The Flyers came into today's final regular season game with nothing to prove. Playoff rankings are set in stone, so it's a given that they will open up in New York against the Rangers on Thursday. Still, the team did not want to go into the playoffs on a sour note. Despite the loss, which came in a shootout, the Flyers can still take many positives away from this game.
Things got off to shaky start for goalie Cal Heeter, who was playing in his first NHL game. Berube decided to give Heeter a chance today while Steve Mason remains day to day after suffering an upper body injury yesterday thanks to Penguin Jason Megna pushing Andrew MacDonald into him. Since there was nothing to gain from this game Mason sat, but Berube says that Mason will be ready for the first playoff game Thursday.
Heeter let in 3 goals on 9 shots in the first period. One to Jeff Skinner, one to Eric Staal and one to Manny Malhotra.
Matt Read scored for the Flyers that period to bring the score to 3-1 at the first intermission. Only 17 seconds into the second period though, Staal would tally his second goal of the game to make it 4-1. After this though, Heeter settled down, allowing the Flyers to keep Emery on the bench, and the Flyers came storming back.
Kimmo Timonen made it 4-2 on a slapshot from the point during a power play. Only 10 seconds later, before the announcer was even done announcing the last goal, Wayne Simmonds beat Carolina's goalie Anton Khudobin to bring it to 4-3.
With 4:28 left in the second, Sean Couturier found himself on a breakaway and pulled some nasty forehand-to-backhand moves to beat Khudobin and tie it 4-4. Couturier's 13th goal of the year, it matches is season high from 2 years ago.
The Hurricanes went back up 5-4 thanks to Jeff Skinner's power play goal with 4:21 left in the game. The Flyers could have sat back in preparation for Sunday, but they played tough till the end and were rewarded with a Wayne Simmonds goal with 10 seconds left in regulation to force OT. Simmonds surpassed Claude Giroux with that goal, his 29th of the season.
The Flyers controlled the puck for what seemed like all of the overtime. Ultimately Carolina's defense held strong and a shootout was necessary. With a rookie goalie in net, Berube said "what the hell?" and threw Jason Akeson, also a rookie, up first. He subsequently missed, as did Giroux & Coots. Eric Staal was the only Hurricane to beat Khudobin, but it was enough to give Carolina the 6-5 win.
The Flyers finish the season with a record of 42-30-10 and will take on the New York Rangers in the first round of the playoffs. The time hasn't been announced for the first game on Thursday yet, but it will most likely be a 7:30 puck drop.
In addition to Mason, there were quite a few healthy scratches today, including Nick Grossmann, Andrew MacDonald, Michael Raffl, Zac Rinaldo (last game of suspension) & Steve Downie. (who will probably get replaced with Jason Akeson again on Thursday)
-Ben Lebo
Follow us on Twitter: @BroadStBeat
Heeter let in 3 goals on 9 shots in the first period. One to Jeff Skinner, one to Eric Staal and one to Manny Malhotra.
Matt Read scored for the Flyers that period to bring the score to 3-1 at the first intermission. Only 17 seconds into the second period though, Staal would tally his second goal of the game to make it 4-1. After this though, Heeter settled down, allowing the Flyers to keep Emery on the bench, and the Flyers came storming back.
Kimmo Timonen made it 4-2 on a slapshot from the point during a power play. Only 10 seconds later, before the announcer was even done announcing the last goal, Wayne Simmonds beat Carolina's goalie Anton Khudobin to bring it to 4-3.
With 4:28 left in the second, Sean Couturier found himself on a breakaway and pulled some nasty forehand-to-backhand moves to beat Khudobin and tie it 4-4. Couturier's 13th goal of the year, it matches is season high from 2 years ago.
The Hurricanes went back up 5-4 thanks to Jeff Skinner's power play goal with 4:21 left in the game. The Flyers could have sat back in preparation for Sunday, but they played tough till the end and were rewarded with a Wayne Simmonds goal with 10 seconds left in regulation to force OT. Simmonds surpassed Claude Giroux with that goal, his 29th of the season.
The Flyers controlled the puck for what seemed like all of the overtime. Ultimately Carolina's defense held strong and a shootout was necessary. With a rookie goalie in net, Berube said "what the hell?" and threw Jason Akeson, also a rookie, up first. He subsequently missed, as did Giroux & Coots. Eric Staal was the only Hurricane to beat Khudobin, but it was enough to give Carolina the 6-5 win.
The Flyers finish the season with a record of 42-30-10 and will take on the New York Rangers in the first round of the playoffs. The time hasn't been announced for the first game on Thursday yet, but it will most likely be a 7:30 puck drop.
In addition to Mason, there were quite a few healthy scratches today, including Nick Grossmann, Andrew MacDonald, Michael Raffl, Zac Rinaldo (last game of suspension) & Steve Downie. (who will probably get replaced with Jason Akeson again on Thursday)
-Ben Lebo
Follow us on Twitter: @BroadStBeat
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