Recap: Lack of Finish, Costly Turnover Results in 4-1 Loss to Flyers

A flurry of chances, but nothing to show for it. Such was the case tonight as the Ducks fell 4-1 to the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center. The Ducks peppered Flyers goaltender Carter Hart all night, but a lack of finish resulted in a loss in the opener of a four-game road trip.

It was a game up for grabs for the most part, especially when the Ducks were able to cut a two-goal deficit in half late in the second period, but a costly turnover in the third led to an insurance marker for the Flyers early in the third. With the loss, the Ducks fell to 14-16-4 (32 points). The Flyers, meanwhile, improved to 18-11-5 (41 points) overall and 11-2-4 at home.
"Some tough breakdowns," said Ducks forward Jakob Silfverberg, who assisted on the team's lone goal. "All in all, I think we're doing some good stuff out there. Over the course of 60 minutes, we didn't play good enough. Any time you score one goal, it's going to be tough to win."
The Ducks didn't come away unscathed. In the closing minutes of the second period, Troy Terry had to be helped off the ice after taking a knee-on-knee hit from Flyers forward Nicolas Aube-Kubel. Terry didn't return for the third.
It was a battle of the Kase brothers tonight, as Ondrej and younger brother David faced each other for the first time at the NHL level. David made his NHL debut with the Flyers last week and scored his first career NHL goal tonight in front of mom and dad. His goal gave the Flyers a 2-0 lead after Claude Giroux opened the scoring just 55 seconds into the second period.
The Ducks got on the board at the 16:33 mark of the second period when Rickard Rakell got a piece of Hampus Lindholm's point shot on the power play for his 10th goal of the season. It also marked the fourth straight game in which the Ducks have scored with the man advantage. The goal gave Rakell four points in his past two games after coming off a career-tying three-assist performance on Saturday against the New York Rangers, and put him in sole possession of ninth on the club's all-time power-play goals list. Rakell entered tonight's game tied with Chris Kunitz (26) for ninth all-time.

Anaheim's comeback attempt came to an abrupt stop when Jake Voracek capitalized on a turnover in the neutral zone and buried a 2-on-1 chance to make it 3-1 Flyers at the 4:11 mark of the third. Sean Couturier scored into an empty net with 7.7 seconds left in regulation to make it 4-1.
"It's all cliché, but you have to get bodies in front of the net and make it difficult on the goalie," said Silfverberg. "Right before they scored their third one, Ricky [Rakell] has a good chance putting one in. Their goalie makes a good save, it turns the other way and they score. Couple tough breakdowns."
The Ducks will continue their road trip tomorrow night against the New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center.