Avalanche Fall 5-3 to Flyers in Last Stop of Road Trip

The Colorado Avalanche dropped a 5-3 result to the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday night at Wells Fargo Center as the Avalanche concluded their four-game road trip (1-3-0). The Avalanche are now 13-9-1 on the season.

Alex Newhook scored twice - including a power-play marker - while Mikko Rantanen also scored for the Avalanche. In net, Alexandar Georgiev made 29 saves on 33 shots.
For the Flyers, Travis Sanheim and Tanner Laczynski scored at even strength, while Tony DeAngelo and Owen Tippett added power-play strikes and Travis Konecny scored an empty netter. Scott Laughton handed out two assists. In between the pipes, Carter Hart made 29 saves on 32 shots.

GAME SUMMARY:

Despite injuries continuing to pile up, the Avalanche showed some late fight, but still fell 5-3 to the Flyers.
The Avalanche got off to a strong start over the Flyers as they scored the game's icebreaker just 3:50 into play on a power-play conversion. For much of the first period - where they outshot Philadelphia 15-11 - they generated some good looks with a jumbled lineup - as a result of piling injuries - and put pressure on the net front, but trailed 2-1 heading into he first intermission.

At 3:33, Colorado received the first power play of the game as Kevin Hayes took a holding penalty. The Avalanche's top-ranked power play converted as Cale Makar lobbed a point shot to the net front and Newhook redirected down past Hart. After the Avalanche's power play MacKinnon - who earned the secondary assist on Newhook's goal - exited the ice for the dressing room and did not return. (It was later announced in the second intermission that the Avalanche's leading scorer had sustained an upper-body injury and would not return.)
The Avalanche continued to produce some good looks - especially from Charles Hudon, who finished the opening frame with five, but the Flyers tied it up at 7:29. Scott Laughton sent a pass from below the left faceoff circle out to Laughton. The Flyers' winger skated into the high slot and sniped a long-range wrist shot over the glove of Georgiev to tie the ame up 1-1.
Philadelphia then continued to push and capitalized late in the frame to overtake the lead. A point shot from Martin Kaut was blocked and the Flyers countered as Patrick Brown banked the puck off the glass and up ice to Joel Farabee. The winger centered the puck to the backdoor on the odd-man rush where Laczynski put it past Georgiev on the doorstep at 18:29.
The Avalanche struggled in the second period as they allowed a power-play goal against and mustered just one shot on net through the first 12 minutes, but finished the frame being outshot 12-5.
Philadelphia received its first power play of the game at 3:01 as Alex Galchenyuk took his first of two penalties in the period. On the Flyers' man advantage, Morgan Frost sent the puck out to DeAngelo at the point. The Philadelphia defenseman wired a wrist shot of Georgiev's glove to cushion their lead 3-1 at 3:59.
Late in the period, the Avalanche generated a Grade A chance as Kaut was sprung for a breakaway, but after toe-dragging across the crease his backhanded look was denied by Hart to preserve the Flyers' 3-1 lead.
Philadelphia extended their lead 4-1 on their third power play of the game as Cale Makar took a high-sticking penalty at 8:47. Laughton fired a blistering shot that bounced off the glass and ricocheted behind the net and back out to the left faceoff circle. Georgiev had slid over on Luaghton's shot and Tippett fired a one-timer into the open net at 9:54.
Late in the game the Avalanche made things interesting as they scored a pair of goals in the span of 36 seconds with less than three minutes left in the game to trim their deficit down 4-3, but the Flyers eventually added an empty-net goal to seal the victory.

At 17:47, Rantanen skated the puck out of the Avalanche's defensive zone, split through three Flyers skaters with his slick stickhandling and put his shot over Hart's glove to secure Colorado's second goal of the game. Just 36 seconds later, the Avalanche won a wall play and quickly passed the puck from below the goal line to the slot, where Newhook potted his second of the game.
Down by one goal, the Avalanche pulled Georgiev in exchange for the extra skater, but Philadelphia's Konecny scored on the Avalanche empty net with one-minute left in the game to seal the 5-3 win.

NOTEWORTHY:
- Newhook scored his fifth and sixth goals of the season and his first on the power play, while he skated in his 100th-career NHL game. His two-goal game marked the first multi-goal game of his career. - Rantanen recorded his 15th goal of the season. - Georgiev made his 16th start of the season, while his record fell to 11-4-1. - Charles Hudon joined the lineup and made his season debut for the Avalanche as he skated alongside Mikkok Rantanen and Newhook. Postgame, Avalanche Head Coach Jared Bednar noted that Hudon was one of the Avalanche's best forwards and called his play, "great." Hudon totaled 15:25 minutes, fired off seven shots (the most among the Avalanche and tied with Kevin Hayes for the most in the game) and threw two hits. - Martin Kaut returned to the lineup after missing three games due to illness. Kaut skated alongside J.T. Compher and Dryden Hunt and skated 11:13, fired off one shot and blocked on shot. - MacKinnon totaled 4:58 minutes, dished out one assist, fired one shot and was minus-one in that span before sustaining an upper-body injury and not returning after the first period. - Forwards Artturi Lehkonen and Jean-Luc Foudy were sidelined against the Flyers. Lehkonen sustained an upper-body injury (day-to-day) against Boston and did not return to the game after the first period, while Foudy is day-to-day with a lower-body injury. - Colorado finished the game 1-for-5 on the power play and 1-for-3 on the penalty kill. - Lehkonen and Foudy were scratches for Colorado.

NEXT GAME:

The Avalanche return to Ball Arena for the first of nine home games this month as they host Boston on Wednesday night. The puck drops between the Avs and Bruins at 7 p.m. MT.