Calgary Burns Flyers in Shootout

The synopsis of Saturday’s Flyers Matinee against the visiting Calgary Flames can be recorded in one simple letter, “F”!

Not thinking of a certain word, but, it can be inserted after the Shootout. “F” would symbolize, Futility, frustration, and failure.

Two struggling teams would meet up in the Wells Fargo with the Philly boys coming off an impressive show against Carolina.

Calgary, on the other hand, were entrenched in a tailspin for the ages.

Having gone winless in six games, and notching a grand total of 3 goals in five tilts and an unworldly streak of 357:54 without holding a lead. The only statistical entries were penalties. Each team was called for a single minor each.

Both netminders were relatively untested with Carter Hart (Flyers) and David Rittich (Calgary) each easily handling eight shots apiece.

Travis Sanheim and Sean Couturier set the stage for a historic goal when the assisted on the 200th career goal from Jakob Vorachek. Vorachek scored off a sweet wrister to put the home team in front 1-0 at the 13:26 mark.

How futile was Calgary? The Flames only managed 3 shots on goal in the stanza.

Whatever was going wrong for Calgary, changes thrust to the forefront and the frustration was torched with an Andrew Mangiapane marker at the 1:01.

Mangiapane got vindicated for clanging a sure goal off the post in the second.

Calgary, still snakebitten, could not get to the heart of the matter against Carter Hart.

Kevin Hayes took advantage of a Rittich misplay and put Philadelphia up, 2-1 with just 3:46 to play and it appeared Calgary would continue to drink the bitter vetch of defeat.

Elias Lindholm would have none of that and found the net behind Hart to knot it up at 2-2 with only 1:23 remaining.

The five minute overtime proved fruitless and the teams went to the Shootout.

The Calgary leadless streak moved to 404:54 but, the Flames shrugged that off and Matthew Tkaczuk would nail the golden goal to stem some Calgary angst with the 3-2 victory.

Game With the Game: Shots on Goal favored the Orange and Black,39-27 and Philly dominated faceoffs, winning 60%. This contest marked Philadelphia’s league-leading 8th Shootout game.

A testament to depth? Philadelphia used no fewer than nine players on face-offs Kevin Hayes led the way with a 10 for 14 performance.

Next Flyer game is Monday, November 25 against Vancouver.

Kevin Neibauer

Kevin has followed and promoted the game of lacrosse since May 19, 1974.
The same day the Philadelphia Flyers won the Cup, the Philadelphia Wings were introduced to Neibauer and Philadelphia.

Kevin has covered many sports, including baseball, football, basketball, and.. lacrosse. A former licensed football referee and baseball umpire, Kevin brings a unique insight to his game coverage.

A published writer in JustHockey Magazine, Kevin covered the American Hockey League as well as a monthly story on a pugilist where Kevin used the pen name, The Rink Rat. Neibauer turned his attentions to lacrosse for a few years and does his part, whether podcasting or writing to grow the game. Kevin branched out to his roots and currently provides insight for all Philadelphia teams for Edge of Philly as well as his full-time duties with LaxPhilly.