Richie18

Here comes da' Ray Emery bandwagon, DE • United States • 15 Years Old • Male

Flyers defeat Panthers 3-2 in shootout

Simon Gagne scored the game winning goal in the shootout, Antero Niittymaki made 32 saves, and the Flyers defeated the Panthers 3-2 tonight. To be quite honest, this was an ugly game, the Flyers did not play their best hockey, but the most important thing was that the Flyers got the two desperate points that they needed. Obviously, the Flyers have been struggling the last few games, but I thought the Flyers did a nice job dictating the pace of this game in the first period. Jeff Carter scored his 30th goal of the season, 8:48 into the first period, as the Flyers took the 1-0 lead. Jeff scored 29 goals last season, so to get to 30 goals right now is a great accomplishment. Almost two minutes after Carts's goal, Simon Gagne scored his 19th goal of the season, as it was a power play tally to give the Flyers a two goal lead. Getting those two goals in the first period helped the Flyers out a lot because lately, the Flyers have had to come behind in games because of giving up an early goal. Let's be honest here, even though the Flyers played well, the Panthers were just getting their skating legs together. Florida hadn't played since last Saturday afternoon, so they had five days off to rest. However, in the second period, the Panthers dominated the period. They got their skating legs back, had a lot of jump, and some of the Flyers penalties got the Cats back into the game. With Randy Jones in the box for holding, Bryan McCabe cashed in on the power play, scoring his 8th of the season, as the Panthers got on the board to make it 2-1. Not long after that, Kimmo Timonen was in the box for a delay of game penalty, and Jay Bouwmeester tied the game at 2-2. With these penalties that occured in the second period for the Flyers, you knew that it would come back to bite them at some point, and it did. Not only that, but there was a lack of forechecking and getting shots on Tomas Vokoun. Vokoun only faced three shots in the period. A lot of that was the fact that the Flyers were in their own zone a lot, having to kill penalties. The Panthers had 13 shots in the period, and the game was knotted up at two going into the third period. Many people were thinking that considering the ugliness of this game, if the Flyers got a point, they'd be thrilled. The third period was all about the goalies and the defense. Niitty only faced five shots in the period, and he stopped all of them. On the other side, Vokoun only faced seven shots on goal and he stopped them all. However, the Flyers made it interesting as late in the third period, Joffrey Lupul took a delay of game penalty. The Flyers had to kill the powerplay, and they did so. After 60 minutes of play, it was all tied up at 2-2. In overtime, neither team scored, so we headed to the dreadful shootout. In the shootout, Simon Gagne scored the winner for the Flyers as he went backhand on Tomas Vokoun to win it for the Flyers. Niitty stopped all three Florida attempts, from Ville Peltonen, Michael Frolik, and Nathan Horton. Now for those who watched the game, you saw Mike Richards do one of the funniest things you will ever see. When Richie goes to make his attempt, he goes in very, very slowly on Vokoun, then Richie just turned the switch on and tried to confuse Vokoun, but Vokoun stopped Richie. That shootout attempt by Richie tells you how much he hates the shootouts. So the Flyers win the game 3-2, and get the two big points tonight. Carts, Richie, and Simon showed up big time tonight, and that is a great sign. These last few games, the big three mightily struggled, but they got back on track tonight, and that is big for the Flyers. In my opinion, I believe the Flyers owe Niitty a nice steak dinner after the performance that he had tonight. Niitty made some big saves at key points that kept the Flyers in this game. If it wasn't for Niitty, the Flyers wouldn't have won this game. I think Niitty should get a little bit more playing time, not just on the second half of back to backs. Now obviously, Niitty will get the start next Wednesday against Atlanta because Niitty seriously owns the Thrashers. What is amazing is that Niitty is just coming back from a hamstring injury. It seems like Niitty is a fast healer, remember, he had the hip surgery before the start of the season, but he was ready for opening night. The Flyers have four days off until their next game, when they take on the Atlanta Thrashers next Wednesday night, that game can be seen on Comcast Sportsnet at 7pm.

Game Summary
Scoring
First Period
PHI- J. Carter(30), Asts: B. Coburn(13), S. Hartnell(16) 12:12 Flyers 1-0
PHI- S. Gagne(19), PP Asts: M. Richards(29), M. Knuble(12) 14:08 Flyers 2-0
Penalties
PHI- B. Coburn, Hooking 2 min, 6:11
FLA- D. Booth, Interference 2 min, 7:35
FLA- B. McLean, Slashing 2 min 13:38
Second Period
Scoring
FLA- B. McCabe(8), PP Asts: K. Ballard(13), M. Frolik(11) 14:47 Flyers 2-1
FLA- J. Bouwmeester(9), PP Asts: C. Stillman(11), S. Weiss(21) 17:36 Tie 2-2
Penalties
PHI- A. Alberts, Hooking 2 min 7:12
PHI- R. Jones, Closing Hand on Puck 2 min 9:51
PHI- R. Jones, Holding 2 min 13:08
PHI- K. Timonen, Delaying Game- Puck over glass 2 min 16:48
Third Period
Scoring
NONE
Penalties
FLA- B. McCabe, Roughing 2 min 4:51
PHI- J. Lupul, Delaying Game- Puck over Glass 2 min 17:05
Overtime
Scoring
NONE
Penalties
NONE
Shootout
PHI: M. Richards(NG), S. Gagne(G)
FLA: V. Peltonen(NG), M. Frolik(NG), N. Horton(NG)

Goalies
Philadelphia Flyers
#30 Antero Niittymaki(W): 32 Saves on 34 Shots
Florida Panthers
#29 Tomas Vokoun(OTL): 24 Saves on 26 Shots

Three Stars of game(by South Florida Media):
1. #12 Simon Gagne PHI
2. #4 Jay Bouwmeester FLA
3. #17 Jeff Carter PHI

Next game: Wednesday night vs. Atlanta Thrashers 7pm CSN-HD


[/img]http://sports.espn.go.com...4182&gameId=290116026[/img]

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