What a difference a change in goaltending can make.
After Steve Mason had issues in the first three games of the Philadelphia Flyers’ series with Washington, Michal Neuvirth has been stellar in backstopping the Flyers to two straight wins.
“He’s always very calm in the net,” Flyers forward Jakub Voracek said of Neuvirth. “Again, he showed it today. The last two games he’s been outstanding and given us the chance to win the game and here we are going back home when nobody expected it.”
Michal Neuvirth made 44 saves in win – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
On Friday night, the Flyers defeated Washington, 2-0, to get back to within one of tying the series.
Neuvirth made 44 saves in keeping the Flyers hopes alive after being down 0-3 in the series.
“I like to face a lot of shots,” Neuvirth said. “It keeps me in the game. I enjoy it. Guys did a really good job in front of me. I was seeing the puck well. We didn’t take any bad penalties, and we stuck to our system and big win for us.”
Ryan White scored for Philly and Chris VandeVelde added a late empty-net goal to seal the victory.
With the win, the Flyers now trail 2-3 and head home for Game 6 at Wells Fargo Center on Sunday ((noon ET; NBC, CBC, TVA Sports)).
“The only pressure we will have is on ourselves,” Capitals coach Barry Trotz said. “We have to go into Philadelphia and we have to play really well and get a win there. If we don’t accomplish that then we will go to Game 7. I thought tonight we played excellent.”
Despite the win it is difficult to see too much celebration in the Flyers locker room; they managed just 11 shots on goal for the game and concentrated on defense.
But even with that commitment to defense they still yielded 44 shots and if not for Neuvirth’s heroics the score might have been overwhelmingly against Philadelphia and they would be looking for tee times on Sunday and not Game 6.
“It’s probably pretty rare that you lose a game when you out-shoot them four-to-one,” Capitals forward Daniel Winnik said. “But we’ve just got to get greasy around the net. I think we just need some more bodies there when the pucks are going there and things should go our way. You saw their goal – off a skate and in. That’s what happens in the playoffs.”
The Flyers were also 0-for6 with the man advantage, something they need to address in the next 36 hours.
Philadelphia is 1-for21 on the power play in the series.
Washington was scoreless in three chances with the extra skater.
The commitment to team defense produced 19 blocked shots on the night but also showed how much the Flyers were outplayed.
Even with only 11 shots on goal Braden Holtby only made 9 saves.
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