Flyers fall to Jets; Steve Mason questions team's effort
WINNIPEG, Manitoba - The Flyers' flickering playoff hopes have almost faded to black. They moved closer toward being eliminated as they lost to injury-ravaged Winnipeg, 3-2, at the MTS Centre on Tuesday night.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba - The Flyers' flickering playoff hopes have almost faded to black.
They moved closer toward being eliminated as they lost to injury-ravaged Winnipeg, 3-2, at the MTS Centre on Tuesday night.
The Flyers had little attack time against a Jets defense filled with AHL call-ups, and they played yet another uninspiring game on the road, where they have just four wins in their last 22 games (4-15-3).
"I don't think anybody is too pleased with this game," losing goalie Steve Mason said. "It's frustrating for everybody considering the situation we're in. We need to be a more desperate hockey club, and I don't think we were tonight."
Opening a make-or-break four-game trip, the Flyers were soundly outplayed and they remain seven points out of a playoff spot with 10 games left.
Blake Wheeler fired a right-circle shot past Mason's glove to give Winnipeg a 2-1 lead with 12 minutes, 58 seconds left.
With 11:49 remaining, the Flyers' struggling power play had a chance to tie it. Instead, they went in reverse. Winnipeg had a 3-1 shots edge while shorthanded.
Defenseman Michael Del Zotto had a close power-play shot, but goalie Michael Hutchinson kicked it aside. That made the Flyers 3 for 38 (7.9 percent) on the power play in their last 10 games.
Mark Scheifele iced it with a little over six minutes left, scoring from the left circle after Andrew MacDonald and Jordan Weal misconnected on a pass.
The Jets, who are virtually out of the playoff race, had lost six straight to the Flyers, who got to within 3-2 on Matt Read's goal with two seconds left.
The Jets used a goalie, Hutchinson, who had been their third-stringer last month and was starting his first game since Jan. 16. Winnipeg's defense had five regulars sidelined by injuries, and its blue line had three recent AHL call-ups, including Nelson Nogier, who made his NHL debut.
"It was up to us to make them feel uncomfortable," Mason said. 'We're also facing a goaltender who hadn't had a start in two months, and I don't think we made it hard enough for him. We need a better effort. We keep playing like this and we'll be mathematically eliminated before you know it. We've got to stop this win-one-lose-one [habit]. We have to have some growth on the team here."
"If you want to be a playoff team, we have to be more consistent in what we do," captain Claude Giroux said.
Hutchinson wasn't tested much in the first 40 minutes, but the Flyers struck first on Weal's fourth goal in his last 10 games.
Hutchinson turned aside Wayne Simmonds from in close, but the right winger grabbed the rebound, patiently waited behind the net, and found Weal for a one-timer in front, giving the Flyers a 1-0 lead with 15:32 left in the second period.
But the Flyers' penalty kill quickly gave it back.
About 21/2 minutes after Weal's goal, Mathieu Perreault tied it as he deflected Wheeler's point drive past a screened Mason while the Flyers were killing a delay-of-game penalty. At that point, opponents had 10 goals in their last 24 power-play chances against the Flyers in the last nine games.
The Flyers had little offense the rest of the second period, primarily because they had to kill off an additional six minutes of penalties. Over the first two periods, the Jets had 9:45 of power-play time, while the Flyers had two minutes.
"The second period put us back on our heels with the eight minutes of penalties we took," coach Dave Hakstol said, "and we didn't recover in the third period. They made more plays than we did in the third period."
The Flyers managed just 14 shots over the first two periods against an inexperienced defense and a goalie who struggled with his rebound control the few times he was tested.
The Flyers were coming off a dramatic late rally that produced a 4-3 overtime win over Carolina on Sunday, but the momentum didn't carry into a scoreless first period in which most of the action was in the neutral zone.
"We're a better team than what happened tonight," said Giroux, whose team resumes its four-game trip Thursday in Minnesota, then travels to Columbus and Pittsburgh.
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