Thursday, February 2, 2012

Flyers, Simmonds Resist Predator Comeback in 4-1 Victory

The Nashville Predators lost to Wayne Simmonds and the Philadelphia Flyers 4-1 on Thursday night at the Wells Fargo Center.

Simmonds, who has become a nemesis of the Predators, was clearly the hero of the game for the Flyers, scoring two goals and logging an amazing ten shots for the game. Matt Read picked up a goal and Claude Giroux scored his 19th goal of the year on an empty-netter.

Ryan Suter had the lone goal for the Predators.

Ilya Bryzgalov had better luck against the Predators than his prior game in Nashville as he stopped 26 of 27 Nashville shots. Anders Lindback allowed three goals on 27 Flyer shots in the loss.

The Flyers and Predators both had 66 points after the game but Philadelphia had played two less games.

The Predators returned home after the game and will play St. Louis at home on Saturday at 7 p.m.

Make the jump for more detail and comments from the couch...


At the Puck Drop...

Goalies: Anders Lindback (2-5-0, 2.65, .898) and Ilya Bryzgalov (18-10-5, 2.93, .896)

Scratches: Jack Hillen, Brandon Yip, and Brian McGrattan for the Predators. Erik Gustafsson, Jody Shelley, and Danny Briere for the Flyers.

First Period...

The Predators were outshooting the Flyers 7-3 at the first TV timeout at 7:29 in a very fast paced start to the game..


Jaromir Jagr was called for hooking David Legwand at 9:03 to pur the Preds on the game's first power play.  At 10:21, Shea Weber fired a shot high that Craig Smith deflected into the net but it was waived off for being played with a high stick which was clearly the proper call. The Preds were credited with one shot on the man advantage.

The Flyers were first on the board at 15:41 when Simmonds made an acrobatic move to spin and put the puck into the net to put Philadelphia ahead 1-0.

Legwand drew his second hooking penalty of the game at 16:38 when Matt Carle got his stick around him. The Predators had two shots but no goals on the man advantage.

The Predators played well in the opening period but missed out on their power play opportunities in a period with only a few stoppages as indicated by only 15 faceoffs.


1st Period       Goals            Shots          Corsi            PIMs         Faceoffs   
Predators        0        12        23       0-0:00  9-6  60%
Flyers                 1          6        13       2-4:00  6-9  40%

Second Period...

There was plenty of back and forth action in the first half of the period and the Flyers got away with a blatant tripping call and no make-up ensued.

The Predators situation deteriorated rapidly at when they were called for too many men on the ice at 9:56. Twenty-six seconds later, Ryan Suter was called for delay of game giving the Flyers 1:34 of five on three play. The Flyers took a time out after several scoring chances that ended with Lindback giving Scott Hartnell a shove.

As the man-advantage wore down, with four seconds left at 12:18, there were multiple scrums which resulted in a round of penalties for both squads. Legwand and Frankie Bouillon each received roughing penalties and Jakub Voracek was called for roughing and Hartnell received roughing and slashing calls.

At 14:32, Kevin Klein turned the puck over to Read who drove for the net and scored to give the Flyers the 2-0 lead. It was a goal that Lindback would have liked to have seen again.

The Predators went back on the man advantage at 15:18 when Andreas Lilja was called for roughing. The Preds did not manage a shot during their fourth power play.

2nd Period       Goals            Shots          Corsi            PIMs         Faceoffs  
Predators        1         4        11       4-8:00 7-9  44%
Flyers                   0        11        22       4-8:00 9-7  56%

Third Period...

Sergei Kostitsyn had a great scoring chance at :48 that could have made it a much more competitive game.

The Predators finally broke through when Craig Smith picked up a bobble from Matt Halischuk and sent it to Suter who put it into the net from the backside of the net to cut the Flyers lead to 2-1.

At 11:18, the save of the game was made by Lindback on a point blank shot from Simmonds to keep the game close.

The Predator comeback was hindered at 14:44 when Jerred Smithson was called for interference on Lilja. It didn't take long for Pred-killer Simmonds to do another spin-o-rama from point blank range to give the Flyers a 3-1 lead.

Lindback was pulled with a couple of minutes left and Giroux put the icing on the cake for the Flyers with an empty netter at 18:55.

3rd  Period       Goals            Shots          Corsi            PIMs         Faceoffs  
Predators        1        11        21       1-2:00 14-7  67%
Flyers                  2        11        22       0-0:00 7-14  33%

Final...

Final     Goals            Shots          Corsi            PIMs         Faceoffs  
Predators        1        27        55       0-0:00 29-22  57%
Flyers                  4        28        57       2-4:00 22-29  43%

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

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