Flyers Turnovers Costly in 6-4 Loss to Detroit

The Philadelphia Flyers lost to the Detroit Red Wings, 6-4, at Little Caesars Arena on Wednesday night. The game was tied at 1-1 in the first period, 2-2 during the second period and 4-4 in the third. Finally, Detroit pulled ahead to stay. The Flyers dropped to 14-14-4 for the season.

Philly got off to a strong start in the first period but the Wings took over the frame. The Flyers ran into penalty issues, and got outshot by a 10-4 margin.

Sixty-six seconds after the game's opening faceoff, Travis Konecny (16th goal of the season) took a pass in the neutral zone from Joel Farabee and went in to score on a breakaway against former Flyers goalie Alex Lyon. The assists went to Konecny and Couturier. The Flyers captain started the sequence by intercepting a Detroit pass in the neutral zone.

A Travis Sanheim holding minor at 12:16 of the first period put Detroit on the game's first power play. Sanheim got a free hand on Vladimir Tarasenko behind the defensive net.

Detroit applied significant pressure -- four shots on net including two scoring chances for Tarasenko -- during their power play. The Flyers killed it off but a high sticking double minor on Owen Tippett put the Wings on a four-minute power play.

At 18:19, with the Flyers PKers tired from inability to get a zone clear or a stoppage, a Dylan Larkin shot pass was redirected home by JT Compher (PPG, 4th goal of the season). The secondary assist went to Lucas Raymond.

In the second period, the Flyers had issues with turnovers and reads. After trading off two closely spaced goals, the Red Wings surged to a 4-2 lead by the second intermission. Shots on goal were 7-5 Detroit (18-9 Detroit through 40 minutes).

After Travis Sanheim had a scoring chance near the net in the attack zone, Detroit eventually scored on a 3-on-1 counterattack for a 2-1 lead at 10:15. Patrick Kane passed across through Cam York to Alex Debricat (13th). Debrinact scored a goal from his off wing.

A mere 25 seconds later, at 10:45, the Flyers got the goal back for a 2-2 deadlock. After the Flyers won a battle on the side boards, an initial shot attempt was blocked. Tyson Foerster then fired a shot at the net. The puck went off Noah Cates' body (3rd goal of the season) and past Lyon. The assists went to Foerster and Nick Seeler.

Compher won a faceoff against Sean Couturier in the Flyers zone. Michael Rasmussen (6th) fired the puck into the net from the top of the left circle for a 3-1 lead at 16:05.

With 2:33 remaining in the middle frame, the Red Wings scored on a 2-on-0 breakaway after Ryan Poehling and Scott Laughton bumped into each other in the offensive zone and the puck was turned over. Joe Veleno (2nd) finished off a feed from Christian Fischer.

The final stanza saw the Flyers rally for two goals to tie the score at 2-2. Unfortunately, they continued to cough up transition rushes off turnovers and paid the price dearly. Third period shots on goal were 10-6 Flyers (24-19 Detroit overall). The Flyers did some large scale line juggling over the final 20 minutes, including Laughton playing center and Ryan Poehling taking some shifts on the wing. Defenseman Cam York was benched.

At 3:50 of the third period, taking a shift with the fourth line, Couturier fed Ryan Poehling (2nd) at the far post to cut the deficit to 4-3. With an initial keep at the blueline, Sanheim got the secondary assist.

Owen Tippett (10th) tied up the game at 5:39 on a great individual effort. Under forechecking pressure, Jamie Drysdale executed a good lead pass. Taking a pass from Laughton, Tippett put on a burst of speed, cut in and scored. The assists went to Laughton and Drysdale.

Catching the Flyers on a bad line change, Patrick Kane (4th) reestablished a lead at 7:21 with a wrist shot from distance to the short side. Moritz Seider received the lone assist.

After referee Michael Markovic signaled for a delayed penalty on Detroit, Ersson skated to the bench and Konecny jumped onto the ice. Markovic, however, changed his mind and put his arm down. The Flyers ended up with too many players on the ice. After the whistle at 11:53, the official ruled there were no penalties on either team.

The Flyers finally went to the power play on a Kane hooking penalty at 12:09. Philly was unable to capitalize.

With the Flyers net empty in the final 90 seconds for a 6-on-5 attack, Sanheim flubbed the puck out near the point. Larkin fed Raymond (13th) for an empty netter at 19:48 to seal a 6-4 win.

Ersson finished with 18 saves on 23 shots in a losing cause. Lyon stopped 15 of 19 shots against his former team.

FLYERS STARTING LINEUP

86 Joel Farabee - 14 Sean Couturier - 11 Travis Konecny

74 Own Tippett - 48 Morgan Frost - 39 Matvei Michkov

71 Tyson Foerster - 27 Noah Cates- 10 Bobby Brink

21 Scott Laughton - 25 Ryan Poehling - 19 Garnet Hathaway

6 Travis Sanheim - 8 Cam York

24 Nick Seeler - 9 Jamie Drysdale

5 Egor Zamula - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen

33 Samuel Ersson

[35 Aleksei Kolosov]

PP1: Drysdale, Brink, Couturier, Konecny, Michkov
PP2: Zamula, Tippett, Frost, Farabee, Foerster

Scratches: 77 Erik Johnson (healthy), 44 Nicolas Deslauriers (IR), 36 Emil Andrae (healthy), 82 Ivan Fedotov (healthy)

TURNING POINT

The 3-on-1 and 2-on-0 goals by Detroit were key turning points. Flyers turnovers, decision-making, and an ill-timed line changes proved costly.

POSTGAME 5 ("5 Things" Revisited)

1. Laughton's Dominance vs. Detroit: Coming off career-best four-goal performance last Thursday against Detroit, Laughton played 14:41 at left wing and then at center. He skated 13:20 over 17 shifts, picking up an assist.

2. Michkov : A Michigan in Michigan? The Flyers rookie right winger had four shots on goal on six shot attempts. Overall, though, Michov was mostly a non-factor in this game after buzzing much of the night the last time Philly played Detroit.

3. Between the pipes: It wasn't a goalies' night on either side. Neither Ersson nor Lyon (just activated off IR) ever really got into a rhythm in this scattershot game. Ersson played a strong first period but ultimately would have liked two of Detroit's goals back: the Rasmussen tally and Kane's.

4. Special teams battles: The Flyers were 0-for-1 on the power play and 2-for-3 on the PK. Philly spent too much time in the first period having to kill penalties. It was a momentum generator for Detroit early in the game,

5. Behind enemy lines: Raymond and Larkin: Detroit's top line had a rough night in Philadelphia last Thursday. In this game, Larkin and Raymond were catalysts for their team, along with Kane.