BOSTON – Coach John Tortorella has been known to deliver some spicy post-game rants about officiating over his 20-plus-year NHL coaching career and Saturday’s probably ranks up there among his finest.
The Flyers bench boss was livid after the way his team’s game against the Bruins was refereed.
Philadelphia was assessed eight penalties for a total of 16 minutes. Boston was whistled for only four infractions totaling eight minutes.
While the Bruins picked up only one goal from those numbers, there were other infractions which hurt the Flyers at several junctures in the game.
Ultimately, the Flyers blew a 3-1 lead in the third period and then lost in overtime, 4-3, at TD Garden.
Boston’s Pavel Zacha scored the game-winner at 2:49 of the tiebreaker.
When Tortorella came out to meet the media, the expression on his face said there was going to be a bit of an explosion.
“The (blank) that went on here tonight is just ridiculous,” Tortorella fumed. “I’m proud of the way our team played. Did we (blank) another one away? Yeah. But other people had a little bit to do with that, also.”
The coach wasn’t consoled by getting a point either.
“I’m proud of the team, I have no qualms with the team,” Tortorella said.
The coach did see some positives, such as the play of goaltender Aleksei Kolosov, who stood tall against a rejuvenated Bruin team which has gone 7-2 since firing their coach Jim Montgomery and replacing him with interim Joe Sacco.
“Outstanding,” Tortorella said of Kolosov. “I didn’t think he was that good the last game (a 7-5 loss to Florida). I didn’t think either of our goalies were. (Kolosov was) outstanding, to come into this building against that club. The way he did it was really good.”
The other bright spot for the coach was the way his team put up a fight after the Bruins tied the score.
“It’s never a question with me about our fight,” he said. “That’s a given. That’s what keeps us afloat. That’s the only way we’re going to stay afloat, it’s the will and not willing to give in. That’s in our room.”
In the post-game locker room, Travis Sanheim, Sean Couturier and Cam York all hinted the outcome of the game wasn’t necessarily in their hands due to the number of questionable calls.
One that stood out came with 1:57 left in regulation time. Couturier barely touched a Bruin’s skate and he was whistled for tripping.
Sanheim tried to be as delicate as possible when describing the officiating.
“I thought we played a pretty good game, to be honest,” he said. “Got more chances, had more looks. Could have been up more than we were. Started to shoot ourselves in the foot a little bit. Some of the calls went their way, I guess. Didn’t seem like we could get a call.
“You got to battle through that. But we took some unnecessary penalties. It’s unfortunate because I thought we deserved the two points.”
Added Couturier: “We have to learn from our mistakes. Second game we’ve taken some stupid penalties. Give the other team a chance to come back.”
Are penalty calls an excuse for this sort of loss?
“There were some questionable ones,” the captain said. “In the long run, it all evens out. Maybe we have to put ourselves in better situations.”
The outcome wasted a great game by Matvei Michkov and his Flyer teammates.
Michkov scored a pair of goals and helped the Flyers build that commanding two-goal lead.
It’s the second two-goal game of Michkov’s first season in the National Hockey League.
Michkov didn’t waste any time inflicting damage on the Bruins. Both of his goals came off pinpoint passes from teammates.
On the first, during a power play, a deflected Emil Andrae shot wound on the stick of Sean Couturier. The captain spotted Michkov unguarded in the right circle. A one-timer beat goaltender Jeremy Swayman at 7:24.
It was back to work at 18:24. Sanheim took control on the left boards and fired a perfect feed to Michkov at the right post.
The Flyers didn’t get off to a great start in the second period and eventually gave up a power-play goal to Trent Frederic while York was sitting in the penalty box. That cut the Philadelphia lead to 2-1.
But York made up for that gaffe when he scored a goal of his own after the Flyers kept the puck in the Bruins’ zone for the better part of a minute. York’s shot from the right circle found its way past Swayman at 15:29 and the Flyers appeared to be back in control again.
In the third period, Frederic scored again from right out in front at 5:18 and the Flyers had a tight game on their hands. Brad Marchand converted a breakaway to tie the score with 5:22 left on the clock.
>Short shots
Just a reminder that Sunday night’s game in Philadelphia between the Utah Hockey Club and the Flyers has had its start moved back half an hour to 7:30 p.m.
