The Philadelphia Flyers lost to the Ottawa Senators, 5-2, at Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday evening. The Flyers are 0-5-0 on the current seven-game homestand.
Twenty-four seconds after the game's opening faceoff, Claude Giroux teed up a one-timer that Brady Tkachuk (27th goal of the season) hammered into the net from the right side for a 1-0 lead. The assists went to Giroux and Tim Stutzle.
As play resumed after the Tkachuk goal, Nick Seeler was called for interference on Michael Amadio at the 32-second mark. The Flyers killed off the minor successfully. The Senators did not generate any shots on net.
Nicolas Deslauriers tried to stir the pot as a whistle stopped play for a TV timeout at 6:09. Things settled down and no penalties were called.
The Flyers went on a power play at 7:52 as Stutzle took down Noah Cates behind the Ottawa net. The Flyers were unable to capitalize, moving to 0-for-12 on the man advantage during the homestand to date.
Shots on goal were 3-3 through a stoppage at 10:05. On the next shift, Tyson Foerster got past Artem Zub and had a decent scoring chance.
Apart from the opening shift, the Flyers checked fairly well in the first period. Neither team generated much. First period shots on goal were 6-5 Ottawa. The Senators won 12 of 22 faceoffs. Rodrigo Abols was 2-for-2 for Philly.
Play opened up considerably in the second period. The sides traded off two goals apiece and Ottawa took a 3-2 edge to the final 20 minutes.
Early in the second period, Foerster had a grade A scoring chance as he redirected a Matvei Michkov feed. At 3:05, Philly knotted the score at 1-1 on a nice puck-movement sequence finished off by Jamie Drysdale (5th). The assists went to Travis Konecny and Olle Lycksell.
It took little time for Ottawa to regain the lead. At 4:14 Tyler Kleven (3rd) prevented the puck from bouncing over the blueline and scored on a shot from the point through a screen. The assists were credited to David Perron and Drake Batherson.
Abols forged a 2-2 deadlock at 8:45. Cam York carried the puck down near the goal line and fed it out to Abols (2nd) for a shot from the bottom of the left circle. The secondary helper went to Jakob Pelletier.
Philly went on their second power play at 10:39 as Stutzle returned to the penalty box; this time for tripping Michkov. Michkov had thoughts of attempting a Michigan (lacrosse-style) shot behind the net, couldn't gather the puck but then was taken down.
Ottawa generated a shorthanded 2-on-1 rush but Fedotov made a key save on Matthew Highmore. As the penalty expired, Stutzle went in on the Flyers' net. Playing without a stick, Drysdale took a desperation holding penalty at 12:47.
The Flyers generated a shorthanded 2-on-1 of their own. This time Anton Forsberg stoned Konecny. After the penalty, at 15:01, Amadio (8th) beat Fedotov through the five hole from the right circle. The helpers went to Adam Gaudette and Jake Sanderson as Ottawa grabbed a 3-2 edge.
Second period shots were 16-11 in Ottawa's favor (22-16 Senators through 40 minutes).
Travis Sanheim had the Flyers first chance of note in the third period. At 4:12, Michkov waited out a defender and snapped a shot on net from up high. He had another look later in the shift. Shortly thereafter, Sean Couturier wasn't able to finish off a near tic-tac-toe connection. Sanheim started the sequence by intercepting a pass and starting a transition rush.
Through seven minutes, shots were 4-0 Flyers. At 10:59, after the puck caromed out front, Dylan Cozens (13th, second as a Senator) added to the Ottawa lead. The goal was unassisted. It came on Ottawa's first shot on goal of the final period (which also happened in the opening period).
Shane Pinto (15th) added an empty net goal at 19:24. Amadio assisted.
Third period shots on goal were 6-2 Flyers (24-22 Ottawa overall).
Fedotov stopped 19 of 23 shots in a losing cause. Fosberg made 20 saves on 22 shots.
The Flyers went 0-for-2 on the power play. They went 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.
Rookie defenseman Emil Andrae re-entered the Flyers lineup after being scratched on Sunday against the New Jersey Devils. Egor Zamula exited the lineup.
FLYERS STARTING LINEUP
74 Owen Tippett - 14 Sean Couturier - 39 Matvei Michkov
71 Tyson Foerster - 27 Noah Cates - 10 Bobby Brink
15 Olle Lycksell - 125 Ryan Poehling - 11 Travis Konecny
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 18 Rodrigo Abols - 22 Jakob Pelletier
8 Cam York - 6 Travis Sanheim
24 Nick Seeler - 9 Jamie Drysdale
36 Emil Andrae - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
82 Ivan Fedotov
[32 Samuel Ersson]
Scratches: 5 Egor Zamula (healthy), 19 Garnet Hathaway (upper body).
PP1: Ristolainen, Konecny, Cates. Foerster, Michkov
PP2: Drysdale, Tippett, Couturier, Lycksell, Brink
TURNING POINT
A goal in the opening minute of the first period. A goal yielded just two shifts after scoring one. Another tally that came very shortly after a successful penalty kill. That can be a fatal combination of giving up tallies at just about the worst possible times. Ottawa rode this to a 3-2 lead through two periods.
POSTGAME 5 ("RAV4 THINGS" REVISITED)
1. TK tracker: Flyers leading scorer Travis Konecny celebrated his 28th birthday on Tuesday. In the second period, he had a nice setup on a Drysdale goal for the second straight game. He came very close to a shorthanded goal later in the period.
2. G back in town: Longtime Flyers captain Claude Giroux played his eighth game against Philadelphia since the March 2022 trade that brought his 1,000-game Flyers career to an end. On Tuesday night, Giroux wasted little time generating a primary assist on the first shift of the game.
3. Tipp-ing point: Flyers left winger Owen Tippett did not figure in the scoring. He was credited with four hits.
4. Between the pipes -- Fedotov: Starting for the second straight game, Flyers netminder Ivan Fedotov made a few clutch saves. However, he'd liked to have Amadio's five-hole tally back.
5. X-factor -- Recent acquisitions: Acquired from Calgary on January 31, Flyers winger Jakob Pelletier chipped in his second assist as a Flyer. On the Calgary side, center Dylan Cozens provided an insurance goal midway through the third period.
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