The Philadelphia Flyers fell to the Dallas Stars 5-1 in their second afternoon defeat in as many days and their third loss in four days. It was supposed to be a fruitful week of sorts with three games against losing teams but the Flyers’ scoring woes have come full throttle as they sit in the basement of the NHL – as if no one saw that one coming.
Felix Sandstrom allowed 5 goals on 31 shots, the power play went 0 for 6, and the top line for the Flyers is their only heartbeat as Travis Konecny and Kevin Hayes recorded another point each.
Head coach John Tortorella has seen his Philadelphia Flyers fall in back to back games in rather disappointing fashion. Hoping to avoid a third straight defeat and third in four days, the lineup was tweaked ever so slightly, aided by the injury to Wade Allison. Noah Cates was centering the second line with Scott Laughton and Zack MacEwen and Kieffer Bellows reentered the lineup on the third line with Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee. Sandstrom was also tending the twine in the stead of Carter Hart due to this game being the second leg of a back to back.
FIRST PERIOD
It didn’t take the Stars too long to get off the schneid as Matej Blumel scored his first career NHL goal in his second game after being set up perfectly by Tyler Seguin. Tony DeAngelo got beat by Seguin to get to the puck and with no one covering Blumel or anyone near the net, he was able to walk in and make a move on Sandstrom to open the scoring 2 minutes and 36 seconds into the game.
The Stars then seemingly doubled their lead only a few minutes later after Seguin deflected a slap-shot from the point from Colin Miller. Seguin won another board battle, rimmed it around the boards to Miro Heiskanen who was aggressively pinching. His centering pass missed but bounced to Miller at the point. Fortunately the goal didn’t count after the Flyers challenged the play for an offside call.
As the Flyers were finally picking up their offensive game a little, creating chances, spending time in the offensive zone for a few sustained shifts, Travis Konecny was called for a hooking minor against the 4th-best power play and the best road power play in the NHL. The Flyers, who entered yesterday’s game with the 4th best penalty kill, dropped to 13th after allowing 2 power play goals to Alex DeBrincat and the Senators. They flexed their muscles early as the Stars were only able to get one shot on goal and it was at the end of the power play as well.
With 1:36 remaining in the first period, Esa Lindell officially doubled the Stars lead after a simple shot at the point through traffic befuddled Sandstrom. The biggest hindrance for the Flyers this season has been their defense against the cycle and the Stars worked the cycle game to a tee – once again.
The first period ended with the Flyers down by 2, shots were tied at 12 apiece, with the Flyers holding a 15-13 hit advantage. Not a good period in the slightest as the Flyers looked even more dormant than in their previous 2 games and the shot clock was not indicative of parity.
SECOND PERIOD
Tortorella must’ve said some magical things during the intermission because the Flyers came out with a gusto. The second line featuring Cates, Laughton, and MacEwen started the period a few chances only for the top line to tic-tac-toe a beautiful goal. Travis Konecny scored his 6th goal of the season off some pretty passing from Owen Tippett and Kevin Hayes. Tippett made a spin-o-rama pass to Hayes who seemingly had a great chance to shoot at but opted to pass it to Konecny on the other side for an even emptier net to get the Flyers on the board.
Seconds later, Tyler Seguin was called for a tripping minor on Konecny no less, giving them a chance to tie things up in quick order. They weren’t able to score and created just a few chances, but it wasn’t as bad as some of their previous man advantages.
With 12:24 remaining in the second period, Kieffer Bellows was called for a slashing minor. The Stars power play cashed in with 30 seconds left from another simple shot from the point with traffic and bodies screening the goaltender. Jamie Benn backhanded a pass off the boards to Miro Heiskanen at the point that was deflected by Joe Pavelski.
With the Flyers looking dangerous, especially Ivan Provorov, the Stars were forced into taking a penalty as Joel Kiviranta had to hook the defenseman down, giving the Flyers another power play opportunity down by 2 goals. Not much came out of it until the very end of the power play when Morgan Frost made an aggressive move towards the net but was robbed point blank by the pad of Jake Oettinger.
With seconds remaining in the second period, the Stars coughed up the puck with most of their players making a line change and 3 Flyers jerseys charging up the ice. Owen Tippett picked up the loose puck and dished it over to Scott Laughton whose snap-shot rung the iron as they headed into the intermission down 3-1 with a 24-21 shot advantage.
THIRD PERIOD
Konecny who has been on a tear this game (and season), drew another penalty as Ryan Suter was called for a holding minor only 47 seconds into the third period. Unfortunately as fate would have it, the Stars scored a shorthanded goal only 10 seconds into the man advantage.
They won the faceoff and jettisoned out of the zone as Lindell sent a pass to Ty Dellandrea who then sent a redirection pass to Luke Glendening at the front of the net and past Sandstrom. It was the first shorthanded goal against that the Flyers surrendered this season, 3 point game for Lindell, and essentially the icing on the cake in this game.
In what seems like a hopeless endeavour and after only drawing 4 penalties in 3 games, the Flyers got their fourth power play of the afternoon as Seguin found himself in the sin bin once again. 5 shots on the power play were fired at Oettinger as he came up big several times as the clock kept ticking away on the Flyers.
Justin Braun was called for a hooking minor with a shade over 10 minutes remaining in regulation. The penalty kill for the Flyers has had a rough weekend, and it only got worse after Jason Robertson finished off a nifty play from Joe Pavelski with 5 seconds left on the power play. The wily veteran spun a shot that let out a juicy rebound for the streaking Robertson who had a yawning cage to shoot at.
With 3:06 left in regulation, Colin Miller was guilty for a delay of game penalty, handing the anemic Flyers a 5th power play. Then 61 seconds into the man advantage, Joel Kiviranta was called for a tripping minor, as the Flyers had 59 seconds of 5 on 3 hockey to work with. They fired a few shots on goal but nothing that really troubled Oettinger.
The Flyers ended the game going 0 for 6 on the power play and outshot the Stars 38-31, but they got a drubbing on the scoreboard in the shape of a 5-1 loss.
UP NEXT
The Flyers will head back to Columbus on Tuesday night as they’ll try to avenge their loss to the Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena from this past Thursday.
