The Philadelphia Flyers were unable to complete the home-and-home sweep after they were taken out by the New Jersey Devils in large part because of a 4-goal second period.
After a scoreless first period, the temperature rose exponentially after Owen Tippett was taken out of the game from a Brenden Dillon open ice check. Penalties were assessed nearly every shift after the hit but more importantly, the Devils handled their business.
Ondřej Palát opened the scoring 54 seconds into the second period before goals from Luke Hughes, Nathan Bastian, and Dawson Mercer took the Flyers out of the game. Jack Hughes added a goal to start the third period with the Devils well in front.
Samuel Ersson was pulled after allowing 4 goals on 16 shots, but it was a move done to not only jolt some energy into the Flyers but perhaps because they play the New York Islanders tomorrow night. Ivan Fedotov allowed 1 goal on 10 shots in relief.
Jake Allen stopped all 24 shots fired his way as he earned his 8th win and 3rd shutout of the season.
Looking for the home-and-home sweep, the Flyers headed to down the Turnpike to face off against the Devils for the second time in three days.
The Flyers juggled their lines and also welcomed back Sean Couturier, who missed out on Monday’s tilt with an illness. The lines centered by Morgan Frost and Noah Cates were untouched, Scott Laughton remained down the middle with Matvei Michkov and Joel Farabee, and Couturier was placated on the fourth line with Anthony Richard and Garnet Hathaway.
Erik Johnson was in the lineup once again and was skating with Nick Seeler, Cam York and Rasmus Ristolainen reprised their roles on the top pair, while Travis Sanheim and Jamie Drysdale rounded out the corps.
Samuel Ersson also returned in goal as he looked to improve on his 15-8-2 record on the heels of being named to Sweden’s national team as an injury replacement for the 4 Nations Face-Off.
As for the Devils, not much changed from last game as Jake Allen was back between the pipes and Nico Hischier remained out of the lineup with an injury.
FIRST PERIOD
107 seconds into the game, Couturier came within inches of scoring the game’s opening goal after a great set up from Richard. It wasn’t originally issued as a goal by the referees but they went to the box and reviewed the play, but found no evidence to overturn the original call.
With 13:15 remaining in the first period, Tomáš Tatar sent the Flyers onto the first power play of the night due to a hooking minor. Unfortunately the Flyers spent most of the power play either in their own zone or in the neutral zone as they struggled to keep the puck on their sticks.
After struggling at times during Monday night’s game, Jake Allen was having himself a period as he robbed the Flyers multiple times. Philadelphia was able to get to the front of the net and in the blue but Allen was able to rob Couturier twice in the first minute of the game and then followed that up with saves on Frost and Travis Konecny.
With 33 seconds left to play in the opening stanza, Frost was called for a hooking minor against Jesper Bratt. The second-ranked power play unit of the Devils looked extremely dangerous in the dying seconds as they fired 2 shots on goal with another 3 that were either blocked or went wide of the net.
The period came to a close with both teams tied at 0-apiece but the Flyers holding a 10-6 advantage in shots.
SECOND PERIOD
54 seconds into the period, the Devils opened the scoring courtesy of Ondřej Palát. Jack Hughes was given a lot of time and space in his office but his pass attempt deflected off Rasmus Ristolainen’s skate and right to the middle of the ice, where Palát was able to corral the puck and fired it blocker-side past Samuel Ersson for his 11th of the season.
On the ensuing shift, Brenden Dillon delivered a massive check in the middle of the ice against Owen Tippett. Travis Sanheim’s pass missed Tippett but Dillon finished check despite Tippett never getting a hold of the puck. Tippett went straight down the tunnel and into the locker but after Nick Seeler’s hit against Nathan Bastian in their previous game, the temperature was expected to rise.
Following that shift, Garnet Hathaway and Kurtis MacDermid exchanged words before Curtis Lazar was issued an interference minor at the 2:00 mark. The Flyers’ man advantage lasted just 23 seconds after Tyson Foerster was assessed a holding the stick minor.
While playing 4-on-4 hockey, Matvei Michkov had a great offensive opportunity but he was slashed by Jack Hughes, which resulted in an abbreviated 15 second 4-on-3 power play for the Flyers as the penalties started to pile up. The Flyers found no success with either the 4-on-3 or 5-on-4 power plays.
Riding the momentum of a few penalty kills, the Hughes brothers connected to give the Devils a 2-0 lead with 13:33 remaining in the period. Luke Hughes picked up a loose puck that was created from a Sanheim turnover and jettisoned on an odd-man rush with Jack on the other side. Luke held onto the puck and fired the shot blocker-side for his 4th of the season and first in 15 games.
A scrum ensued on the following shift that resulted in Hathaway and Johnathan Kovacevic getting 4 minutes apiece for roughing and Seeler and MacDermid assessed 2 minutes for roughing.
And if you thought the rough stuff would end there, the next shift saw more rough stuff as Stefan Noesen initially received a 2-minute minor for interference which resulted in Jamie Drysdale responding before another scrum ensued. Noesen and Drysdale were then each assessed roughing minors.
Their fourth power play attempt was better however the Devils created two very dangerous chances, one near the end of kill and one right at the end of penalty with Tatar coming out of the box. Ersson made a lunging stop on Jack Hughes’ odd man rush opportunity before shutting the door with a sprawling save on Tatar’s breakaway attempt.
Out of all those chances, the Flyers received another penalty with Couturier heading to the box for hooking at the 10:57 mark. With 17 seconds remaining on the penalty, Bastian scooped up the garbage in the blue paint to make it 3-0. Timo Meier’s initial one-timer deflected off Seeler’s stick and then Ristolainen’s skate and into the blue paint, where Bastian was able to poke home the loose puck.
A couple minutes later, Dawson Mercer made it 4-0 with the Flyers hemmed in their own zone. Meier’s initial shot was blocked, Brett Pesce was able to get it back to him, and then he fired a pass to Mercer for the easy finish at the 13:43 mark. That was also all she wrote for Ersson in this one as he was pulled for Ivan Fedotov.
The penalty-filled period came to a close with the Devils having scored 4 goals to take a commanding lead into the final frame. The Devils also took the edge in shots at 21-16 through the first 40 minutes.
THIRD PERIOD
Before the third period started, the Flyers announced that Tippett would not return due to injury.
Jack Hughes scored just 1:58 into the final frame of regulation to give the Devils an insurmountable 5-goal lead. It was a great give-and-go between Hughes and Bratt before Hughes finished things off into the wide open cage for his 20th of the season.
The Flyers, looking for anything to go their way, had a fantastic chance to get one past Allen but Dougie Hamilton served as the last line of defense as he swatted the puck out of the blue paint as Hathaway came within inches of scoring his 8th of the season.
With 5:24 remaining in the contest, Seeler was assessed a tripping minor. The Devils didn’t add a third power play tally but the game was already well out of reach as the Flyers slumped to a disappointing defeat.
UP NEXT
The Flyers welcome the New York Islanders to Wells Fargo Center on Thursday night (7:30pm; NBCSP).
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