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Wrap: Flyers Buried by Avalanche, 6-3; Phantoms Lose in Laval, 5-1 |
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Wrap: Flyers Buried by Avalanche, 6-3
The Philadelphia Flyers had trouble keeping up with the host Colorado Avalanche in a 6-3 loss at Ball Arena on Friday evening. The Flyers were under attack from the outset and were outskated by a wide margin for two-plus periods. The final score could easily have been even more lopsided.
The Avalanche swept the two-game series with the Flyers, scoring a combined 13 goals over the games in Philadelphia and Denver.
In the first period, the Flyers responded to a goal by Nazem Kadri (25th goal of the season) with a rebound follow-up tally by James van Riemsdyk (16th). The tie was very short-lived as the Flyers took a penalty on the next shift and then yielded a Cale Makar power play goal (23rd) off the first faceoff on Colorado's power play. The Avalanche later got favorable bounces on goals by J.T. Compher (13th) and Mikko Rantanen (32nd) as they took a 4-1 lead to intermission.
The carnage continued in the second period. The Flyers were under constant attack but limited the damage to a Kurtis MacDermid goal (2nd) that deflected off a Flyers forward up high off a faceoff in the Philadelphia zone. Zac MacEwen (2nd) scored for the Flyers in the last minute of the frame, as the Avalanche took a 5-2 lead to the locker room.
In the third period, Max Willman (3rd) reduced the deficit to 5-3. Less than a minute later, Makar (24th) scored his goal of the game off a faceoff as Colorado immediately went ahead again by three goals.
Carter Hart was besieged by a 51-shot assault from Colorado. He made 44 saves. Three of the Colorado goals deflected off Philadelphia Flyers. The other three were scored through traffic. Pavel Francouz earned the win with 29 saves on 32 shots. Owen Tippett and Hayden Hodgson each recorded six shots on goal -- with no reward -- in a losing cause.
The Flyers went 0-for-2 on the power play. Colorado went 1-for-3.
Travis Konecny missed the game with a lower-body injury. He is considered day-to-day. Oskar Lindblom returned to the lineup after missing Thursday's game in St. Louis with an undisclosed physical ailment.
For more on how things unfolded in this game, see the Postgame 5 on PhiadelphiaFlyers.com
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Phantoms Lose in Laval, 5-1
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms' faint playoff hopes took another hit on Friday night as the team lost a 5-1 road decision to the Laval Rocket at Place Bell. The game was tied 1-1 at the first intermission and the Phantoms had some chances in the second period to forge ahead but were unable to capitalize. From there, Laval went on to score four unanswered goals (two in the middle stanza and two more in the third).
Garrett Wilson (12th goal of the season) scored a power play goal late in the first period to knot the game at 1-1. It proved to be the only goal for his side. Felix Sandström stopped 30 of 35 shots in a losing cause for the Phantoms.
Phantoms captain Cal O'Reilly dressed in the 1,000th regular season game of his professional career. This counts not only games in the AHL, where he's spent most of his career, but also the NHL and a brief stint in Europe.
Playing for the third time in four nights across three different cities, the Phantoms will visit the Belleville Senators an Saturday evening.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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