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Wrap: Flyers Lose in Stadium Series, 6-3 |
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Wrap: Flyers Lose in Stadium Series, 6-3
The Philadelphia Flyers spent nearly the entirety of Saturday night's Stadium Series match with the New Jersey Devils chasing the game. From a breakaway goal by New Jersey's Nico Hischier just 32 seconds after the opening faceoff to an inevitable-feeling Nathan Bastian empty-net goal at 18:15 of the third period, it was a long and frustrating night at MetLife Stadium.
The Flyers trailed 2-0 after the first period. After Hischier's breakaway goal (17th goal of the season), the Devils made it 2-0 at 13:30. Morgan Frost lost a defensive zone faceoff to Tyler Toffoli and then lost track of Toffoli (24th) as Samuel Ersson left out a fat rebound on a Brendan Smith shot. Toffoli promptly deposited the puck in the back of the net.
Philly had some runs of momentum, especially in the second period, but couldn't finish off several prime looks in key moments. The Flyers also hurt themselves with bad penalties that stalled their momentum. Philadelphia, the NHL's second-ranked PK team, went 5-for-5 on the penalty kill but never gave themselves much chance to carry it over into a game-changing moment.
The Flyers drew within 2-1 in the second period on an Owen Tippett 40-foot snipe at 7:43. Philly had a wave of momentum going, but a needless slashing penalty by Travis Konecny at 10:51 short-circuited a Philadelphia power play opportunity with a chance to tie the game.
At 16:36 of the second period, Ersson left out another bad rebound; this time, right on the doorstep for a wide-open Smith (2nd goal of the season) to stash into the net off what initially seemed like a harmless perimeter shot by Ondrej Palat. Then, at 17:48, Bastian scored his first of the game (4th of the season) to open a 4-1 edge. This goal, which started out deep in the New Jersey zone, was scored off a broken play in the neutral zone. Nick Seeler stepped up to try to grab the puck but wasn't able to get it. Moments later, Bastian fired over Ersson's glove to the short side.
On of the few genuine Flyers highlights came at 18:23 of the period. On a power play, Tippett (21st of the season, second of the game) sniped his second goal of the period. Tippett's tally from the mid-center slot capped off a good puck-movement sequence. The assists went to Konecny (2nd of the game) and Frost.
Despite a 27-14 shot on goal edge in the middle frame, the Flyers exited the second period the same way they went into it: down by two goals. Even so, if Philly could get the next goal, especially in the early minutes of the third period, the game was still manageable.
It wasn't to be. Just 2:48 into the third period, Hischier struck for his second goal of the game (18th of the season) to once again provide the Devils a three-goal lead. It was an innocent play for most of the sequence -- a sequence of puck battles along the walls -- and then Jesper Bratt made a good pass to Hischier. From above and just inside the hash marks, Hischier fired a shot that beat Ersson to the far side. This was a situation where the Flyers needed a save to stay in the game.
To their credit, the Flyers dug down and made another push to try and climb back into the game. At 9:07, Nick Seeler (1st of the season) was wide open on the left slot and brought the deficit back down to two goals. The assists went to Scott Laughton and Sean Walker.
Not long after that, Laughton had a golden opportunity to reduce the deficit to 5-4 from a scramble in close: the puck on his stick in close and plenty of net. Laughton couldn't get it to go. The Devils remained ahead, 5-3.
The Flyers pulled Ersson for an extra attacker with about three minutes left in the game. They never came close to another goal, however. With 1:45 remaining, Bastian scored an empty netter at 5-on-6 to close out the game.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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