Tatar was able to get a stick on the rebound and get it by Mason.
Mason later denied Gustav Nyquist on the doorstep with a minute to go in the period.
It’s likely Michal Neuvirth returns to the net Wednesday night in Chicago, but Mason has made a strong case to get the nod again.
Power play
It wasn’t for lack of trying, but the Flyers went 0 for 6 in 7:10 of power-play time.
They had a big chance to pounce on Detroit in the first period with a 2-0 lead and 55 seconds of five-on-three time, but Mrazek held strong to keep the Wings in the game.
Later, Brad Richards took a hooking penalty with 6:28 to play, but Schenn was whistled for a goalie interference minor 32 seconds later.
The final Red Wings penalty came with 56 seconds left, and the Flyers were more concerned with hanging on to the win than getting shots toward the net.
Penalty kill
The Flyers were 10:15 away from their first penalty-free game of the season when Giroux committed a tripping minor. But the Flyers were able to kill the two minutes off with ease.
Bellemare and Chris VandeVelde had a strong forecheck in the offensive zone during the final 25 seconds of the kill.
The Flyers were then able to kill off the 32 seconds remaining on the Schenn minor, leaving 3:56 to play on the game clock.
Up next
The Flyers fly to Chicago right after the game and take on the Blackhawks Wednesday night at 8 p.m., in a game featured as NBC Sports Network’s Rivalry Night. It’s the first of five remaining back-to-backs for the Flyers, who just had one this past weekend in Florida.
The Blackhawks are coming off a 5-0 home loss to the Los Angeles Kings Monday night.