Postgame 5: Flyers Sustain 5-4 Loss in LA

In the second game of a five-game road trip, the Philadelphia Flyers lost to the Los Angeles Kings, 5-4, at Crypto.com Arena on Sunday night. The Flyers held a 4-2 lead in the second period and a 4-3 edge in the third but saw the game slip away for the second time this season against the Kings.

The two teams traded off a pair of goals apiece in the first period. Shots on goal were tied at 6-6 (17-17 in shot attempts). It was an active first period for Flyers rookie Matvei Michkov, who was in the middle of multiple puck touches and three scoring chances.

The Kings came out attacking early in the first period. On a counterattack, Morgan Frost executed a stretch pass. Michkov set up Scott Laughton for a Grade A scoring chance on a 2-on-0 rush. The shot attempt missed the net.

LA took a 1-0 lead at 5:14. Using Laughton as a screen and with Aleksei Kolosov caught off-angle, Kevin Fiala (14th goal of the season) put a left circle shot from outside the faceoff dot into the far side of the net. The assists went to Alex Laferriere and Phillip Danault.

Coincidental minors on Noah Cates (tripping) and Kyle Burroughs (roughing) created two minutes of 4-on-4 play at 6:43. During the 4-on-4, Cam York sent Tyson Foerster off on a breakaway. Foerster finished it off with a low glove shot to knot the score at 1-1. The assists at 8:17 went to York and Travis Sanheim.

The Flyers took a 2-1 lead at 14:09. Frost fed Michkov at the bottom of the left circle. An initial bank shot attempt didn't go in the net but the rebound bounced to Laughton (8th) and into the net. The assists went to Michkov and Frost.

At 16:45, the Kings made it 2-2 on a transition rush one-timer from Adrian Kempe (17th) from the right just outside the hashmark circle. The assists went to Brandt Clarke and Alex Turcotte. The sequence started with a legal handpass in the LA defensive zone. The forwards were a bit late arriving on the backcheck, leaving room up top for LA to attack.

The second period was one of several momentum swings. The Flyers tallied two goals spaced 1:39 apart before a rapid response by the Kings to draw back within one goal. Shots were 9-8 Los Angeles. The Cates line generated two shots on goal on the opening shift of the second period. LA responded with three of their own on the next shift. Over the next six minutes, play settled into a tighter-checking tempo. Finally, Warren Foegele fired a shot that Kolosov got a piece of before it pinged off the crossbar.

Midway through the period, scoring chances for Michkov (bank shot attempt) and Frost (backhander) resulted in extended pressure for the Flyers. After a partial line change, Rasmus Ristolainen took the puck hard to the net before Michkov scored (12th) on another bank shot from below the goal line for a 3-2 lead. The assists went to Laughton and Ristolainen at 11:03.

The Flyers scored again for a 4-2 lead at 13:45. After a strong defensive sequence the Flyers scored at the other end. Scoring for the second straight game, Joel Farabee put the puck over the goal line (6th) from the blue paint. The assists went to Garnet Hathaway and Ryan Poehling, who both made good plays with the puck on the front end of the sequence.

Foegele was denied on a breakaway attempt after a Flyer turnover up high in the LA zone. He then followed up his own rebound (11th goal of the season) to bring the Kings back within 4-3 at 15:04. The goal was unassisted. LA then applied very heavy pressure for the rest of the period. The Flyers were fortunate to get the game to the second intermission with a one-goal advantage.

The third period started much like the second period ended, with LA flurrying deep in Flyers territory. At the other end, Owen Tippett had a self-created Grade A scoring chance against LA goaltender David Rittich. Moments later, off a Sean Couturier faceoff win, Travis Konecny hit the crossbar.

A long shift in the Flyers defense zone -- spanning nearly 90 seconds -- ultimately resulted in Anze Kopitar (11th of the season, third against the Flyers) goal at the net for a 4-4 tie at 6:43. The assists went to Quinton Byfield and Jacob Moverare.

The first power play of the game went to LA at 8:50 of the third period as Sanheim was sent off for hooking Kopitar. Kopitar won the ensuing faceoff against Ryan Poehling. Kempe's shot double-deflected -- first off Kopitar's stick (PPG, 12th of the season, second of the game and fourth in two games against the Flyers) and then off Nick Seeler's shin pad -- into the net at 8:55 as LA took a 5-4 lead.

At 11:39, coincidental minors on Michkov and Byfield set up the second 4-on-4 of the game. With 18 seconds remaining in the minors, Kempe was called for interfering with Konecny. Sanheim missed a half-open net a second before play moved from 4-on-3 to 5-on-4.

With 1:40 on the third period clock and Kolosov pulled for an extra attacker, the Flyers called timeout. Philly ran out of time.

Kolosov finished with 15 saves on 20 shots. Rittich earned the win with 17 saves on 21 shots.

FLYERS STARTING LINEUP

74 Owen Tippett - 14 Sean Couturier - 11 Travis Konecny
71 Tyson Foerster - 27 Noah Cates - 10 Bobby Brink
21 Scott Laughton - 48 Morgan Frost - 39 Matvei Michkov
86 Joel Farabee - 25 Ryan Poehling - 19 Garnet Hathaway

6 Travis Sanheim - 8 Cam York
24 Nick Seeler - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
5 Egor Zamula - 9 Jamie Drysdale

35 Aleksei Kolosov

[33 Samuel Ersson]

PP1: Drysdale, Brink, Couturier, Konecny, Michkov
PP2: Ristolainen, Tippett, Frost, Cates, Foerster

Scratches:15 Olle Lycksell (healthy), 77 Erik Johnson (healthy), 44 Nicolas Deslauriers (IR), 82 Ivan Fedotov (healthy)

TURNING POINT

The Foegele breakaway rebound goal marked a definitive turning point in the momentum of Sunday's game. The game was ultimately decided by Kopitar's back-to-back goals in the third period.

POSTGAME 5 ("5 Things" Revisited)

1. Learning from Dec. 19 meeting: At Wells Fargo Center 10 nights ago, the Flyers led 3-2 in the final minute of the second period only to go on to suffer a 7-3 defeat. In Los Angeles, the Flyers once were in position to win entering the third period. Once again, they failed to do so.

2. Goaltender performance: The Flyers entered Sunday's game needing Kolosov to match or exceed Samuel Ersson's play in Saturday's 3-1 victory in Anaheim. Two of five goals that Kolosov yielded, especially the game's first goal, were chances he'd have liked to have back.

3. Cates line: The Flyers center brought a five-game goal-scoring streak into Sunday's tilt. He was unable to extend it but logged massive ice time in the latter half of the game. Overall, Cates played 17:18 across 22 shifts. He had two shots on goal, one credited hit and went 12-for-24 on faceoffs. Linemate Foerster tallied a 4-on-4 goal with Cates in the box.

4. Flyers power play: After going 0-for-5 on the man advantage in Anaheim, the Flyers were 0-for-1 against the Kings. The Flyers are goalless in their last 16 power play opportunities.

5. Behind enemy lines -- Kopitar and Kempe: The Kings' leading overall point-getter (Kopitar) and top goal-scorer (Kempe) unsurprisingly played huge roles in the outcome of the game. The Flyers will be happy that they don't have to see Kopitar again this season.