The Flyers went and complicated their possible playoff scenarios by losing to Tampa Bay tonight. By not earning any points tonight they are knocked down to a 3-way with Columbus & Detroit at 91 points. Each team has 2 games left and at this point the orange and black could end up playing either New York, Boston or Pittsburgh in the first round. Not an easy task no matter how it pans out.
Tampa's back up goalie, Anders Lindback, only has 7 wins in 21 games this year, but 3 of them are now against the Flyers. Tonight's victory came thanks to 34 saves.
After a sloppy pass by Steve Downie that led to a turnover, Tyler Johnson was able to slap a pass from Steven Stamkos past Ray Emery to open the scoring up and make it 1-0 Lightning.
The Flyers got their shots off, but Lindback was a wall tonight. It took until a power play with 1:21 left in the second for Wayne Simmonds to finally put one past him. The goal pulls Simmonds even with Giroux again for the team lead at 27.
Richard Panik put the Lightning back up 2-1 four minutes into the third. This was soon followed by Eric Brewer beating Emery from the left circle to make it 3-1.
Couturier put the Flyers back in it 3-2 with 7:38 left in the game with a goal that Ondrej Palat deflected past Lindback. Even the Flyers goals tonight the Lightning had to help with. It just wasn't a great offensive effort all around.
Stamkos put the Lightning back up by 2 with a power play goal with 5:46 left. That would cap the scoring en route to a 4-2 loss by the Flyers. Tampa Bay will play Montreal in the first round of the playoffs, but they still have home-ice advantage to fight for. The Flyers will now have to fight just to stay out of the wild card spot.
The Flyers head out to Pittsburgh on Saturday while the Frozen Four utilizes the Wells Fargo Center. The regular season finally is Sunday at home against Carolina. Both games are at 3:00pm.
-Ben Lebo
Follow us on Twitter: @BroadStBeat
After a sloppy pass by Steve Downie that led to a turnover, Tyler Johnson was able to slap a pass from Steven Stamkos past Ray Emery to open the scoring up and make it 1-0 Lightning.
The Flyers got their shots off, but Lindback was a wall tonight. It took until a power play with 1:21 left in the second for Wayne Simmonds to finally put one past him. The goal pulls Simmonds even with Giroux again for the team lead at 27.
Richard Panik put the Lightning back up 2-1 four minutes into the third. This was soon followed by Eric Brewer beating Emery from the left circle to make it 3-1.
Couturier put the Flyers back in it 3-2 with 7:38 left in the game with a goal that Ondrej Palat deflected past Lindback. Even the Flyers goals tonight the Lightning had to help with. It just wasn't a great offensive effort all around.
Stamkos put the Lightning back up by 2 with a power play goal with 5:46 left. That would cap the scoring en route to a 4-2 loss by the Flyers. Tampa Bay will play Montreal in the first round of the playoffs, but they still have home-ice advantage to fight for. The Flyers will now have to fight just to stay out of the wild card spot.
The Flyers head out to Pittsburgh on Saturday while the Frozen Four utilizes the Wells Fargo Center. The regular season finally is Sunday at home against Carolina. Both games are at 3:00pm.
-Ben Lebo
Follow us on Twitter: @BroadStBeat