Three reasons the Flyers beat the Devils, 5-3
You bet Devils coach Lindy Ruff was annoyed at the penalty discrepancy. And the iron behind Brian Elliott came in handy a bunch of times.
The Flyers stopped the bleeding after two losses in Boston with a 5-3 win Tuesday night at New Jersey.
Here’s a look at how that happened.
A little help from the refs
James Van Riemsdyk’s second power-play goal came after a weak goalie-interference call on Jersey’s Kyle Palmieri, who was pushed into Brian Elliott by Nolan Patrick. Van Riemsdyk later tripped a Devils player, and Nicolas Aube-Kubel got away with a cross-check to the back of Jack Hughes.
The last five penalties of the game were called on New Jersey. Afterward, Devils coach Lindy Ruff was asked why his team wasn’t able to draw power-play time in the last 57 minutes of the game. “We didn’t draw [any] or we didn’t get any calls?” he said. “Which one?”
Elliott was good (and lucky)
Elliott made 23 saves, including an early breakaway on Pavel Zacha. But he also got helped from the Devils’ hitting the post four times (by our count), including one on Yegor Sharangovich’s clean breakaway and two more Jersey shots that clanged off the crossbar in the third period.
Shot happens
The Flyers outshot New Jersey, 31-26; first time all year they managed more shots than their opponents. They were better in front of Elliott than they were for Carter Hart the other night, when he turned into a lumberjack by busting his stick into a thousand pieces.
“We got on their ‘D’ well. We had more chances than just one-and-dones on the forecheck,” said Nolan Patrick, who scored for the first time since opening night. “I think we played with a lot more confidence. Obviously, coming off that loss [6-1 to Boston], we wanted to be better, and I thought we were.”
Eleven of the Flyers’ shots were on the power play. At 5-on-5, Jersey had a 22-20 shot advantage.