Philadelphia Flyers thrash Chicago Blackhawks 4-1
Jeff Carter lit the lamp twice and earned an assist, as the Philadelphia Flyers held on for a 4-1 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday.
Nikolay Zherdev and Scott Hartnell also scored a goal apiece for Philadelphia, who recovered from Saturday's 3-1 drop to New Jersey Devils, and have won nine of their last 11 games. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 30-of-31 shots for the winners, while Claude Giroux
had four assists in the win.
Marian Hossa was the lone scorer for the Blackhawks, who had won two consecutive games, and were 5-0-1 in their last six play-offs. Corey Crawford turned aside 30 shots in the losing effort.
Chicago head coach Joel Quenneville said after the game, "They scored the all important first goal, got the lead and had the momentum. We didn't do a very good job of getting it back. I thought we had a good start to the game, were doing a lot of good things,
but that was an important goal."
Both teams had a power-play opportunity in the first session, but were unable to score. Chicago got more scoring chances than the Flyers, but Philadelphia dominated the play defensively in the neutral zone. Bobrovsky saved all 11 shots, including ones on
Jonathan Toews and Tomas Kopecky. Meanwhile, Crawford kept Chicago in the game, giving up only the one goal on 19 shots.
Flyers Coach Peter Laviolette praised his team’s goaltender by saying, “(Bobrovsky) was in complete control, never too far out of position. Not deep. There were no second opportunities. He was quick with his legs.”
The Flyers got on the board first to take a 1-0 lead just 49 seconds into the second period. The move started when Braydon Coburn snapped a shot from the right point, which was saved by Crawford, but he could not control the rebound. While Crawford was down
in the crease, Philadelphia made several efforts that hit him or were stopped by Chicago defensemen. Carter, finally, got his stick on the puck and hammered it into the net.
Zherdev then got in on the scoring to give the Flyers a two-goal advantage at 2-0 early in the final period. He scored on a wraparound, as he circled the net and tapped in a shot from the left side before Crawford could cover the post.
Carter tallied his second goal of the game for a 3-0 lead just three minutes later. The play was set up by Giroux, who threw a centring pass from the edge of the crease to Carter, who beat Crawford from close range.
Hossa pulled the Blackhawks within a goal to make it a 3-1 game a minute and a half later. It started when Coburn closed Hossa’s hand on the puck during a goal-mouth scramble. As a result, Hossa was awarded a penalty shot, and he fired a wrist shot through
Bobrovsky’s pads.
Hossa praised the Flyers tactics by saying, “It seems like they had five guys in the neutral zone. They were waiting for our mistakes and it was hard to get the puck by them.”
However, Chicago failed to get any closer the rest of the way, and Hartnell accounted for the final scoring 4-1 by adding an empty-netter with 52 seconds left in the game.
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