5 THINGS: Flyers @ Avalanche

In the third game of a four-game road trip, John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (9-13-7) are in Denver on Tuesday to take on Jared Bednar's Colorado Avalanche (14-10- 2). Game time at Ball Arena is 9:00 p.m. ET.

GAME NOTES
The game will be televised on NBCSP. The radio broadcast is on 93.3 The Fanatic with an online simulcast on Flyers Radio 24/7.
This is the second and final game of the season series between the teams. On Dec. 5, the Flyers and Avs faced off the Wells Fargo Center. Philadelphia skated to a 5-3 victory. Twelve different Flyers players recorded at least one point.
In the first period, an early power play goal by Alex Newhook (5th) was answered by 5-on-5 goals by Travis Sanheim and Tanner Laczynski. A Tony DeAngelo power play goal opened a 3-1 Flyers lead at 3:59 of the second period. In the final stanza, an Owen Tippett power play tally (7th) opened a three-goal lead. At 17:47, Mikko Rantanen powered through the middle and scored on a dazzling individual effort. On a 6-on-5, Newhook scored his second goal of the game (6th of the season) at 18:23 to cut the gap to 4-3. Finally, at 19:00, Travis Konecny restored a 5-3 lead with an empty-net goal. Carter Hart earned the win with 29 saves on 32 shots. Alexandar Georgiev took the loss, stopping 29 of 34 shots.
The Dec. 5 game was costly for the already injury-riddled Avalanche. Superstar center Nathan MacKinnon exited in the first period and did return. He remains out of the Avalanche's lineup for approximately one month with an upper-body injury. The Flyers didn't escape unscathed, either. Laczynski left the game in the third period with a lower-body injury. He was subsequently placed on Injured Reserve and is considered to be on a week-to-week basis.
Here are five things to watch in tonight's game:
1. JVR-Frost-Tippett line
The Flyers have won just two of their last 17 games (2-10-5), with the most recent win being the one over the Avalanche eight nights ago. Philly has been competitive in most of the games -- and even had the overall better of the play in many of the matches -- but they've almost constantly found ways to lose.
Philly enters this game coming off a 5-4 overtime loss in Tempe to the Arizona Coyotes on Sunday. The Flyers are 0-6 in games decided in overtime and 0-7 in all games decided beyond regulation.
In the Arizona game, Morgan Frost recorded a career-best four-point game. All three Flyers goals in the middle frame came from the trio of James van Riemsdyk (1g, 2a), Frost (1g. 2a) and Owen Tippett (1g, 1a). Frost and JVR would go on to add respective fourth points as they earned the assists on a game-tying tally by Konecny (11th goal of the season) that sent the game to overtime.
Clayton Keller (8th goal of the season) scored a power play goal in the waning seconds of the game's first power play to give Arizona a 1-0 on the lone goal of the opening period. The second period was a see-saw affair. A five-on-goal goal by Frost (4th) was followed by a two-man breakaway tally by van Riemsdyk (3rd) as the Flyers took a 2-1 lead. Arizona got a breakaway goal by Keller (9th of the season, second of the game) and a tally by Jack McBain (4th) on a broken play that bounced his way to give the Coyotes a 3-2 lead. Late in the period, Tippett (8th) tied the game at 3-3. In the third period, a blocked Travis Konecny shot resulted in a breakaway goal by Nick Ritchie (7th). On a 6-on-5, Konecny tied the game off a pass from Frost at the 17:43 mark. Keller completed a hat trick in overtime to end the game.
Frost had been overdue for a breakout game. One game earlier, when the Flyers dropped a 2-1 overtime decision in Vegas, JVR was placed on Frost's line with Zack MacEwen on their right wing. The trio created no fewer than four Grade A (three for MacEwen, one for Frost) in which JVR was involved on the set-up end on all four and Frost was part of creating three. Somehow, the line ended the night without a single point. Two games ago, against Washington, Frost made a gorgeous third period power play pass from the right half boards to Flyers' leading scorer Kevin Hayes (28 points in 29 games) near the far-side post but Hayes tuck a potential game-tying goal off the post. The Flyers lost 4-1.
Actually, Frost had been playing pretty well for weeks. He was involved in a healthy volume of scoring chances -- either on the setup side or having scoring chances from the "home plate" area below/between the dots -- but had come away virtually empty. He's had three solo breakaways (vs. Florida, San Jose and Montreal of which none were finished off for goals), a 2-on-0 breakaway with JVR last game (resulting in Philly's second goal against Arizona), one partial breakaway against Carolina (no goal on a shot from inside the right hash marks). He's also had no fewer than 10 other Grade A or Grade B chances over his first 28 games, of which only an opening-night goal against New Jersey and a slam-dunk goal in Arizona off a JVR setup have gone into the net. He had an opening-night empty netter against the Devils on an attempted pass to Laczynski that went in off a defender. His other goal, scored in Washington on Nov. 23 was a routine shot from above the circle that goalie Darcy Kuemper misplayed.
In the bigger picture, the Flyers need not just scoring CHANCES involving Frost but more actual goals and assists. The big game in Arizona can't be a one-off. However, the 23-year-old center played with a lot of confidence in the Arizona game. That's an area where he's struggled in his still-young NHL career; showing the self-belief to be assertive in making plays and letting the chips fall where they may.
If Frost --- and Tippett (8g, 5a) -- can start contributing points more consistently, it would be of tremendous help to a Philadelphia club that ranks 30th in the NHL at an average 2.41 goals scored per game. As for van Riemsdyk, whose return to the lineup after missing 20 games with a broken right index finger was desperately needed, do not underestimate how important he remains to the Flyers' hopes of scratching out enough offense from forwards other than Konecny and Hayes to pick off a few more wins.
2. Hart or Sandström?
It has now been 17 days since Felix Sandström last appeared in a game. Back on Nov. 26 in Elmont, Sandström took the loss against the New York Islanders in a game in which he saw just 23 shots and stopped 18 in a 5-2 loss. The game entered the 3rd period tied at 2-2 but a disastrous 22-second stretch early in the third period saw the game go from 2-2 to a 4-2 Islanders lead. New York subsequently added a power play goal on a short-side goal that Sandström would have liked back. For the season, the Swedish netminder is 1-5-1 with a 3.40 GAA and .889 save percentage.
Hart has started each of the Flyers' last seven games; a career-high streak of consecutive games started. In the Arizona game, Hart didn't play badly but he also didn't have his "A" game on a night where he didn't see much volume. One additional clutch save might have been enough for the Flyers to win.
Last game, Hart didn't allow anything "soft". But he was unable to come up with a couple breakaway saves or the Keller game-winner from the left circle. He finished with 24 saves on 29 shots. A Keller breakaway goal was unstoppable but a Nick Ritchie five-hole goal on a breakaway developed in slower fashion. Karel Vejmelka, who faced 41 shots and stopped 37 for Arizona, was the better of the two goalies on that night.
The Flyers had an off-day on Monday. They will have an optional morning skate today at Ball Arena. Prior to the skate, Tortorella and goalie coach Kim Dillabaugh will finalize the starting goalie plan for the game.
3. Injury Updates
MacEwen left Sunday's game in the third period due to a lower-body injury. There has not been an update on his status as of this writing. If MacEwen misses time. Max Willman could return to the Flyers lineup in Colorado for his first game action since Dec. 3 against the Devils. Willman has dressed in eight NHL games this season.
Tony DeAngelo was a (semi) healthy scratch in Vegas. In Arizona, he was unavailable to play due to a family-related issue. Cam York has played well in both of his games since his recall from the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms. in Arizona, York was entrusted with 24;08 of ice time across 31 shifts.
Cam Atkinson is on the road trip with the Flyers. Atkinson has been on the active roster all season and is medically cleared to play but has been dealing with an upper-body injury since the third day of training camp. He did not dress in any preseason games, nor has played in any of the 28 regular season games to date. Atkinson will play when he feels physically ready to contribute at his accustomed level, per Tortorella and the player himself.
4. Flyers Line Play
Based on the starting combinations in the Arizona game and presuming a) MacEwen is unavailable to play and b) Atkinson still is not ready for game action, below is a potential starting lineup in Colorado. It is subject to change. The actual starting line combinations, whether changed or not, will be reflected in tonight's Postgame 5.
13 Kevin Hayes - 49 Noah Cates -11 Travis Konecny
25 James van Riemsdyk - 48 Morgan Frost - 74 Owen Tippett
86 Joel Farabee - 21 Scott Laughton - Lukas Sedlak
44 Nicolas Deslauriers -38 Patrick Brown - 71 Max Willman
9 Ivan Provorov - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
6 Travis Sanheim - 61 Justin Braun
45 Cam York -24 Nick Seeler
79 Carter Hart
32 Felix Sandström
5. Behind Enemy Lines: Colorado Avalanche
The defending Stanley Cup champion Avalanche are still racked with key injuries. In some cases, even the replacements for injured players have subsequently gone down with injuries of their own. The team, which is just 4-5-1 over its last 10 games but has claimed three of four possible points over its last two games (2-1 shootout loss to the Rangers, 3-2 overtime road win against the Blues). The Avalanche have a 5-4-2 record thus far on home ice.
In the game against St. Louis, the dynamic Rantanen scored all three goals for Colorado. His second, scored with just nine ticks left on the regulation clock, forced overtime. His hat-trick completing goal was the game-winner. It was his second hat trick of the season and the fifth of the Finnish forward's career.
Overall, Rantanen has overtaken the injured MacKinnon (eight goals, 26 assists in 23 games played) for the Colorado scoring lead with 36 points (19 goals, 17 assists) in 26 games played. The Avalanche, who are also without injured team captain Gabriel Landeskog, have had to place most of their recent reliance squarely upon the shoulders of Rantanen and superstar defenseman Cale Makar (six goals, 19 assists, 25 points) to be their catalysts to victory. Rantanen has been shooting the lights out this season with a staggering 24.7 percent of his shots on goal winding up in the net.
In addition to the star power missing from the top of their forward lineup, the Avalanche's depth has been depleted severely. The club remains without the services of the likes of forwards Evan Rodrigues and Darren Helm as well as defensemen Bowen Byram, Josh Manson and Kurtis MacDermid.
On the flip side, Valeri Nichushkin (seven goals, 13 points in nine games this season) returned to the lineup on Dec. 9; a desperately needed addition to restore some pop to the attack. Additionally, Artturi Lehkonen (7 goals, 18 points in 23 games) returned to the lineup against the Blues and logged more than 20 minutes of ice time. Neither Nichushkin nor Lehkonen were available for the game last week in Philadelphia.
Highly regarded young forward Alex Newhook had been struggling for production this season until he scored two goals in the game against the Flyers. Since then, he had posted assists in each of his last two games and has four points (2g, 2a) over the last four games. Overall. Newhook is now up to 11 points (6g, 5a) in 26 games played this season. Defenseman Devon Toews, who has been logging monstrous ice time and played a strong game last week in Philadelphia, has contributed 15 assists among his 16 points to date this season.
In goal, Alexandar Georgiev has made 18 starts this season, posting an 11-5-2 record, 2.65 goals against average, .920 save percentage and one shutout. Backup goalie Pavel Francouz has made eight starts, going 3-5-0 with a 2.90 GAA and .911 save percentage.
Potential starting lineup (subject to change)
62 Artturi Lehkonen - 96 Mikko Rantanen - 13 Valeri Nichushkin
11 Andrew Cogliano - 37 JT Compher - 25 Logan O'Connor
54 Charles Hudon - 59 Ben Meyers - 93 Jean-Luc Foudy
22 Dryden Hunt - 18 Alex Newhook - 26 Jacob MacDonald
49 Samuel Girard - 8 Cale Makar
7 Devon Toews - 6 Erik Johnson
17 Brad Hunt - 88 Andreas Englund
40 Alexandar Georgiev
39 Pavel Francouz