Flyers fall to Utah Hockey Club, lose momentum with 3rd straight loss originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The Flyers have followed up their three-game winning streak with a three-game skid.
They lost to the Utah Hockey Club, 4-2, Sunday night at the Wells Fargo Center.
With under six minutes to go in the third period, John Tortorella’s club had a chance to draw even on the power play. But the Flyers allowed a dagger of a shorthanded goal. Morgan Frost over-skated the puck in the defensive zone, which resulted in a breakaway marker for Kevin Stenlund.
The Flyers never led Sunday night and have now dropped more than two games in a row for the first time since October, when they endured a six-game losing streak.
Joel Farabee and Owen Tippett scored goals for the Flyers (12-12-4), who are 1-4-0 in the second game of back-to-back sets. They fell to the Bruins in overtime Saturday afternoon at TD Garden.
This was the first-ever matchup between the Flyers and Utah Hockey Club (12-11-4). The teams meet again in February when the Flyers visit Delta Center.
• The Flyers saw the return of their No. 1 goalie.
Samuel Ersson was back in net and made 21 saves on 25 shots after missing the last 11 games with a lower-body injury.
The 25-year-old made an early stop on a semi odd-man rush for Utah. That had to be good for shaking off any rust from going 26 days without game action.
Ersson didn’t catch any breaks in the second period when Utah put up three goals. The first was a tough bounce off of Rasmus Ristolainen’s skate. The Flyers were also making a change as Utah pushed up ice.
After Farabee answered 19 seconds later to make it 1-1, the Flyers went back down 2:22 minutes later when Juuso Valimaki redirected one past Ersson. Sean Couturier was in front battling with Valimaki.
Tippett then drew the Flyers even under four minutes later but once again Utah countered. This time, it came on the power play. For the Flyers, it was their seventh goal allowed on the penalty kill in the last four games. One of those was seven was an empty-netter. Prior to this stretch, the Flyers’ PK had allowed just 10 goals on the season.
Utah netminder Jaxson Stauber stopped 22 of the Flyers’ 24 shots.
• Two and a half hours before the game, when asked if he felt Travis Konecny would respond well to being benched for overtime Saturday, Tortorella said “sure.”
The head coach didn’t talk to his team about the penalties in the third period of the last two games. The Flyers’ poor situational play led to them relinquishing leads and losing both games.
Konecny had an assist Sunday night on Farabee’s goal. The Flyers didn’t commit any penalties in the third period but they couldn’t generate a comeback.
• Matvei Michkov is on a four-game point streak in which has recorded three goals and five assists. The prized rookie had a secondary assist on Tippett’s goal.
He leads all NHL rookies with 25 points (11 goals, 14 assists) in 26 games.
• Jamie Drysdale played his first game in four weeks, drawing into the lineup for Egor Zamula. The 22-year-old defenseman had been out with an upper-body injury.
Over that time, Drysdale did plenty of on-ice rehab. He also had some film work with Tortorella and assistant coach Brad Shaw.
“Shawsy’s done some tape with him, I put together a little bit of a tape for what we’re looking for him to turn into,” Tortorella said pregame. “There will be some rust, he hasn’t played a lot. That position, you need to get the looks. We’ll put him in there and see where he goes.”
So far, so good for Drysdale. He looked spry and was a plus-1. He had a goal wiped off the board in the third period. A Utah coach’s challenge had it overturned for goaltender interference by Konecny.
• The Flyers head to Columbus for a matchup Tuesday with the Blue Jackets (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP).
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