PHILADELPHIA, Pa- Dropping to the Boston Bruins Saturday afternoon, the Philadelphia Flyers faced off against the Tampa Bay Lightning for the final game of the four game home stand.
Meeting for the last time in the season, the Tampa Bay Lightning hoped to take the series sweep. Meeting earlier in the season, Flyers dropped 4-3 while visiting Tampa Bay. Last month, Lightning visited the Wells Fargo Center, taking the 3-1 lead over the orange and black.
After leaving Saturday’s game with 12:56 remaining in the first period, Steve Mason suffered from a lower-body injury that is now classified as an injury to the right knee. Mason under went an MRI on Sunday, the goaltender is expected to miss two weeks.
Photo by Lewis Bleiman
With Mason out of the lineup, Flyers recalled Rob Zepp from the Leigh High Valley Phantoms. Getting his first NHL career start against the Winnipeg Jets on December 21st, Zepp got the nod against Tampa Bay facing Evgeni Nabokov.
“I like the way he’s playing,” Flyers head coach Craig Berube said on Zepp’s start. “He’s a hard-worker and very competitive.”
Applying pressure early in the first period, tic-tac-toe passing sent the Flyers into the Lightning’s zone. Dropping the puck back, Luke Schenn took the shot onto Nabokov. Redirecting Schenn’s shot, Chris VandeVelde netted in the puck, giving the Flyers the lead.
Sent to the penalty box for tripping, Michael Del Zotto gave Tampa Bay the first power play of the game.
Taking advantage of the power play opportunity, Lightning’s Captain Steve Stamkos scored his 23rd goal of the season, tying the game 1-1.
Beginning the rush into Tampa’s zone, Matt Read slid the puck to R.J. Umberger in front of the net. Shooting on the backhand, Umberger sent the puck top shelf pass Nabokov sending the Flyers into the lead once again.
Photo by Lewis Bleiman
With few opportunities as the period concluded, the Flyers held onto the lead 2-1.
Getting their first chance on the man advantage 1 minute into the second period with former Flyer Matt Carle took a seat in the penalty box, his former squad took action.
Scoring on the one timer, Jakub Voracek notched his 17th goal of the season. Just under one minute later, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare netted in the puck increasisng the lead 4-1.
Giving up two goals just 2:36 into the period, Ben Bishop replaced Nabokov in net for Tampa Bay.
Heading back into the penalty box for the second time in the period for high sticking, Carle received a high sticking major. With fans on their feet, the Wells Fargo Center cheered on.
Scoring on the man advantage 12 seconds later, Mark Streit lit the lamp.
Photo by Lewis Bleiman
Frustration set in for the Lightning as Tyler Johnson was sent to the box for high sticking, taking a seat next to Carle.
Netting in his 10th goal of the season on the power play, Brayden Schenn gave the Flyers 6-1 deficit. But the Flyers team did not stop there.
Receiving the pass from Scott Laughton, Michael Raffl sent the puck past Bishop, for the 7-1 lead.
Earning a goal back just 22 seconds later, Brian Boyle scored for Tampa.
Sitting in the penalty box, Streit was guilty of hooking with 19 seconds remaining in the period.
As the clock clicked down to zero and the second period came to a close, Philadelphia lead Tampa Bay 7-2.
Photo by Lewis Bleiman
With 1:20 remaining on the power play, the third period was underway.
Producing on the man advantage, Ryan Callahan slipped the puck past Zepp for his 13th goal of the season.
With a delayed penalty against Wayne Simmonds, Andrew MacDonald and Brenden Morrow dropped the gloves. As the punches were thrown, Simmonds went to the box.
Unsuccessfully producing on the power play, the Lightning could not recover.
The Philadelphia Flyers took the 7-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning for the first time since February 5th, 2013.
In the 7-3 win, 14 different Philadelphia Flyers players notched at least 1 point.
Starting in his second NHL game, Zepp discussed his effort, “It probably feels even better than the first time around,” he said. “What can I say? The guys played outstanding to build a 7-1 lead against a team like that. That’s incredible. They have a lot of offensive power, but we hung with it to the end.”
Pleased with the way his club produced, Berube said, “We defended really well and you have to defend against the team because they’re the highest-scoring team in the league. They come with a lot of speed. I thought our defense did a good job with good gaps.”
He continued,” The forwards backchecked hard. We forced turnovers and actually caught them a few times with odd-man rushes the other way.”
What about Zepp? “He moves well in net, post to post,” said the coach. “He’s got good structure in the net.”
Photo by Lewis Bleiman
Less than thrilled with the way his club played, Stamkos produced one goal and one shot on Zepp. “They were three power-play goals ahead,” he said. “That wasn’t the problem, though. The problem was out first period. I know it was 2-1, but we didn’t start the game very well. They had all the momentum. They were getting the pucks faster.”
He continued, “We were not touching anyone around our net and leaving our goaltender out to dry. It was an accumulation of things that we probably got away with in the first, but not the second.”
Tampa won 2 of the 3 games against the Flyers in the 2014-2015 season.
Flyers defenseman Braydon Coburn, exited Monday night’s game with a lower-body injury. Further information has not been released regarding the severity of the injury.
The Flyers are heading to the Nation’s Capital to face off against the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night. Making a return back to the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday, the Flyers will welcome the Vancouver Canucks before hitting the road for the weekend.
Puck drop between the Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals is set for 8 p.m.
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