Flyers Shut Out Bruins (10/29/24)

For the second time in four games, the Boston Bruins failed to score a single goal against an opposing team. This time, they couldn't beat the struggling Philadelphia Flyers and their goalie Samuel Ersson. Ersson stopped all 25 shots he saw while the Bruins defense allowed just 19 shots total....problem is one of them went in against Joonas Korpisalo. With 5:32 remaining in the second period, Tyson Foerster scored his second goal of the year to put Philly ahead. Boston failed to respond and Joel Farabee pumped in an empty netter with 24 seconds left. Despite a great effort by the Bruins defense and Korpisalo, the Flyers beat the Bruins 2-0 at TD Garden. How many goals did the Bruins score Dean Wormer?

The Flyers got the first scoring chance just over a minute into the game. Joel Farabee shot on net and Bobby Brink couldn't jam the rebound in. Brink had a second attempt at it but Korpisalo barely got the pad on it. A minute later, Pavel Zacha couldn't get the puck past Samuel Ersson. Nikita Zadorov took a pass from Brandon Carlo but Ersson saved the slap shot. The key to the entire game came when Scott Laughton and Travs Sanheim were called for penalties 24 seconds apart. The Bruins had 1:36 of 5 on 3 power play time and Ersson stopped a wide open David Pastrnak point blank. Brad Marchand was also denied on the same sequence. The puck then went right to Laughton coming out of the box who passed to old friend Garnet Hathaway on a breakaway. Somehow Korpisalo robbed Hathaway to keep the game scoreless. The Bruins failed to score and that was their best chance the rest of the game. Zadorov failed to score 10 minutes into the period and Zacha completely missed the net on a breakaway. Elias Lindholm also had a breakaway but Ersson made the save with 5 minutes left in the first. With 2:15 left, Matthew Poitras passed it to Andrew Peeke but Peeke's shot clanged off the post. That was it for the period with the game tied nothing to nothing.

                                                         Tie game so far

One minute into the second period, Hathaway fired on the Bruins net but Korpisalo made the save. Rasmus Ristolainen fired on net as well but Joonas made another save. Four minutes into the period Pastrnak fired the puck that dropped Jamie Drysdale. With him down the Bruins circled the net but Ersson still made the saves to keep the game tied. The Flyers struck just over five minutes into the period when Emil Andrae was stripped of the puck but Morgan Frost came up with it. He passed it to Tyler Foerster who fired it in to put the Flyers up. Worse yet, just 22 seconds later Carlo was sent off for slashing to put the Flyers on the power play. Marchand had a partial short handed breakaway but his backhand shot was denied by Ersson. The Bruins killed it off and halfway through the period, Geekie shot the puck on net and Trent Frederic failed to score on the rebound. The Bruins got another big chance to score when Frost was called for high sticking with 7:04 left in the period. With the power play winding down, Travis Konecny lost his stick to allow tape to tape passing. Hampus Lindholm passed to Charlie Coyle but his shot was denied by Ersson. With two minutes left in the period, Frederic fired on net and Justin Brazeau failed to put in the rebound. That was it for the period with the Flyers up 1-0.

                                                          Flyers take the lead

The Bruins couldn't get untracked in the third period as Hampus Lindholm was sent to the penalty box for interference just 3:33 into the period. On the power play, Marchand gathered the puck behind the Flyers net and threw it off Ersson. The puck looked to have crossed the goal before the net was dislodged but the refs had to look at it. Somehow the puck stayed in the crease by an inch. Then the Bruins got hit with a too many men on the ice penalty 6:42 into the period. The Bruins killed off the penalty and with 9:49 left, both Andrae and Poitras got matching roughing penalties. Korpisalo stopped a wide open shot from Sean Couturier with 3 minutes to go. With less than a minute to go, Pastrnak was denied by Ersson then McAvoy gave the puck away. With the empty net goal by Farabee, the Flyers had won the game 2-0. Unreal.

                                                   Bruins were THAT close to tying it

Reaction:

The Bruins had chances to win this one with a 5 on 3 powerplay for almost 2 minutes and when Drysdale was down on the ice. They just couldn't get a puck past Ersson, even when Konecny lost his stick on the second period power play. Don't forget the third period Marchand shorthanded shot that was an inch away from tying the game. Bruins TV play by play announcer Jud Sirott said "A step forward against Toronto, a step back against the Flyers" and he was right. This is the kind of game they should have won and kick themselves later in the year for. The Flyers aren't a good team and they had 3 big chances to score a goal, but came away with nothing. So far this season the pucks haven't gone in and its starting to eerily remind Bostonians of a different sport, but similar season. The 2014 Boston Red Sox were what fans THOUGHT the 2013 team was going to be. Bruins fans thought last season was going to be a rebuild following the 2023 collapse. They still have plenty of time to turn things around but this sucks right now. The Bruins look to rebound on Halloween night against the Carolina Hurricanes in North Carolina. The game begins this Thursday night at Lenovo Center.