Gameday Preview: Flyers @ Sabres

The Philadelphia Flyers (4-5-1) will play the second game of their home-and-home set with the Buffalo Sabres (5-5-0) on Friday evening. The Flyers lost a 5-2 decision to the Sabres at the Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday. Now the scene shifts to the KeyBank Center in Buffalo.

Game time is 7:00 p.m. ET.

On Wednesday, the game entered the third period tied at 2-2 as Joel Farabee (5th goal of the season) and Cam Atkinson (6th) bookended tallies by Buffalo's Brandon Biro (1st) and Casey Mittelstadt (3rd). Philly benefited from a coach's challenge on a would-be goal by Buffalo's Jeff Skinner that was overturned on replay because JJ Peterka was offside as the Sabres entered the attack zone.

Carter Hart had to leave the game at the 10-minute mark of the first period due to a mid-body injury sustained earlier in the period. He attempted to stay in the game but it was clear he was hurting. After the disallowed goal and the one that officially put the Sabres ahead by 2-1, Hart exited. Samuel Ersson (seven saves on nine shots) played the remaining 50 minutes.

The Flyers dominated the second period -- in fact, dominated the most of the final 40 minutes with a huge edge in shots and chances -- but could not put another puck past Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (38 saves on 40 shots) the rest of the night.

At 3:03 of the third period, after a bad pinch by Flyers defenseman Cam York, defenseman Owen Power (1st) broke the 2-2 deadlock. With six-plus minutes remaining, Tage Thompson (5th) provided an insurance goal off a Noah Cates turnover. Finally, Biro scored his second of the game (and second NHL goal) with an empty-net tally.

Hart is listed as day-to-day, although reports by Anthony SanFilippo and others projected more of a week-to-week timeline with 2-3 weeks estimates. However, on Thursday, the organization recalled veteran goaltender Cal Petersen from the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

To make roster space, the Flyers assigned defenseman Victor Mete to the Phantoms. In the meantime, goalie Felix Sandström is with the Phantoms on a two-week conditioning assignment. On Wednesday, Sandström saw his first game action since playing 20 minutes in the September 8 exhibition game. The Phantoms lost a 4-3 overtime decision in Hershey that night, with Sandström stopping 24 of 28 shots.

Additionally, on Friday, the Flyers listed Sean Couturier as day-to-day with a lower-body injury. Ryan Poehing, scratched the last two games, will return to the lineup. Presumably, Poehling will return to the fourth line with Scott Laughton moving up to center one of the top three lines.

With the Flyers in the midst of three games in four nights -- Wednesday at home against Buffalo, tonight in Buffalo and Saturday night at home against the LA Kings -- the team did not practice on Thursday. The projected Flyers lineup below is strictly a placeholder to reflect Couturier's absence and Poehling's return. It will be updated as necessary.

Per The Buffalo News, Tyson Jost, Victor Olofsson and Jacob Bryson are the expected scratches for the Sabres. Lukas Rousek will be in the lineup. Luukkonen will be in goal again, as Don Granato will try to ride the hot hand.

For an in-depth preview of Friday's rematch in Buffalo, see Five Things on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com.

PROJECTED LINEUPS (Updated at 2 PM ET)

FLYERS

74 Owen Tippett- 27 Noah Cates - 89 Cam Atkinson
86 Joel Farabee - 21 Scott Laughton - 10 Bobby Brink
11 Travis Konecny - 48 Morgan Frost - 71 Tyson Foerster
44 Nic Deslauriers- 25 Ryan Poehling- Garnet Hathaway

8 Cam York - 6 Travis Sanheim
24 Nick Seeler- 26 Sean Walker
5 Egor Zamula - 37 Louie Belpedio

33 Samuel Ersson
[40 Cal Petersen]

SABRES

12 Jordan Greenway - 72 Tage Thompson - 15 Brandon Biro
53 Jeff Skinner - 37 Casey Mittelstadt - 77 JJ Peterka
89 Alex Tuch- 24 Dylan Cozens - 13 Lukas Rousek
28 Zemgus Girgensons - 19 Peyton Krebs - 21 Kyle Okposo

26 Rasmus Dahlin - 23 Mattias Samuelsson
25 Owen Power -10 Henri Jokiharju
75 Connor Clifton - 6 Erik Johnson

1 Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen
[32 Devon Levi]

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Friday Forecheck: Nov. 3, 2023

This week's edition of the Friday Forecheck on the Flyers official website looks at the frustrating losses against Anaheim, Carolina and Buffalo, the need for Samuel Ersson to step up, the batch of scoring chances that Morgan Frost created during the team's last two games, the impact of Garnet Hathaway on-the-ice, inside the locker room and in the community, and the current 3-in-4 against the Sabres and Kings. To read the column, click here.

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Phantoms in Action

The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (3-4-1) return to action on Friday night as Ian Laperriere's team hosts the Hartford Wolf Pack (5-2-0) at the PPL Center in Allentown. Game time is 7:05 p.m. ET. The game will be streamed on AHLTV (subscription required).

The Phantoms, who are winless in their last three games (0-2-1) are coming off a 5-4 overtime road loss to the Hershey Bears on Wednesday. For Lehigh Valley, the biggest highlight from the last game was J.R. Avon scoring his first goal in the AHL. Felix Sandström (24 saves on 28 shots) was in goal.

Victor Mete was returned from the Flyers to the Phantoms on Thursday. Ronnie Attard missed Wednesday's game due to illness. His availability for Friday is uncertain as of this writing. Rookie defenseman Emil Andrae is still dealing with an upper-body injury suffered in Sunday's game. He is not expected to be out for a lengthy period of time.