From: seth@cbnewsh.cb.att.com (peter.r.clark..jr)
Subject: FLYERS notes 12/31
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 16:41:51 GMT



The FLYERS won their second consecutive road game, third without a loss,
defeating the San Jose Sharks last night 6-2. The FLYERS have scored 21
goals in the first three games of this road trip and given up only 9. The
FLYERS learned in Ottawa that there are no free rides in the NHL, and there
was no letdown last night.

Injuries:

No change in the status of Lindros. The team is still hopeful that he will
play Saturday. They're already starting to compare his knee to Hextall's
groin on the Philly radio talk shows. If it weren't for the holiday week
we'd probably be hearing crap like that here on the net...

Terry Carkner hurt his hip in a fight (really a wrestling match) during the
second period of this game. He did not return, no word yet on his status.

Lines:

Despite what I felt was a good performance in what little playing time he
got vs the Kings, Lomakin was scratched in favor of a 7th defenseman. Since
defensive pairings are becoming fairly stable, I'm listing them as well.

Eklund-Brind'Amour-Dineen
Fedyk-Recchi-Paslawski
Boivin-Acton-Evans
Snuggerud-Brown

Galley-Yushkevich
Benning-McGill
Hynes-Carkner
Cronin (he saw spot duty resting people until Carkner got hurt)

Game Summary:

It was the Sharks who came out flying to start this game. They were slamming
FLYERS left and right and controlling play, and got an early power play to
show for it. The FLYERS had the worst penalty killing unit coming into the
game at 74.?%. But the FLYERS killed that off, and soon after got their first
decent offensive thrust. Yushkevich sent the puck to Fedyk just inside the
Sharks zone along the right boards, and he sends a pass to Recchi. Recchi
had his back to Fedyk and was skating towards the net about 15 feet from it,
and he had to take the pass with the back of his stick on the forehand side.
He started out just to the right side of the net, swung around to the left
and almost skated past it before he shot for a near impossible angle. The
shot slid under both pads of the sliding goaltender Jeff Hackett, barely
cleared the near post and ended up just inside the far post. It had to be
perfect and it was. 1-0 FLYERS at 4:47 of the first.

The Sharks got a brief 4 on 3 power play later in the period but again failed
to connect. Then with the FLYERS on their first power play attempt goalie
Hackett interfered with Mark Recchi and got nailed at 16:02. It took just
7 seconds for the leagues 22nd ranked power play to connect. The Sharks
came into the game 7 for 7 killing 5 on 3 situations. Brian Benning took
a pass at the left point, slid it across to Recchi at the right point. He
carried to the high arc of the right circle and shot, and Rod Brind'Amour
made a very patient play off the rebound. Instead of hacking at it, he calmly
controlled it, pulled it around Hackett and lifted it over his left pad into
the top of the net. The FLYERS failed to connect on the remaining 1:53 of
that penalty, but did get some good pressure and moved the puck around very
well. It's been a long time since I've seen such a confident looking power
play from them...

So the FLYERS lead 2-0 after one period and outshoot San Jose 16-8 after a
slow start.

The FLYERS got their third crack at the power play 10:34 into the second.
This time they're having some trouble getting sustained pressure. Benning
controlled the puck in a crowd with Recchi and two Sharks just inside the
Sharks zone along the right boards. He pushed the puck ahead to Brind'Amour 
who drifts into the center of the right circle as Recchi moves down into
the slot. Brind'Amour just waits for Recchi to get there, feeds him the
puck and Recchi wristed it past Hackett for a 3-0 lead, FLYERS 2 out of 3
on the power play!

About a minute and a half later Yushkevich hands the puck over to Snuggerud
again just inside the Sharks zone on the right. He sends it cross ice to
Cronin who's flying in, skates with the puck to the high arc of the left
circle and rockets a wrister past Hackett at 14:09.

The Sharks get cheated later in the period. Pat Falloon on a breakaway
angling in from the right of the offensive zone all by himself. Gord Hynes,
who I believe was the person Falloon had beaten to create the play, comes
from way behind him and takes him out. The play clearly met all penalty shot
criterion but referee LaRue just gave a 2 minute power play which the Sharks
failed to convert.

Carkner then hurt his hip in what was more of a wrestling match than a
fight with Odgers with just seconds left in the period. As I said above,
he did not return.

The Sharks start the third period the way they started the first, and this
time it pays off. Garpenlov had the puck in the right corner of the offensive
zone when he got hammered by a FLYERS defender, Hynes I think. The puck
slides around the corner and along the back boards, past another Shark
slamming into the boards with a FLYER, and Kelly Kisio finally picks it
up just before it gets behind the goal. He sent it out to Tom Pederson
(no relation to Mark) who was to the right of the net, and he one timed it
past Soderstrom to break up the shutout at 0:35 of the third period.

Moments later, (Ray?) Whitney carried the puck into the FLYERS zone and
pushed it ahead to a breaking Corriveau. He carried the puck through the
left circle, but got leaned on just enough that he went behind the net
rather then to the left side of the crease where it seemed he wanted to
go. Carter then picked up the resulting loose puck and sent it out to
Whitney who had moved to the left side of the slot, and he one timed it
past Soderstrom to cut the lead to 4-2 at 1:41, and make that non-penalty
shot loom a little bigger.

The Sharks continued to control play, but Soderstrom got it back together
and with every save you could see the Sharks lose a little more of their
fire. The FLYERS start to return a little of the pressure, and on a busted
play Gary Galley flew in from the point to pick up a loose puck sent to the
right corner of the offensive zone by Fedyk. He sent it to Paslwaski stationed
behind the net and skated to the front of the crease, and Paslawski completed
the give and go by giving back to Galley who stuffed it through Hackett to
get the lead back to three goals at 8:08.

Then Gord Hynes closed the scoring on the sorriest 2 on 1 goal I've ever
seen. Rod Brind'Amour battled with a Shark for the puck at the FLYERS blue
line. Hynes swooped in and grabbed the puck and heads in 2 on 1 with Eklund.
Hynes showed pass all the way, slowed down to give himself more time to
pass, stared at Eklund, and finally about 10 feet from the net sent the
completely unexpected pass to Eklund. The pass went right into the skate
of Tom Pederson who kicked at it, and sent it right back onto the stick
of Hynes. Only problem was that Hackett had moved to cover the shot he
expected from Eklund, and Hynes had all the time he wanted to slide it
into the open net. It was so sad that mere words cannot do it justice...

So the FLYERS insure at least going .500 on the road trip, and improve the
woeful road record to 4-12-3. Rod Brind'Amour has 11 points on the trip
which moves him into second place in scoring on the team (don't know his
total offhand, though). Mark Recchi came into the game 10th overall in
scoring and his 3 points surely moved him up on that list.

The special teams have been unbelievable since the Caps game. The FLYERS
have killed 11 straight penalties since the early PP goal vs the Kings,
and are 6 of 12 in the last two games.

The FLYERS move to with 6 points of a playoff spot, 5 out of 5th place,
as all other teams were idle, and are only 5 games below .500. But next
up is a big test as they visit the second place overall Calgary Flames
Saturday before finishing out the road trip in Edmonton.

That's all for now. Happy New Year!

pete clark jr - rsh FLYERS contact
Newsgroups: rec.sport.hockey