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 That grip continued to loosen on Tuesday at Wells Fargo Center as
the Philadelphia Flyers tugged closer with a crucial 4-3 win over
the team they're eyeing ahead.
Behind a complete effort from start to finish, the Flyers (33-23-12)
moved within one point of the Red Wings for the second wild-card
spot as Michael Raffl led the Philadelphia charge with his second
career two-goal game.
"The atmosphere was great," Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said. "Our
fans are second to none. We fed off of that."
Both teams meet once more on April 6 but Philadelphia's victory
secured it one of the tiebreaker scenarios with Detroit by winning
the season series in points.
The Red Wings (34-25-11) failed to solve their Philadelphia hex,
losing for the 11th straight time in the city. Detroit, 2-5-0 in its
last seven games, has not won in Philadelphia since the 1997 Stanley
Cup finals.
 "We got on our heels a little bit," Red Wings left winger Henrik
Zetterberg said. "And when you do that in this building, they're
coming full force."
The Flyers took over with two early goals and outshot Detroit 23-3
in the first period.
"Everyone was going to say it was the start," Red Wings coach Jeff
Blashill said. "It wasn't the start, you can come watch it with me.
It was after we got scored on, we've got to do way better than
that."
Trailing by two in the third period, Detroit made a concerted push
and crept within one thanks to a Tomas Tatar marker at 16:14, but
Flyers goaltender Steve Mason did enough to seal it, making 21 of
his 34 saves in the final frame.
Red Wings goalie Petr Mrazek faced 46 shots and stopped 42 of them.
"We were ready to play," Hakstol said. "We played fast and hard. We
knew it was going to be highly competitive all the way through 60
minutes and it was."
The defeat kicked off a four-game road trip for the Red Wings, while
the Flyers face contenders over their next three contests, featuring
the Chicago Blackhawks, Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Islanders.
"Being in that race now, tonight's win was really big but we've got
to keep the same mentality game by game and play as a team,"
Philadelphia center Claude Giroux said. "We're having a lot of fun
right now."
The Flyers had the look of a desperate team from the opening puck
drop.
Raffl got it all started for Philadelphia, absorbing contact while
taking the puck from center ice to the net before faking out Mrazek
for a 1-0 lead 5:41 into the action.
"I just blacked out," Raffl joked. "No, I see (Mrazek) go down and I
knew he wasn't going to be able to reach over there so I just put it
on my backhand."
One minute and 14 seconds later, Wayne Simmonds added to it with his
25th goal of the season on a wide-open rebound attempt. It came
directly off a faceoff in which Giroux won to set up a quick shot by
Brayden Schenn. Simmonds cleaned up the big bounce as Giroux
recorded his 40th assist.
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"We were playing the right way, we had four lines rolling, everybody
was playing hard and pretty aggressive," Giroux said. "That's how we
get our chances and that was a fun period."
The Red Wings avoided disaster by killing off two power plays,
including a 33-second sequence that featured a five-on-three, but
the damage was already done.
"They definitely had the first period after five minutes,"
Zetterberg said.
Detroit regrouped to start the second period and quickly cut the
deficit to one courtesy of beautiful stick work by Andreas
Athanasiou. As Riley Sheahan squeezed a pass through a crowd of
skates, Athanasiou did the rest with an outreached stick to wrap the
puck around a splitting Mason at 2:14.
With Detroit looking to swing momentum, Raffl provided another spark
at 7:14 behind some hard work between the circles. Raffl gathered a
rebound off his own shot and backhanded it home to regain
Philadelphia a two-goal lead at 3-1.
The Red Wings closed the gap to one goal on three occasions, but
each time the Flyers answered. Shayne Gostisbehere scored
Philadelphia's fourth and final tally late in the second, and that
was the difference.
"I've been saying for a while, I think we have balance from
everybody," Giroux said. "Every night, there's somebody stepping
up."
NOTES: Red Wings RW Anthony Mantha made his NHL debut after being
recalled from American Hockey League affiliate Grand Rapids on
Monday. The 21-year-old, drafted 20th overall by Detroit in 2013,
posted 21 goals and 24 assists in 56 AHL games this season. ...
Flyers RW Jakub Voracek remained out with a lower-body injury,
missing his eighth straight game. Voracek skated Monday at practice
and is considered day to day. ... Red Wings D Niklas Kronwall was
sidelined for a second straight game with a knee sprain he suffered
March 12. The 35-year-old veteran is expected to be out one to three
weeks. ... Flyers D Andrew MacDonald returned after a one-game
absence because of a lower-body injury. ... RW Tomas Jurco and LW
Teemu Pulkkinen were healthy scratches for the Red Wings. C R.J.
Umberger and D Evgeny Medvedev were healthy scratches for the
Flyers.
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