The Philadelphia Flyers lost their second straight game tonight after snapping their 10-game winless streak earlier this week against the New York Islanders.
The 3-2 loss tonight represented the Flyers’ 15th loss in 18 games and even though they outshot the New Jersey Devils 33-18, Akira Schmid’s 31 saves and Jack Hughes’ game-winning goal was just enough to get their 20th win of the season. The Flyers got goals from Travis Konecy and Lukas Sedlak but costly giveaways and misreads in the defensive zone cost the Flyers again.
Who would’ve thought that when the Flyers beat the Devils convincingly on opening night that the Flyers would be the ones slumping to the tune of an 8-11-5 record and the Devils would be sitting at the top of the standings with a 19-4-1 record. Justin Braun and Patrick Brown returned to the lineup in place of Egor Zamula and Tanner Laczysnki.
FIRST PERIOD
3:24 into the game Erik Haula was called for a hooking minor, giving the new-look first unit – Kevin Hayes, Noah Cates, Joel Farabee, Owen Tippett, and Tony DeAngelo – a chance to open the scoring. Unfortunately, as has been the case all season, they weren’t able to convert but Hayes did rip a one-timer off the post.
With the Flyers taking the reins, the Devils needed something and they got it out of a penalty from Rasmus Ristolainen with 4:18 remaining in the period. The Flyers’ 25th-ranked penalty kill took the Devils’ 18th-ranked power play to the cleaners and even came out with the best scoring chance as the penalty was expiring. Hayes had an odd-man rush with Ristolainen coming out of the box and he waited, waited, and waited, but his shot went just wide.
The Flyers ended the first period ahead 12-4 on the shot clock, 12-10 in the hit department, and really played well against one of the top teams in the National Hockey League, all things considered.
SECOND PERIOD
The second period started the same way as the Devils didn’t record their first shot on goal until 13:59 mark of the period, but unfortunately it ended up in the back of the net. Ivan Provorov turned it over and Miles Wood sent a pass from behind the net to Fabian Zetterlund for his 5th goal of the season.
The shot on goal represented the first piece of rubber Carter Hart faced in almost 17 game minutes.
On the very next shift, Brendan Smith was called for a two-minute hooking minor on Nicolas Deslauriers. Travis Konecny scored his second goal in as many games since returning to lineup and his 9th of the season after finishing off a tic-tac-toe play from Kevin Hayes and Noah Cates.
On the ensuing shift, Jesper Bratt almost retook the lead on the second shot of the period for New Jersey after being perfectly set up by Jack Hughes from behind the net, but Carter Hart came up with the big stop to keep things.
At the 10:43 mark, the Flyers returned to the power play after Alexander Holtz was called for a slashing minor, making this the 4th straight shift with something of importance taking place. The Flyers took one shot on goal and then were called for a penalty of their own with 7:10 left after Justin Braun was called for a high-sticking minor. The Flyers killed it off with relative ease as they headed into the intermission tied at one but with a heavy 24-12 shot advantage.
THIRD PERIOD
1:49 into the third period, the Devils took advantage of a Carter Hart giveaway behind the net as Dawson Mercer scored into the empty net for his 6th goal of the season.
The Devils scored again 5 minutes later after Jack Hughes worked Ivan Provorov along the boards, made a spin move on him, went towards the net and finished off the rebound play as Hart initially made the facemask save.
Things only got worse as the Flyers were then called for a slashing minor with 9:24 remaining in regulation. The Flyers killed off the penalty and then cut the deficit in half after Travis Sanheim and Tony DeAngelo played pitch and catch before Lukas Sedlak slapped home a loose puck near the blue line through traffic for his 3rd of the season with 4:48 remaining in regulation.
30 seconds later the Flyers seemingly tied the game after Joel Farabee tucked home the rebound but it was waived off after the referees deemed there was goaltender interference from Morgan Frost. The initial slap shot was stopped and Frost backed himself into the goaltender before Farabee finished the rebound. The goal was called off immediately.
The Flyers pulled Carter Hart for the extra attacker with a little over 2 minutes to go. The Flyers valiantly tried tying the game with the extra man but the Devils and Akira Schmid were able to keep the Flyers off the board and take the second game of their season series by a final score of 3-2.
UP NEXT
Philadelphia continues their homestand on Monday night against the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche.
