Postgame 5: Stars Outshine Flyers, 4-1

At the Ed Snider Legacy Game at Wells Fargo Center, the Philadelphia Flyers started the second half of the 2024-25 season with a 4-1 loss against the Dallas Stars. Philly remains winless thus far in January.

Dallas scored on their first shot of the game, taking a 1-0 lead at 1:45 of the first period. With both Flyers defensemen on the same side of the ice, Mavrik Bourque (3rd of the season) got open in the slot and scored. The assists went to Matt Dumba and Logan Stankoven. The play started deep in Dallas territory and they went the other way and scored.

The Stars expanded the lead to 2-0 at 9:38 as Roope Hintz (19th) scored from the doorstep on a feed from Evgenii Dadonov. Dallas had two goals on their first three shots. The assists went to Dadonov and Jason Robertson.

Philly went on the game's first power play at 17:08 on a Nils Lundqvist hooking minor. The Flyers lost the first draw and did not get set up at all until the penalty was half over. No scoring chances ensued. First period shots on goal ended up at 9-9.

Flyers head coach John Tortorella did some line juggling early in the second period.

With the Flyers hemmed in their own end and a player (Owen Tippett) playing without a stick for an extended period, Samuel Ersson made a sprawling save on Colin Blackwell at 4:34 of the second period. The stop prevented what looked at first to be a near-certain goal.

An attempted pinch by Cam York resulted in a 2-on-1 the other way after an errant pass in the offensive zone by Matvei Michkov intended for Tippett. Wyatt Johnston (10th) received a pass from Jamie Benn and scored from below and inside the dot at 8:41 of the middle frame for a 3-0 lead. Nils Lundkvist drew the second assist. As with the previous two goals, this tally originated from the Dallas defensive zone.

At 14:30, Travis Konecny rang a shot off the post from the left circle after receiving a pass from Morgan Frost. It was one few potential goals for Philadelphia through the first 35-plus minutes of the game. Second period shots on goal 9-8 Dallas (18-17 Stars through two periods).

On the first shift of the third period, the Flyers iced the puck and then Tippett tripped Stankoven in the neutral zone at the 19-second mark. Exiting the box, Tippett hit the outside of the post on a transition rush.

The Flyers won back-to-back right circle faceoffs in the offensive zone. The second one ultimately paid off. A Travis Konecny shot from up high deflected off Matt Duchene bounced in front off the end boards and Frost (8th) put it home at 6:47. The second assist went to Egor Zamula.

The Flyers went to their second power play as Dumba went off for interference in the neutral zone. Once again, the Flyers never got set up effectively.

Miro Heiskanen (5th) scored a long-distance empty net goal at 16:47. The assists went to Esa Lindell and Robertson. Third period shots were 10-5 Flyers.

Ersson returned from a lower body injury to make 19 saves on 22 shots. Casey DeSmith flirted with a shutout for two-plus periods and ultimately stopped 26 of 27 shots.

FLYERS STARTING LINEUP

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

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

33 Samuel Ersson
[82 Ivan Fedotov]

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

Scratches:15 Olle Lycksell (healthy), 77 Erik Johnson (healthy), 44 Nicolas Deslauriers (IR), 35 Aleksei Kolosov (healthy).

TURNING POINT

All three of Dallas' non-empty net goals were ultimately scored off transition plays that started in their defensive zone. Dallas scoring on their first shot of the game got things off to an ominous start. None of the three goals were on Ersson. One was an odd-man rush off a turnover up ice and the other two were coverage lapses and pucks the got through to the ultimate goal scorer.

POSTGAME 5 ("5 Things" Revisited)

1. Maintain basic process from Toronto home-and-home: Unfortunately for the Flyers, Thursday's game was just about the antithesis of the Flyers' process against Dallas. The Flyers never got their forechecking going. They gave up too much in transition. Scoring chances were few and far between.

2. Rookie watch -- Michkov and Stankoven: Michkov was unable to follow up his very strong game against Toronto, and also committed the turnover on a low-percentage pass in the offensive zone.

3. The Cates Line: None of the Flyers lines -- either before or after the line combination juggling was able to sustain much. The Noah Cates line did not have a bad game but they weren't able to generate much momentum on this night either.

4. Power play: Draws, Entries and Set-ups: The process on the power play -- not winning the first draw, not generating re-entries or retrievals -- was simply not good enough on either Philly power play (0-for-2). The lone PK (1-for-1) was fine.

5. Behind Enemy Lines: Benn still a tone-setter: Dallas captain Jamie Benn made a good pass in transition that led up to the Hintz goal. Overall, the veteran forward did well in some puck battles and did his part to keep his team in control despite the final shot totals favoring Philly slightly.