This is not the way to gain the zone, Nathan.
The penalty kill to kick off the third period of last night's game was obviously huge for the Flyers in keeping their hopes alive, but just how dominant was it? Here's the game event log from last night, beginning with the penalty. It's just the play-by-play data taken from the official sheet, but added to it are all of the zone entries.
In blue are Sabres zone entries, while the Flyers zone entry at the end of the PK is in orange. Table after the jump.
| Period | Time | Event type | Event text |
| 2 | 19:57 | Penalty | PHI #18 RICHARDS Elbowing (maj)(5 min), Neu. Zone Drawn By: BUF #36 KALETA |
| 2 | 19:57 | Faceoff | PHI won Def. Zone - PHI #36 POWE vs BUF #19 CONNOLLY |
| 2 | 20:00 | Period End | Period End- Local time: 9:15 EDT |
| 3 | 0:00 | Period Start | Period Start- Local time: 9:32 EDT |
| 3 | 0:00 | Faceoff | BUF won Neu. Zone - PHI #36 POWE vs BUF #19 CONNOLLY |
| 3 | 0:11 | Carry | |
| 3 | 0:31 | Dump | |
| 3 | 0:47 | Carry | |
| 3 | 1:13 | SHOT ON GOAL | BUF ONGOAL - #19 CONNOLLY, Wrist, Off. Zone, 41 ft. |
| 3 | 1:29 | Dump | |
| 3 | 1:44 | SHOT BLOCK | BUF #42 GERBE BLOCKED BY PHI #6 O'DONNELL, Wrist, Def. Zone |
| 3 | 2:01 | Carry | |
| 3 | 2:09 | Stoppage | OFFSIDE |
| 3 | 2:09 | Faceoff | PHI won Neu. Zone - PHI #36 POWE vs BUF #19 CONNOLLY |
| 3 | 2:21 | Carry | broken up |
| 3 | 2:37 | Dump | |
| 3 | 2:55 | Dump | missed pass |
| 3 | 3:13 | Dump | broken up |
| 3 | 3:28 | Pass | |
| 3 | 3:52 | Carry | broken up |
| 3 | 3:58 | Pass | broken up |
| 3 | 4:27 | Carry | |
| 3 | 4:30 | SHOT ON GOAL | BUF ONGOAL - #26 VANEK, Wrist, Off. Zone, 35 ft. |
| 3 | 4:35 | Giveaway | BUF GIVEAWAY - #21 STAFFORD, Off. Zone |
| 3 | 4:42 | Carry | broken up |
| 3 | 4:56 | Carry | |
| 3 | 4:58 | SHOT ON GOAL | PHI ONGOAL - #11 BETTS, Slap, Off. Zone, 61 ft. |
| 3 | 5:00 | Stoppage | GOALIE STOPPED |
As you can see, there was a two minute stretch where the Sabres gained the zone seven times without getting anything going in the offensive end. Of the 14 Sabres attempts at breaking into the zone, only three of them resulted in anything that could be labeled success. They attempted just three shots on the entire five-minute PP, and only two of them got on goal -- from 41 feet out and 35 feet out, respectively.
This was truly a fantastic, fantastic penalty kill.
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