Postgame 5: Flyers Drop 5-2 Decision to Sabres

In the front end of a home-and-home set, the Philadelphia Flyers lost to the Buffalo Sabres, 5-2, at Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday evening.

The game was tied at 2-2 after one period. Joel Farabee and Cam Atkinson scored for Philadelphia. The Flyers controlled the decided majority of the scoreless second period. Buffalo retook the lead early in the third period and pulled away despite a 20-4 shot disadvantage in the final period. 

The Flyers benefited from some puck luck 55 seconds after the opening faceoff. An attempted pass from Farabee (5th goal of the season) to Bobby Brink was deflected by defenseman Henri Jokiharju and re-directed into the net. Travis Sanheim, who made a nice pass up to Farabee, drew the lone assist.

The Sabres evened the score on an odd-man counterattack. JJ Peterka fed over to Casey Mittelstadt, who fired the puck home (3rd) for a 1-1 tie. Peterka drew the lone assist.

Buffalo seemingly made it 2-1 at 9:29. Jeff Skinner skated over the middle and wristed a shot home from the deep slot. The Flyers challenged the goal for an offside. For the second straight game, the challenge was successful. The goal came off the board.

The reprieve lasted for only 31 seconds. At the 10:00 mark, Tage Thompson centered a pass out in front. Brandon Biro (1st) stuffed it into the net. Jordan Greenway got the secondary assist. Following the goal, the Flyers training staff checked on Carter Hart and he exited the game. Samuel Ersson took over netminding duties.

The Flyers made it 2-2 at the 16:17 mark. Atkinson gained the offensive zone and dropped a pass back to Travis Sanheim. Sanheim put the puck toward the net and Atkinson (6th) redirected it into the net. Sanheim earned the lone helper, his second of the game.

The Sabres took a 3-2 lead at 3:03 of the third period. Owen Power (1st) moved into the right circle and fired. Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch drew the assists.

Buffalo added insurance at 13:28. It was Tage Thompson who lit the lamp for Buffalo from the bottom of the right circle.

Biro added an empty net goal (2nd goal of the game at 16:52. Assists went to Mittelstadt and Peyton Krebs.

Carter Hart (two goals against on five shots) had to leave the game 10 minutes in the first period with a mid-body injury. Samuel Ersson came in to replace Hart, and went the rest of the way, Ersson stopped 7 of 9 shots.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen manned the net for Buffalo. He stopped 37 of 39 shots.

The Flyers went 0-for-3 on the power play. The Sabres went 0-for-2.

FLYERS STARTING LINEUP

74 Owen Tippett- 14 Sean Couturier - 89 Cam Atkinson
86 Joel Farabee - 27 Noah Cates - 10 Bobby Brink
11 Travis Konecny - 48 Morgan Frost - 71 Tyson Foerster
44 Nick Deslauriers- 21 Scott Laughton- Garnet Hathaway

8 Cam York - 6 Travis Sanheim
5 Egor Zamula - 26 Sean Walker
37 Louie Belpedio - 24 Nick Seeler

79 Carter Hart
[33 Samuel Ersson]

TURNING POINT

The Flyers seemed well positioned to build off a strong second period. Unfortunately, Power's goal at 3:03 of the third period put the Sabres in the driver's seat.

POSTGAME 5

1) Both teams scored on their respective first shot on goal of the game. About four minutes into the first period, Hart had Kyle Okposo fall on him and was down for a while, but eventually got up and stayed in the game. 

The Sabres had four of the game's first five shots on net.

Through 11 minutes, the Flyers were stuck on two shots on goal for the first period and lost Carter Hart (mid-body injury) in net.

The Flyers switched two D pairings as the first period progressed. Walker was paired with Seeler.  Zamula was placed with Belpedio.

After the Atkinson goal tied the score at 2-2, the Flyers fourth line generated a good scoring chance but Deslauriers was unable to finish it. Belpedio had a crack from higher in the zone seconds later to no avail.

2) First period shots on goal ended up 10-7 in the Flyers' favor. Shot attempts were 24-18 Flyers. Scoring chances were 9-6 Flyers. High-danger chances ended at 4-3 Flyers. Faceoffs were 13-5 Flyers. Couturier was 5-for-5, Cates was 4-for-5, and Frost was 2-for-2.

3) The Flyers had a potential tic-tac-toe play at 2:04 of the second period (Konecny to Frost to Foerster) but Foerster shot the puck just over the net from the center slot. 

Philly went on the game's first power play at 3:59. Peyton Krebs tripped York. The Flyers PP1 unit had a Grade A chance but were unable to finish it off in front. With 1:05 left on the power play, Sanheim took a cross-checking minor at 4:54., cutting the man-advantage opportunity short.

Through 10 minutes of the second period, shots on goal were 4-3 Flyers (14-10 Philly for the first 30 minutes of regulation). 

Around the 13-minute mark of the second period, Cates came within a whisker of giving the Flyers a 3-2 lead. Buffalo iced the puck at 15:29. 

With 93 seconds left in the second period, there was a scrum after the whistle behind the Buffalo net between Hathaway and Jokiharju. Amid the pushing and shoving, the lone penalty went to Deslauriers for roughing.  With 1:03 left in the penalty, Ersson denied a Tage Thompson one-timer. The Sabres took 27 seconds of carryover power play time into the third period.

4) Second period shots on goal were 10-4 Flyers (20-11 Flyers through two periods). Shot attempts were 22-10 Flyers (46-28 Flyers through 40 minutes). Scoring chances were 11-4 Flyers (19-10 Flyers through two periods) with a 4-2 Flyers edge in high-danger chances (8-5 Flyers through 40 minutes). Faceoffs were 11-5 Flyers (24-10 Flyers through two periods). Couturier led at 8-for-10. Cates was 9-for-11. Frost was 4-for-5.

5) The Flyers killed off the remaining 23 seconds of the Deslauriers penalty to start the period.  The Flyers had the third period's lone shot on goal through opening three minutes. Then the Sabres scored to take a 3-2 lead.

Philadelphia went to the power play at 3:25 on a Mattias Samuelsson high stick.  The second unit generated a good entry and good puck-movement but not enough traffic in front. 

Back-to-back hits by Deslauriers and Hathaway created a 2-on-0 chance for the Flyers. Laughton passed across to Hathaway on the right wing but Luukkonen made the difficult save.

Through 10 minutes of the third period, shots on goal were 7-2 in the Flyers favor but Buffalo had the only one that went into the cash register.

After Thompson opened a 4-2 lead, Frost passed to Konecny at the doorstep near the left post. Luukkonen made a great save, eliciting stick taps from the Buffalo bench.

The Flyers pulled Ersson for a 6-on-5 with about 3:35 left on the clock. An empty-netter followed. 

Krebs took a hooking penalty at 18:07. The Flyers did not score.  Third period shots on goal were 18-4 Flyers.