From: seth@cbnewsh.cb.att.com (peter.r.clark..jr)
Subject: FLYERS notes 1/25
Organization: AT&T
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 03:11:21 GMT
Keywords: FLYERS/Whalers summary



The FLYERS defeated the Hartford Whalers last night 5-4 in overtime. The
FLYERS had 2 one goal leads before falling behind by 2 in the 3rd period
against the 3rd worst team in the NHL, but rallyed in the closing minutes
of the game to tie.

Injuries:

A small but significant shift on the return of Lindros: the wording has
changed from "out 2 or 3 weeks" to "another 2 weeks." I take this to mean
that a return date has been set, probably the home game against Ottawa
on 2/9 (after the All-Star break) assuming no downturn in his condition.
This is just based on how they changed their wording as time went on the
last time around with Eric's knee.

Snuggerud has a cold and did not play.

Lines:

Fedyk-Recchi-Paslawski
Eklund-Brind'Amour-Dineen
Evans-Acton-Brown
Lomakin-Beranek (saw only limited playing time)

Yushkevich-Galley
Carkner-Nattress
McGill-Hawgood
Hynes (also saw only limited playing time)

Soderstrom's 18th straight start despite giving up 20 goals in the last 3
games. This is the 3rd game in 4 days, and coming up are games on Tuesday,
Thursday, Saturday, Sunday. If you have to rest a guy, the game against the
3rd worst team in hockey is a good place to start if you ask me...

Special teams:

FLYERS PP read hot, 17 for the last 22. Now ranked 15th at 19%. Hartford
penalty killing is 23rd at only 75%.
Whalers PP ranked 22nd at 16%, but the FLYERS PK has been brutal lately,
dropping to 22nd at 76%.

Game Summary:

The FLYERS came into the game having lost 3 straight despite scoring 4 goals
or more in their previous 8 consecutive games. The power play was on a big
roll over those three games, though. The Whalers have been giving the FLYERS
fits for the last couple of years and had won the last 6, 3 in each building.
The last FLYERS win against this club was 2/1/90 at the Spectrum by a score of
2-1.

The Whalers got their first chance on the power play with Acton in the box
for holding the stick just over 5 minutes into the game. The FLYERS shut down
the Whalers, and as Pat Poulin carried at the right point, Dineen stripped
him of the puck and sent it ahead to Galley breaking through the neutral zone
2 on the goalie with Brind'Amour. Galley skated into the left circle, made a
perfect pass to Brind'Amour coming through the right circle, and he stashed it
past Frank Pietrangelo for a 1-0 lead shorthanded at 6:56. It's Brind'Amour's
3rd SH goal of the year, 23rd overall, and 99th of his career. The FLYERS
killed the rest of the Whalers power play.

Then at even strength, the FLYERS defense broke down. Galley had lost his stick,
and Fedyk had given his to Galley as the play went on in the FLYERS zone. The
play stayed in the FLYERS zone because of a series of missed opportunities for
the FLYERS to clear, and the Whalers doing a good job of aggressively taking
advantage. Randy Ladouceur picked up a loose puck along the right offensive
boards off a Steve Weinrich shot. He sent the puck behind the net to Terry
Yake, and Yake tried to send the puck to the point. Recchi got his stick on the
puck and stopped it dead in the crease as he was falling away from it, and
Jamie Leach, son of former FLYER Reggie Leach, swooped in and sent the puck
through the 5 hole at 9:54.

The Whalers started to control play a little more, mostly due to aggressive
forechecking. The FLYERS got a power play, though, that was the best power
play I've seen without a goal being scored. The FLYERS hit the left post
just before play was blown dead. Then on the advantage, the Greg Hawgood
hit the right post, then the cross bar, then the corner where the crossbar
and the left post meet. They had to review that one. The Whalers couldn't
clear the zone until there were abour 20 seconds left in the advantage.

After that penalty expired, Terry Carkner checked Leach off the puck as
he entered the FLYERS zone on the right defensive side and sent the puck
ahead to Evans who carried into the Whalers end. Evans dropped to Acton
at the top of the right circle, and he fed Carkner who flew through the
slot. Carkner shot as he entered the left circle and beat Pietrangelo
high to the glove side at 18:45. Shots were 14 to 9 FLYERS.

Then the Whalers got the tie back on a slow 3 on 3. Cassels sent the puck
ahead to ??? who carried out of the zone and fed Geoff Sanderson who carried
through the neutral zone and into the FLYERS end. He carried in left, skated
right parallel and inside the blue line, spun and sent it to Cassels crashing
through the middle of the ice. He evaded Fedyk at as he skated towards the net,
and he finally shot through a screen that Ryan McGill created on his own
goalie for a 2-2 tie at 1:55.

The Whalers then had a goal disallowed. Corriveau held behind the net, and
Cassels skated into the crease, clearly on his own. Corriveau skated out and
backhanded it past Soderstrom, but referee Angus quickly signalled no goal.

But the Whalers would get the lead afterall before the period ended. With
Acton in the box for boarding. Off a faceoff just inside the FLYERS blue
line, with time running out on the advantage, the Whalers won back to Weinrich
at the left point, he sent across to Zalapski who sent it right back. Weinrich
then found Terry Yake in the slot, he fought off Carkner who did a lousy
job of checking him, and Yakes backhanded it past Soderstrom. I think he
perplexed him with his slow-ball at 14:57. (any Bugs Bunny fans out there?)

Near the end of the period, the FLYERS got a 5 on 3 for 1:10. A big chance to
tie the game, but they seemed to be afraid to shoot and only ended up getting
one shot away, a Hawgood slap shot into Pietrangelo's bread basket. They
didn't score on the remaining 50 second 5 on 4 either.

The FLYERS gave the Whalers a 5 on 3 of their own to start the third period.
Brind'Amour took a high sticking penalty at 0:10, and Doug Evans did the same
at 0:52. But the Whalers managed to be even more inept than the FLYERS. The
FLYERS came into the game killing eight of eleven 5 on 3's, and made it nine
of twelve.

Then an ugly goal from the FLYERS standpoint. Off a faceoff in the Whalers
right offensive corner, Yake won it back to Houda who shot from the point.
The puck was knocked down by Evans, and McGill tried to play it out of the
zone but was falling and just made it a little bit easier for Leach to pick
up. He sent it to Yake in the left corner, and Yake skated around the outside
of the left circle through three FLYERS defenders just standing around and
trying to stick check instead of giving him the body. He shot unscreened from
the slot through Soderstrom's 5 hole for the 4-2 lead at 6:47.

Zalapski got called for interference on Evans at 7:41. He didn't like the
call, but went straight to the box. So the FLYERS on their 6th power play,
0 for 5 so far. The FLYERS got some good chances. Hawgood tried to pass from
the left point to Dineen along the boards, but he moved away and the puck
slowly went all the way around to Galley in the right corner. He sent back to
Recchi at the point. Recchi wound up for a shot but saw Brind'Amour at the
side of the net, and fed him the puck. He redirected it into the net for
his 24 goal of the season, number 100 in his career at 9:18.


period and looked like they were going to hang on for the win. But at 16:50
Frank Pietrangelo got caught hooking Doug Evans to give the FLYERS their 7th
power play. He didn't like the call, but it looked pretty blatant on the
replay. The FLYERS had trouble keeping the puck in at first, but finally
Hawgood and Recchi played a little catch along the right boards. Hawgood
finally drifted with the puck to the middle of the top of the zone and shot.
It was just a wrister, but Eklund and Zalapski created a screen battling for
position in front of the net. The puck may have gone off Zalapski's skate,
but in any case it found it's way through the 5 hole for the 4-4 tie at
17:50. So the FLYERS came back from 4-0, 4-1 and 4-2 leads in consecutive
games to tie each at 4. In the first two, they ended up losing.

At 18:52 of the period, Verbeek and Dineen took roughing penalties to create
a 4 on 4 for the rest of the period. Neither team scored, so the penalties
carried over into OT.

The FLYERS came in 2-1-7 in OT, having won both games against Adams division
teams, the Whalers came in 1-4-4, having lost two to Patrick division teams
and the win and other losses were vs Boston. The Whalers looked like they were
trying to play for the tie, and that may have been their undoing.

A faceoff off a FLYERS offsides was won by Brind'Amour back to Carkner. He sent
it across to Nattress who shot in on Pietrangelo from outside the blue line.
Peitrangelo handed to Zalapski, who went behind his own net, and then for
some reason sent a slow blind backhander around the right boards that ended
up on Nattress' stick at the point. He said "Watch me perplex them with my
slooowball" and just slid the puck very slowly along the ice in the direction
of the net. The puck again appeared to go off the skate of Zalapski before it
again beat the goalie through the 5 hole. Somewhow Fedyk got credit for an
assist despite never touching the puck. 5-4 FLYERS win at 2:37 of OT.

"Ric Nattress continues to strike fear in the hearts of opponents"
						- Gary Dornhoefer

So the scoring machine strikes again. his 5th of the season, 4th game winner
all in the last three weeks, and 2 of his goals came in the same game. So the
FLYERS are 4-0 when Ric Nattress scores!

The power play goes 2-7, not bad. The FLYERS move up to 43 points, 8 out of a
playoff spot, still with a game on hand on the Caps, Rangers and Islanders
and even in games with the Devils. They're 4 games under .500, 19th overall
but with expansion teams in all other divisions it's easy to see why they're
only 19th. Next up the FLYERS get a chance to get within 6 points of 4th
place when they play the Buffalo Sabres Tuesday while the Rangers have the
night off. Checking on the 9 of 11 at home string, the FLYERS are 5-3-1
with two games remaining. If the FLYERS can put up a mini hot streak in
the next couple of games, they get the Rangers at MSG in their last game
before the All-Star break.

That's all for now...

pete clark jr - rsh FLYERS contact and FLYERS mailing list owner
att!hoscad!seth
seth@hos1cad.att.com
Newsgroups: rec.sport.hockey