Flyers lose on OT buzzer-beater as frustrating stretch continues

The beleaguered Flyers were beaten at the buzzer Tuesday night, taking another gut punch in a season that's becoming an awfully tough fight.

John Tortorella's team was stunned with one second left in overtime, falling to the Utah Hockey Club, 3-2, at Delta Center.

Dylan Guenther appeared to catch the Flyers by surprise by making a late bolt into the offensive zone and scoring all on his own. Guenther was also the one who forced OT by knotting things up 8:40 minutes into the third period.

The Flyers (23-25-7) have lost six of their last seven games (1-5-1), a stretch in which they've been outscored 24-8.

After going three straight games without a goal for the first time in the franchise's regular-season history, the Flyers halted the drought just 2:02 minutes into the action Tuesday night. Rodrigo Abols did the honors with his first in the NHL.

Tyson Foerster regained the Flyers their lead just 57 seconds after Mikhail Sergachev drew Utah even at 1-1 in the second period.

But the Flyers couldn't nail down the lead as they were heavily outshot.

Tortorella's rebuilding club dropped to 9-7 after regulation and 11-4-7 in games decided by one goal.

The Flyers were swept by Utah (22-22-9) in the two-game regular-season series. They dropped the first matchup, 4-2, in December at the Wells Fargo Center.

Samuel Ersson once again was strong for the Flyers.

The 25-year-old converted a career-high 39 saves on 42 shots.

Just 1:07 minutes into the third period, he denied Barrett Hayton in close as the Flyers were on the penalty kill. A little over three minutes later, he turned away Nick Schmaltz by sliding across the crease for the save.

Guenther used excellent deception to beat Ersson on the game-tying goal.

Since the holiday break, the Flyers' No. 1 goaltender has gone 8-4-1 with a 2.28 goals-against average and .919 save percentage.

Utah netminder Karel Vejmelka stopped 18 of the Flyers' 20 shots.

• Danny Briere was hoping to have trade acquisitions Andrei Kuzmenko and Jakob Pelletier against Utah, but both wingers remained unavailable because of visa issues.

Unlike Sunday afternoon, the Flyers didn't have to roll with 11 forwards and seven defensemen. Nicolas Deslauriers, who was placed on injured reserve in early December, played for the first time since Nov. 9. In his return from an upper-body injury, the physical winger provided a screen on Abols' goal and quickly grabbed the puck for the Latvian center.

For Abols, his first career NHL goal came at 29 years old. He was a seventh-round draft pick of the Canucks in 2016 and had spent the last four seasons playing overseas.

Deslauriers then showed no hesitation to drop the gloves with Liam O'Brien in the first period. The fight didn't disappoint.

• Owen Tippett, Ryan Poehling, Rasmus Ristolainen and Egor Zamula are all considered day to day with upper-body injuries.

The Flyers didn't have Ristolainen for the first time this season after the defenseman missed the third period of the team's 2-0 loss to the Avalanche.

• The Flyers come home for a matchup Thursday with the Capitals (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP).