Postgame 5: Ducks Down Flyers, 7-4

The Philadelphia Flyers lost to the Anaheim Ducks, 7-4, at Wells Fargo Center on Saturday afternoon. Frank Vatrano led Anaheim with a hat trick. Travis Konecny scored twice for the Flyers in a losing cause.

The Ducks opened the scoring just 58 seconds after the opening faceoff. In the Flyers zone, McTavish flubbed a pass attempt but then recovered and went over to Ryan Strome (2nd goal of the season), who fired the puck into the open left side of the net. McTavish earned the lone assist.

Cam Fowler gained the offensive zone on the power play, and fed over the middle to Frank Vatrano (PPG, 6th). Vatrano fired a shot over Ersson's right shoulder for a 2-0 lead at 15:19. The secondary assist went to McTavish. 

At 6:58 of the second period Vatrano (7th of the season, second of the game) forced the puck over the goal line. Initially not ruled a goal, after a lengthy replay, the officials ruled the puck had completely crossed the goal line for a 3-0 Anaheim lead. The assists went to Jackson Lacombe and Strome.

The Anaheim lead grew to 4-0 at 9:30 of the second period on another broken play then ended up in a goal. Seeler got knocked over and play moved back down low. Jakob Silfverberg centered a pass from behind the net to Max Jones.  Jones put the puck off Louie Belpedio and it bounced to Adam Henrique in the slot. Henrique (1st of the season) fired the puck into the net. The assists went to Jones and Silfverberg.

The Flyers cut the gap to 4-1 at the 11:49 mark. Tippett used his speed, beat a defender off the rush and passed to Atkinson driving down the right slot toward the net. Atkinson (5th goal of the season) made no mistake.

Philly got back to 4-2 at 12:35. On the rush, Sean Walker made a cross-ice feed to Travis Konecny (7th), who wristed a rising shot into the net from the right wing. The assists went to Walker and Laughton.

Anaheim scored their second power play goal of the game to take a 5-2 lead at 2:41 of the second period. Konecny attempted to break out on a shorthanded rush but turned the puck over to Strome. Seconds later, Trevor Zegras (PPG, 1st goal of the season) received a pass in the slot and wired it into the net.

The Ducks restored a four-goal margin at 3:14 on a 2-on-1 counter-attack. Sam Carrick passed over to Brett Leason (2nd goal) and Flyers defenseman Nick Seeler crashed into Ersson. The puck bounced off Ersson's backside into the net. 

Philly had good puck movement on their third power play of the game, and turned it into a Konecny goal (PPG, second goal of the game, 8th of the season) from the center slot. The assists went to Couturier and Bobby Brink.

The Ducks went on a shorthanded 2-on-1 that eventually became Vatrano's third goal of the game. Sanheim was blocked up high in the defensive zone and Henrique countered along with Vatrano. Corralling a pass in the Philly zone, Vatrano (SHG, third of the game, 8th of the season) scored from the slot to open a 7-3 cushion.

On a rush that started in the defensive zone, Farabee took a feed from Brink and scored from the left circle to make it a 7-4 gap at 17:00. The assists went to Brink and Noah Cates.

Samuel Ersson made his second start of the season  for the Flyers. He yielded seven goals (17 saves) on 24 shots.  Lukas Dostal earned the win with 27 saves on 31 shots.

The Flyers went 1-for-4 on the power play and yielded a shorthanded goal. The Ducks were 2-for-2 on the power play and potted a SHG.

FLYERS STARTING LINEUP

11 Travis Konecny - 21 Scott Laughton - 71 Tyson Foerster
74 Owen Tippett- 14 Sean Couturier - 89 Cam Atkinson
86 Joel Farabee - 27 Noah Cates - 10 Bobby Brink
44 Nick Deslauriers- 25 Ryan Poehling- Garnet Hathaway

8 Cam York - 6 Travis Sanheim
5 Egor Zamula - 26 Sean Walker
37 Louie Belpedio - 24 Nick Seeler

33 Samuel Ersson

[79 Carter Hart]

TURNING POINT

The Vatrano PPG and even strength goal seconds after a Flyers power play ended turned a 1-0 Flyers deficit into 3-0, despite Philly having played better up to that point. The Flyers made a mini-run after it got to be a 4-0 deficit, but Anaheim went on to pull away.

POSTGAME 5

1) Tippett had a grade A scoring chance on the game's opening shift. Atkinson attempted a folllow-up. At the other end, Strome scored.

Two veteran combatants went at it at the 7:57 mark. Deslauriers dropped the gloves with Ross Johnston. They had a lengthy and tiring fight without a clear winner.

An after-the-whistle scrum broke out at 13:24. The lone penalty was one called before the stoppage: A Poehling delay-of-game minor for putting the puck over the glass from the defensive zone. The Ducks went on to score on the power play.

2) The Flyers, as they have been doing regularly in the early going of the 2023-24 season, established a swarming forecheck from the outside. Anaheim started blindly putting pucks into dangerous areas after the Flyers quickly racked up five credited takeaways (Sanheim, Laughton, Walker, Tippett and York). As the period moved along, territorial play began to even out. More importantly, though, the Ducks had a 2-0 lead on the scoreboard.

First period shots on goal were 11-8 in the Flyers' favor. Shot attempts were tied at 19-19.  Faceoffs were 10-6 Flyers with Laughton winning three of four.

3) The Couturier line applied heavy pressure in the Anaheim end and drew a holding penalty on Ilya Lyubushkin at 4:40. The Flyers generated looks but didn't score. After the penalty expired, the Ducks scored an apparent goal as the whistle blew. The goal was ultimately allowed.

The Flyers struck for the quick back-to-back goal segment by Atkinson and Konecny. At 13:10, Leeson was called for a slashing minor, The Flyers attempted to get the puck to Foerster for one-timer chances but were unable to time it quite right.

4) The Flyers continued to have the majority of the territorial edge in the second period but (unlike other recent games) the puck luck went against Philly and they found themselves in a four-goal hole. Second period shots on goal were 9-7 Flyers (shot attempts were 22-12 Flyers). Second period high danger chances were 4-3 Flyers. Faceoffs in the second period were 17-3 Flyers (27-9 Philly overall). Laughton was 5-for-6, while Couturier was 13-for-16.

5) The Flyers blocked a couple of potentially dangerous opportunities of Anaheim in the opening minute of the third period. Brink was called for a cross-checking minor at 12:35. On the kill, a turnover proved very costly as Anaheim rebuilt a three-goal lead.

With the Flyers once again down by four goals (6-2), Ersson made a save on an open look for Pavel Mintyukov. The Ducks were called for too many men on the ice at 8:51. The Flyers cashed it on Konecny's second goal of the game to narrow the deficit to 6-3.

Philly went back to the power play at 10:43. The resulting Vatrano shorthanded goal made the rest of the game academic. Farabee's fourth goal of the season made it 7-4, which held as the final score of the afternoon.