The Philadelphia Flyers dropped their 3rd straight game with a loss to the Utah Hockey Club by a score of 4-2 on Sunday.
5 goals were scored in the second period with Utah taking 3 separate leads and the Flyers replying twice over. However, Logan Cooley’s power play tally late in the second stood as the game-winner.
Jamie Drysdale looked to have tied the game in the first few minutes of the third period but it was waived off due to goaltender’s interference against Travis Konecny. Kevin Stenlund then added a huge insurance marker while shorthanded to give Utah a 4-2 lead they never looked back on.
Samuel Ersson made 21 stops in the losing effort while Jaxson Stauber earned his second win in as many games this season with a 21-save effort.
The Flyers looked to split their back-to-back set after blowing a 3-1 lead in the third period on Saturday against the Boston Bruins as they returned home to welcome the Utah Hockey Club for the very time since their relocation.
The Flyers received reinforcements in the form of goaltender Samuel Ersson and defenseman Jamie Drysdale, both of whom entered the lineup at the behest of Ivan Fedotov (healthy scratch), Aleksei Kolosov (backup), and Egor Zamula (healthy scratch). Ersson last suited up on the 11th of November when he defeated the San Jose Sharks in a shootout while Drysdale had been sidelined since the 9th of November.
As for the Utah Hockey Club, they came into Sunday’s game with an 11-11-4 record and recorded a 5-2 victory on Saturday in Buffalo. Jaxson Stauber earned his 2nd start of the season after compiling a shutout in his only appearance on the 30th of November against Las Vegas.
Clayton Keller paced the club with 23 points, Dylan Guenther led the team in goals with 10 and was second in points with 22, while Logan Cooley and Nick Schmaltz rounded out the top-3 with 21 apiece.
FIRST PERIOD
2:13 into the opening period, the Flyers hopped on the first power play of the game after Robert Bortuzzo was nailed for a holding minor. It was a better showing than in previous games as Travis Konecny rang the post and they fired 2 shots on goal but nothing overly dangerous to trouble Stauber.
At the 11:30 mark of the period, Travis Sanheim was sent to the penalty box for a holding minor against Keller. After having allowed 5 power play goals over their last two games – a stretch where they dropped from 3rd to 11th in the rankings – the Flyers came out with a strong kill, keeping them at bay and the scored tied.
Unfortunately, they were nailed for a another penalty not too long after, courtesy of a Sean Couturier tripping minor with 4:17 remaining. They survived the kill and had a decent shorthanded opportunity but Konecny went wide instead of continuing downhill, perhaps believing Scott Laughton could catch up to the play.
The period came to a close with the Utah Hockey Club owning a 10-7 edge in shots.
SECOND PERIOD
7:01 into the period, the Utah Hockey Club scored the game’s opening goal after Michael Carcone’s pass towards the net from a bad angle bounced off Ersson’s pad, onto Rasmus Ristolainen’s skate, and into the net.
Just 9 seconds later, Joel Farabee snapped his lengthy goal drought after tapping away at a loose puck in the blue paint. Nick Seeler’s initial shot got past Stauber and Farabee was able to finish off the loose change by tapping it over the line for his 4th of the season and first in 13 games.
About 2 minutes later, Utah reclaimed the lead after Juuso Välimäki deflected a Mikhail Sergachev shot from the point past a screened Ersson. The Flyers were hemmed in their own zone for quite some time before Sergachev decided to fire with Välimäki and Couturier in front of Ersson as the former collected his first of the season with 10:18 remaining.
They weren’t as quick as when they were down 1-0, but the Flyers tied things back up with 6:26 remaining in the period after Owen Tippett’s shot from outside the faceoff circle beat Stauber through the five-hole. Matvei Michkov recorded an assist on the play as he entered the zone with speed before the Flyers cycled en route to the goal.
The Flyers were then whistled for a delay of game penalty after Tyson Foerster sent the puck over the glass at the 14:21 mark of the period. 1:09 into the man advantage, Logan Cooley finished off the play in tight just shortly after Laughton was stoned on his odd-man rush for his 7th of the season.
The period came to a close with Utah scoring 3 of the 5 goals in the frame and holding a slim 20-17 advantage in shots through 40 minutes of play.
THIRD PERIOD
A strong start to the third period almost rewarded the Flyers with their third tying goal of the game after Drysdale’s shot through traffic beat Stauber through the five-hole. However, Utah challenged for goaltender interference with Konecny parked in the blue paint and making slight contact with the goaltender’s stick.
After a lengthy review, the referees overturned the on-ice call and waived off the goal at the 2:21 mark of the period.
With just 5:59 remaining in regulation, the Flyers jumped onto their second power play of the night after Ian Cole caught Farabee in the face with his stick blade. Unfortunately, they laid another goose egg with the extra man but to make it worse, Kevin Stenlund doubled the Utah lead after jumping on a turnover in the Flyers’ end.
Drysdale dropped a sling shot pass to Morgan Frost but he over skated the puck and that allowed Stenlund to walk in alone before firing it through Ersson’s five-hole for his 3rd of the season.
With 3:03 remaining, the Flyers pulled Ersson for the extra attacker but they weren’t able to create much of anything as Utah held on for the victory.
UP NEXT
The Flyers travel to Columbus to take on the Blue Jackets on Tuesday night (7:00pm; NBCSP).
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