Welcome to Hockey After Dark, a nightly recap of the NHL playoffs made possible by insomnia, playoff anxiety, and my BFF caffeine. Come for the topical social commentary, and stay for the sporadic in-depth analysis littered with obscure literary references. If you enjoy the snark, feel free to follow me at @DXTraeger
Penguins Cede Late Goal, Flyers Force Game 6
The Philadelphia Flyers dredged up the perfect recipe for staying with a superior Pittsburgh Penguins team, and forced a Game 6 when a Sean Couturier shot from the blue line ticked off of Brian Dumoulin and in past Matt Murray to give Philadelphia a 3-2 lead.
An empty-netter by Matt Read seconds later sealed the deal, and the 4-2 victory denied the Penguins from vanquishing their cross-state foes.
What the Flyers did was simple:
- Challenged as many Pittsburgh zone entries as possible instead of allowing the Penguins free access into the attacking zone.
- Pressured the Penguins’ first power-play unit / forced them to skate around the perimeter.
- Got pucks to the net and looked for second chance opportunities or deflections.
The Penguins, for their part, kept trying to create the perfect scoring opportunity and ignored the fact that both of their goals were of the “bad” variety and should have been stopped by Philly netminder Michael Neuvith.
The ice at the PPG Paints Arena seemed choppy as both teams had multiple pucks bounce over sticks, but the Flyers’ were the team willing to simplify their offense game and the results reflected that.
Giroux notched his first playoff goal since 2014 to open scoring, firing a slapshot from the slot after two Penguin defenders were caught beneath the goal line.
The Flyers’ captain’s goal temporarily took the PPG crowd out of the game, but the crowd and Pens would roar back when Bryan “BIG GAME” Rust scored yet another goal in an elimination game.
Rust’s wrap-around (the third such goal allowed by Philly netminders in this series) was clearly telegraphed, but Neuvirth failed to seal off the post.
Minutes later, with the Penguins tilting the ice, Jake Guentzel took a Sidney Crosby pass and fired a completely stoppable shot along the ice, but Neuvirth didn’t seal his pads and the 5-hole marker put the Penguins up 2-1.
Seconds later, Radko Gudas was sent off for a desperation hooking/holding penalty, giving Pittsburgh and its power-play the opportunity to bury the Flyers once and for all.
Instead, a lackadaisical overall effort led to Valtteri Filppula outworking and out-muscling Kris Letang, leading to a shorthanded goal that tied the game and once again sapped the air out of the arena.
Pittsburgh would control the majority of the third period, but the Flyers would get the go-ahead goal when Wayne Simmonds poke-checked a puck free in the Pens’ end. Couturier skated in, intercepted the puck before it crossed the blue line, and fired a relatively harmless wrister on net.
The puck took the aforementioned unfortunate bounce off of Dumoulin, and flew past Murray.
The Penguins would have one more chance to tie the game when a deflected puck came onto Sidney Crosby’s stick a foot away from the Philly net, but Neuvirth was in position, and Crosby’s point-blank shot went straight into Neuvirth’s outstretched glove to preserve the 3-2 lead.
Matt Read’s empty netter would come when several Pittsburgh players just left a loose puck chilling in the neutral zone, and Read simply scooped it up and fired an uncontested shot at the gaping twine for the clincher.
For Game 6, the Penguins need to come up with a sense of urgency and desperation that wasn’t apparent– at all– in this contest except for the smallest of bursts. Pittsburgh’s goal scorers– Malkin, Crosby, Kessel– need to shoot the puck instead of deferring for a perfect scoring play that might never come or develop.
The Winnipeg Jets Trash the Minnesota Wild, Presumably End Matt Cullen’s Noted NHL Career
Because of the noted East Coast bias, the Winnipeg Jets’ tremendous season flew under the radar (pun intended), but following the Jets’ 5-0 win over the Minnesota Wild, their play might start to grab everyone’s attention.
The Wild were done in by consecutive shutouts by Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck, and by an inept offense that scored only 3 goals in Minnesota’s four losses.
For former Penguin “dad” Matt Cullen, if he chooses to hang up the skates, he does so with three Stanley Cup rings to his credit.
The Jets will play the winner of the Nashville/Colorado series.
Colorado Avalanche Stun the Parade-Planning Nashville Predators
Former Penguin Nick Bonino opened the scoring for the Nashville Predators with a tally that game shortly after the game’s midway point.
Five minutes later, Gabriel Landeskog tied the game up, and less than three minutes later, presumptive Scandinavian masseuse Sven Andrighetto buried a go-ahead goal past Pekka Rinne.
Not all of the catfish in the world could empower the Preds to tie this one up, and one of the NHL’s Stanley Cup favorites is now staring down a Game 6 against an upstart opponent…
….hey, this sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
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