Recap: Ducks Downed in Overtime in a Good Battle with the Flyers

ANAHEIM -- The last home game of the decade ended on a sour note despite a good fight from the Ducks.
Anaheim and Philadelphia battled to a 1-1 tie through regulation and a good portion of overtime before the Flyers prevailed on a Kevin Hayes breakaway goal with 1:07 left.

After Flyers goalie Brian Elliott made a pair of big stops on Ondrej Kase and Hampus Lindholm with just over a minute left in overtime, Jakub Voracek made a great headman pass to Hayes, who slipped a backhand past John Gibson for the victory.
Gibson had made a handful of big stops of his own in overtime, but had little chance on this one, as the Ducks failed to capture a second straight victory for the first time since early November.
"We had a good third period. It seems like we're a little inconsistent," Gibson said. "We have a lot of young guys. It's tough to be good every night. We're learning it the hard way. If you want to be an NHL player, you have to bring it every night. Some nights you aren't going to feel great or have the best legs, but you have to find a way. We're learning that the hard way."
The Flyers were coming off a 6-1 thrashing in San Jose less than 24 hours ago, but hardly looked beaten down tonight, throwing 35 shots at Gibson on the night.
"We didn't have the execution, that's for sure," said Ducks coach Dallas Eakins. "I'm not sure why. That game should've been the first game out of the break. We had it coming out of the break, and not to have it tonight is disappointing. With better execution, I think we could've won the game."
It looked like it might be a high-scoring affair early, when an Erik Gudbranson slap shot snuck under Elliott's arm just 35 seconds after the opening faceoff.

Philadelphia tied it halfway through the period when Sean Couturier punched in a rebound, and that was the extent of the scoring for both teams until late in OT.
The Ducks only managed 13 shots on goal over the first 40 minutes - just five in the second period alone - but fired 15 at Elliott in the third and OT without getting one through. That included a somewhat lengthy two-man advantage in the third that fizzled.
"We did some really good things tonight, but we didn't get enough pucks at the net at the right times," Gudbranson said. "Towards the end of it, we were a little bit separate and gave them opportunities. It was tough to lose."
On the difficulty the Ducks have had stringing wins together, Gudbranson said "It's a hard thing to do. You have to realize that feeling of when you do it right, when you take the two points home, remember that feeling. Remember how that game went. Remember the small things that happened in that game, build off those and bring it the next day. We have to find a way to do that. We did some good things today, but there were some holes in our game that prevented us from winning."
Anaheim will look to close out 2019 with a bang Tuesday in a New Year's Eve matinee battle against the Golden Knights in Vegas.