Two teams going in opposite directions met up at the Wells Fargo Center for a Saturday matinee.
The Ottawa Senators (12-17-7) hung in against the Philadelphia Flyers (17-8-5) in what was a chippy bizarre affair.
Ottawa was coming off an impressive 5-2 defeat of Edmonton while Philadelphia was smarting from their loss against Arizona.
Ottawa, 12th in the NHL in goals allowed followed the pattern and it took Travis Konecny all of 1:45 to convert passes from Morgan Frost and Claude Giroux to put the.homeboys up,1-0.
At 4:27, Brady Tkaczuk picked up his 5th goal in five games played against Philadelphia before Shayne Gostisbehere put Philly back up, 2-1 and with just under seven minutes played there were already three goals potted.
A minute later things started to take a trip to Bizarro World. Send netminder, Craig Anderson mishandled a bouncing puck and put it in his own net.
Anderson collided with his own teammate and injured himself and was forced to leave the game.
The Senators called for a review claiming Philadelphia was offside. The review was upheld and the goal came off the board.
The Flyguys would not fire another shot on goal in the period but, the news was Travis Konecny was injured when he skated into a prone Senator player and left the affair.
Team Philadelphia took exception and the physical play ensued. Jake Voracek and Nick Paul squared off in what was more a wrestling match at 18:43 and the first would close out with a 2-1 home team advantage.
Anthony DuClair, a bright spot for the Senators, knotted up at with his 12th of the season shorthanded at the 13:18 mark and the combatants would go to the final stanza with the 2-2 score.
Not before The hard feelings continued and with :19 remaining, Joel Farabee and Jean Pageu decided to shut each other up and went at each other with each picking up five minutes.
Farabee was not finished as he set up Ivan Provorov who lit the lamp to put Philly in a 3-2 edge.with 16:43 left in regulation.
Jubilation was short lived and DuClair garnered his 13th and with 5:00 to play, overtime was knocking at the door.
The Flyers refused to answer the knock and Scott Laughton converted a James VanRiemsdyk and Kevin Hayes set up to apparently seal the deal, 4-3.
Laughton, playing with a nasty edge after the Konecny injury starting chirping the Ottawa Bench.
The Sens went with the empty net and Tkaczuk made a completely senseless move and roughed up Laughton which effectively ended the game.
Blue Lines- Philly was outshot, 30-24.
Faceoffs went the home team way with 54% with Coutourier winning 12 of 18.
Both squads were futile on the man advantage, going 0 for 3 while Ottawa picked up the short handed goal.
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.
