Maple Leafs fall to Flyers in shootout, lose ground in Atlantic
via NHL.com
The Toronto Maple Leafs lost ground for second place in the Atlantic Division with a 5-4 shootout loss to the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday.
The Maple Leafs are six points behind the Boston Bruins, who defeated the New York Rangers 6-3 on Wednesday.
“Just a sloppy second period is where we hurt ourselves,” Toronto forward Nazem Kadri said. “Overall through 40 minutes I think we played a pretty solid road game, but that second period, they pushed and we didn’t have an answer so that put us behind a little bit.”
Auston Matthews had a goal and an assist, and Frederik Andersen made 40 saves for Toronto.
The Flyers (37-32-8) would have been eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention with a loss in regulation. They are eight points behind the Montreal Canadiens for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference with five games remaining.
Sean Couturier scored during the Flyers’ three-goal second period and had the deciding goal in the fifth round of the shootout. Carter Hart made 38 saves.
“A few years ago I scored on Andersen (in a shootout) when he was in Anaheim with the same move,” said Couturier, who used a head fake and went forehand to backhand. “I wondered if he remembered me, and thankfully he probably didn’t and it worked again. Just happy to get the win here.”