WON’T GO AWAY
Facing elimination, pesky Flyers refuse to say die once again as veterans answer the call
Hey Alain Vigneault, your big-name players got dressed on Tuesday night.
And just in time to stick around for more of the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs.
Earlier in the day, Vigneault, the coach of the Philadelphia Flyers, issued a bit of a challenge to a couple of his veterans, captain Claude Giroux and James van Riemsdyk.
“It’s their turn to put the big-boy pants on,” Vigneault said. “I believe our guys have more to give and more to do. I’m not at all questioning their will and I’m not at all questioning their work ethic on the ice, they have to find a way to come through.
“We have no choice. I think this is a great opportunity for those guys to step to the forefront. Let’s start by winning this game and then give ourselves a chance.”
Giroux and van Riemsdyk, who each went into the game with a zero beside his name in the goal column, scored in the second period of Game 5, helping lead Philadelphia to a 4-3 overtime win at Scotiabank Arena.
At 12:20 of the extra period, a shot by Ivan Provorov from the point was deflected by Scott Laughton and eluded Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov. Giroux also had an assist on the winner.
The Flyers flicked off elimination, and trail in the best-of-seven 3-2 with Game 6 on Thursday night. The winner of the series will play the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference final.
Late in the third, the Islanders’ Mathew Barzal departed after taking a high stick from Giroux. And the Flyers’ Sean Couturier was not on the bench to start The Islanders scored goals less than two minutes apart in the final four minutes of regulation to tie the game 3-3.
At 17:19, Derick Brassard, sitting at the back door, deposited the puck past Carter Hart after taking a pass from Cal Clutterbuck. The goal doesn’t happen without the poise of Clutterbuck, who hung on to the puck down low until he was able to make a play.
The Isles got to within one goal at 15:46 when Brock Nelson fooled Hart with a high shot from the slot.
Until the Nelson goal, the Flyers were on track for a victory at the final buzzer.
Defenceman Matt Niskanen scored on a slapshot early in the third, giving Philadelphia a 3-1 lead when he blasted the puck past Varlamov.
Giroux hadn’t scored in his previous 13 post-season games in the Toronto bubble, registering just five assists; Van Riemsdyk, who has struggled and has been a healthy scratch for some games in the post-season, recorded his first point in 10 games.
The Islanders got on the board first when Josh Bailey was credited with his third goal of the post-season early in the second period on a power play.
Islanders coach Barry Trotz recognized earlier on Tuesday the difficulty that can arise in trying to close out a team in a best-of-seven.
“The fourth win is always the toughest — it’s the one that you have to go through, no one is going to give it to you, you can’t go around it, you have to go through it and have that little bit of killer instinct, if you can,” Trotz said.
“The end goal is to get a win, that fourth win against the Philadelphia Flyers. If it happens to be (Tuesday), so be it. That is our end game.”
Well, the Islanders will get another shot in Game 6. New York never has lost a series in which it had a 3-1 lead, winning all 10 series. And the Flyers, in their history, have won one of 18 series when they were down 3-1.