The Philadelphia Flyers lost to the Florida Panthers, 4-1, at Wells Fargo Center on Sunday evening. Former Flyers goalie Anthony Stolarz made 33 saves for Florida to earn the win.
The Flyers had some good chances in the first period but went 0-for-3 on the power play and had issues getting the puck on net at key junctures.
Sam Reinhart (49th goal of the season) trailed a Florida rush and scored from 30 feet to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead at 10:34 of the opening period. The assists went to Anton Lundell and Brandon Montour.
The Panthers struck on the man advantage early in the second period. The Flyers had some pushes of momentum but were unable to cut into the deficit.
Florida made it 2-0 on the power play at the 55-second mark of the second period. Vladimir Tarasenko (20th goal) scored from the right circle. The assists went to Reinhart and Montour.
Adam Ginning was beaten off the rush and Carter Verhaeghe (32nd of the season) scored on a shot that went off Felix Sandström's glove and into the net at 4:43 of the third period. The assists went to Sam Bennett and Montour.
On a 6-on-4 power play with Sandström pulled, Bobby Brink (10th goal of the season) received a nice setup pass from Ryan Poehling and scored from the left circle to narrow the gap to 3-1 at 12:54 of the third period. The assists went to Poehling and Egor Zamula.
Reinhart (50th of the season, second goal of the game) scored an empty net goal with 1:12 left in the game. The assist went to Eetu Luostarainen.
Felix Sandström stopped 11 of 14 shots in a losing cause.
The Flyers went 1-for-5 on the power play. The Panthers were 1-for-2.
FLYERS STARTING LINEUP
74 Owen Tippett - 48 Morgan Frost - 11 Travis Konecny
86 Joel Farabee - 21 Scott Laughton - 10 Bobby Brink
71 Tyson Foerster - 25 Ryan Poehling - 19 Garnet Hathaway
27 Noah Cates - 14 Sean Couturier - 62 Olle Lycksell
8 Cam York - 6 Travis Sanheim
5 Egor Zamula - 77 Erik Johnson
50 Adam Ginning - 23 Ronnie Attard
32 Felix Sandström
[33 Samuel Ersson]
TURNING POINT
Reinhart and Tarasenko are two players who've scored a lot of goals in the NHL. Neither chance was an easy one, but neither was unstoppable. The Flyers really needed a stop on at least one to avoid falling into a multi-goal deficit on a night where they allowed just 11 shots on net through two periods. It wasn't to be. Meanwhile, having three separate power play opportunities go by the wayside -- four in total through two periods -- was a bad omen.
POSTGAME 5
1) The Panthers had the game's lone shot on goal through 6:30. Hathaway landed a crunching hit on Brandon Montour along the offensive half boards at 6:41.
Philly went to the game's first power play at 7:46 as Sam Reinhart was called for a delay of game for putting the puck over the glass from the defensive zone. The Morgan Frost generated the Flyers lone shot on net while on the man advantage.
Florida's Reinhart scored at 10:34 on the team's second shot of the game.
Farabee was penalized for an offensive zone holding minor at 12:06. The Panthers had a near-miss chance by Matthew Tkachuk near the net in the waning seconds of the power play. Shots on goal were 4-3 Florida.
Frost cleared a puck from the defensive zone and Oliver Ekman-Larsson interfered with Konecny at 14:35. No chances ensued.
With 2:49 left in the period, Lycksell had a scoring chance on a backhand shot from the slot. Stolarz made the save.
At 17:46, Ryan Lomberg took a needless roughing penalty against Konecny well after the whistle. The Flyers were again unable to capitalize, falling to 0-for-3 on the power play in the first period.
A multi-player scrum broke out after the horn at the end of the first period, The Flyers received two roughing minors -- Cam York and Bobby Brink --- while Matthew Tkachuk got the only penalty for Florida.
2) First period shots on goal were 7-4 Flyers. Shot attempts were 21-10 Flyers. Scoring chances were 7-7. High-danger scoring chances were 4-3 Flyers. Faceoffs were 9-3 Flyers.
3) The Flyers had a shorthanded chance early in the second period. At 55 seconds, Tarasenko beat Sandström to the glove side.
At 4:31, the Flyers had a 2-on-1, Brink put a pass across to Foerster. Stolarz made the save. Shots on goal were 3-2 Florida. Couturier shrugged off a cross-check to the back from Nick Cousins and backhanded a shot off the crossbar from 13 feet at 6:05.
Sandström made a great pad save and York blocked a shot in a scramble to keep the deficit to two goals. Two shifts later, Foerster snapped a shot on net and Hathaway had a crack at the rebound.
At 8:17, after Tippett sent Frost in one-on-one with Stolarz, Evan Rodrigues took a desperation slashing penalty. It still took a good save by Stolarz to prevent a goal. On the ensuing power play, Laughton had a Grade-A chance.
As play went back to 5-on-5, Couturier dug loose a Konecny rebound. He was unable to score.
4) Second period shots on goal were 9-7 Flyers (16-11 Flyers overall). Shot attempts were 24-14 Flyers (45-24 Flyers overall). Scoring chances were 9-8 Flyers (16-15 Flyers overall). High-danger scoring chances were even at 5-5 (9-8 Flyers overall). Faceoffs were 14-6 Panthers (17-15 Florida overall).
5) The Laughton line generated the first positive shift of the third period for Philadelphia. Florida made it 3-0 at 4:43 on Verhaeghe's goal from 30 feet off Sandström's glove.
Through 6:07, shots on goal were 9-2 Flyers. Konecny missed an open net around the 6:30 mark on a chance created by Poehling. Laughton was stopped on a left-circle one-timer at 7:27. Stolarz stopped Frost near the left post at 8:15.
The Flyers went back to the power play on a Nikko Mikkola slashing penalty at 11:20,. The Flyers pulled Sandström midway for a 6-on-4. Brink scored to cut the deficit to 3-1 at 12:54.
Shortly after the Brink goal, Poehling had plenty of net from the left slot but couldn't finish the play.
The Flyers pulled the goalie again for a 6-on-5. Poehling wiped out into the goal post in preventing a long distance empty-net try by Florida.
Final shots on goal were 34-14 Flyers. Final faceoffs were 25-23 Florida.
