Offense comes back to earth as Flyers fall to Wild originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The Flyers were quieted Saturday afternoon by one of the NHL’s better teams.
They fell to the Wild, 4-1, at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Travis Sanheim scored the lone goal for the Flyers (14-13-4), who had a two-game winning streak snapped. After scoring nine goals over those two victories, the Flyers had their fewest since Nov. 20.
John Tortorella’s club had earned at least a point in its previous seven road games (5-0-2).
The Flyers split their two-game regular-season series with the Wild (20-6-4). They took the first matchup, 7-5, in Philadelphia.
• Samuel Ersson made 19 saves on 22 shots.
The goals came on a ridiculous shot (more on that below), a breakaway and a 2-on-1 rush.
Minnesota pretty much put the Flyers away when Marco Rossi finished that 2-on-1 almost midway through the third period to make it 3-0.
In the second period, Matt Boldy extended the Wild’s lead to 2-0 with a breakaway 4-on-4 goal. The Flyers have been outscored 5-2 at 4-on-4 this season, an area in which they wanted to improve. They were outscored 5-2 at 4-on-4 all of last season.
Three-time Stanley Cup champion Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 21 of the Flyers’ 22 shots. The 40-year-old made a dazzling glove save on Travis Konecny in the first period to keep the game scoreless.
Sanheim cracked him with 5:42 minutes left in the game to draw the Flyers within 3-1.
Fleury beat the Flyers for the 33rd time in his career.
• In a matchup between two of the NHL’s top-five scorers since Oct. 23, Kirill Kaprizov netted a pair of goals and Konecny went without a point.
Kaprizov started the game’s scoring on a shot from a crazy angle with 5:42 minutes left in the first period. The puck hit off Ersson’s mask and then the post before finding the back of the net.
Kaprizov bookended the scoring with an empty-netter.
With the Flyers down 1-0 and on a second-period power play, Konecny couldn’t convert at the doorstep. The net was open but his shot appeared to ricochet up Matvei Michkov’s stick and out of the crease.
Entering the game, Kaprizov and Konecny were tied for fourth in scoring since Oct. 23 with 33 points apiece. Only the Hurricanes’ Martin Necas (37), the Oilers’ Leon Draisaitl (36) and the Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon (35) had more points over that span.
• Michkov has gone scoreless over the last two games after putting up three goals and seven assists in a season-best five-game point streak.
• The Flyers have three days before their next game Wednesday when they visit the Red Wings (7 p.m. ET/TNT).
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