POSTGAME 5: Frost's Four-Point Game Not Enough in 5-4 OT Loss

The Philadelphia Flyers lost a seesaw game to the Arizona Coyotes in overtime, 5-4, at Mullett Arena in Tempe on Sunday evening. A hat trick by Clayton Keller, completed in sudden death overtime, sent the Flyers down to defeat. Philly is now 0-6 in games decided in overtime and 0-7 in all games decided beyond regulation. Morgan Frost recorded a career-best four-point game (one goal, three assists) but te Flyers had to settle for a single point.

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 Morgan Frost (4th) was followed by a two-man breakaway tally by James 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, Owen Tippett (8th) tied the game at 3-3.
All three Flyers goals in the middle frame came from the trio of JVR (1g, 2a), Frost (1g. 2a) and Tippett (1g, 1a). Frost would go on to add a fourth point (3rd assist) later in the game.
In the third period, a blocked Travis Konecny shot resulted in a breakaway goal by Nick Ritchie (7th). On a 6-on-5, Konecny sent the game to OT with a tying goal (11th) at the 17:43 mark.
Carter Hart started for the seventh straight game and was unable to come up with a couple breakaway saves among other chances where a clutch stop would have made all the difference. He finished with 24 saves on 29 shots. Karel Vejmelka faced 41 shots and stopped 37.
The Flyers went 0-for-2 on the power play and did not look particularly good on either opportunity. The Coyotes went 1-for-2.
FLYERS STARTING LINEUP
13 Kevin Hayes - 49 Noah Cates -11 Travis Konecny
86 Joel Farabee - 21 Scott Laughton - 17 Zack MacEwen
25 James van Riemsdyk - 48 Morgan Frost - 74 Owen Tippett
44 Nicolas Deslauriers -38 Patrick Brown - 23 Lukas Sedlak
9 Ivan Provorov - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
6 Travis Sanheim - 61 Justin Braun
45 Cam York -24 Nick Seeler
79 Carter Hart
l32 Felix Sandström]
TURNING POINT
Frost's quick pass to Konecny resulted in the tying goal that sent the game to 3-on-3 sudden death. In OT, for the second straight game, the Flyers went with two defensemen and one forward.
A highly questionable icing call gave the Coyotes an offensive zone draw. Frost won it and the Flyers were able to change lines. With 3:03 left in OT, Cam York swung around the net and nearly scored to the short side. On the next shift, Frost shook free from Shayne Gostisbehere on a toe-drag move but couldn't finish it.
With 22.4 second left, Keller finished off a hat trick and the game. Ristolainen gave up possession in the Arizona end and the Flyers never got it back again.Schmaltz passed to Keller, who was one-on-one with York. From the left circle, Keller beat Hart.
MELTZER'S TAKE
1) Hayes tested Vejmalka from the left wing on a play started by Sanheim on the game's first shift. At 1:30, there was a scramble at the Flyers net after a point shot by Jakob Chychrun. Overall, the Flyers had seven of the game's first nine shots on goal through the game's first 8:30 when Philly iced the puck.
At 8:57, after Sanheim pinched in, the Coyotes turned the puck over to Laughton behind the net. He centered the puck for a chance by Sanheim. The next three shots belonged to Arizona but Hart stopped routine shots by Nick Schmaltz, Clayton Keller and Josh Brown.
At 10:49, the Flyers took the game's first penalty. Ristolainen's stick broke chopping at Schmaltz's stick on a defensive zone draw. Hart stopped a Chychrun shot from the top of the circle.Seeler blocked a Schmaltz one-timer out of play. With four seconds left, Coyotes scored on the power play for a 1-0 lead. With a layered screen in front of Hart, Keller threaded a shot that made its way through traffic into the net at 12:46. The assists went to J.J. Moser and Nick Ritchie. Shots were 8-8 at this point.
Hart had to stop two shots on the period's next shift. Then Lawson Crouse received a stretch pass and had a breakaway. Hart made the save.
The Flyers, who did not have a power play on Friday in Vegas, got their first power play at 14:43. Stecher was called for interference on Konecny. The first unit was unable to get much going. The second unit generated a Tippett shot attempt.
'With 1;45 left in the period,Hart stopped a Liam O'Brien snap shot from the left circle.On the next shift, Braun broke up a play by Christian Fischer. Keller made a drop pass to Chychrun, who blasted a heavy but unscreened shot on net.
Sedlak canceled out a potential icing. The puck remained tied up on the boards until near the expiration of the period.
2) After a strong start to the first period, the Flyers had a marked drop in energy and execution. The latter half of the period was heavily in the Coyotes' favor at 5-on-5. On the power play, even before the Keller goal in the waning seconds, Arizona had puck possession and good puck movement for most of the two minutes. By comparison, the Flyers never got set up to an appreciable degree with their first unit on the ice. Frost was charged with a giveaway trying to force a puck around the way. The Coyotes had an easy clear.
First period shots on goal ended up 13-9 Coyotes after starting out 7-2 Flyers. Shot attempts were 25-12 Coyotes. Scoring chances were 13-4 Arizona with a 4-2 high-danger edge. Faceoffs were 15-9 Coyotes. The only areas where the Flyers had an edge was in credited hits (13-8, led by three for Deslauriers) and blocked shots (6-1, led by two from MacEwen); a product of Arizona having the puck more than Philly.
3) At 39 seconds into the second period, MacEwen fired an off-angle shot on net. On the next shift, the Cates line had some offensive zone possession time but not shots. The shift ended with Keller firing a shot on net from the left circle.
The Flyers tied the game on the next shift to end a lengthy forechecking shift. JVR did the hard work behind the net and slid a centering pass to a wide open Frost in front. Vejmelka never saw it and Frost had a tap-in to the short-side at 2:09. The assists went to van Riemsdyk and Tippett.
Crouse delivered a shoulder check, cleanly, to Cates at center ice. From his vantage point, Seeler thought it was a dirty hit and he made a beeline toward Crouse. Roughing minors were called, and the teams skated at 4-on-4 for two minutes starting at 3:50.
A forechecking Frost pressured Chychrun near the Arizona blueline and eventually stole the puck away from him. Chychrun fell down. That left Frost and van Riemsdyk 2-on-0 with Vejmelka. JVR got into shooting position in the right slot, took a pass from Frost and ripped the puck home. The goalie had no chance. Frost had the lone assist on the JVR goal at 4:08.
With 21 seconds remaining on the 4-on-4 Philly had another scoring chance. Laughton hammered a shot from the right side. Vejmelka made the save.
Play moved back to 5-on-5. Tippett fired off a tough shot. The rebound hopped over Frost's stick. The Cates line followed up with a lengthy shift that hemmed Arizona in their own end.
Hart had to be sharp to stop a Boyd deflection on net at 7:15.
Keller re-tied the game at 2-2 on a breakaway at 7:45. A Ristolainen shot hit Farabee and was intercepted. This triggered a set play as Keller exited the defensive zone and took a pass from Boyd. Soloing against Hart, Keller moved to his backhand and elevated the puck over Hart into the net. The assists went to Boyd and Schmaltz.
Arizona took a 3-2 lead at 10:21 on a broken play. A blocked Moser shot attempt bounced directly to an open McBain, who scored from the other side. The assists went to Moser and Fischer.
Philly attempted to answer right back but a bang-bang chance for Hayes was stopped by Vejmelka. The Cates line got hemmed in on their next shift. Hart made a stop on Juuso Välimäki with 6:50 left in the middle period.
The Frost line, with Sanheim on the ice, created very heavy pressure. On the next shift, Konecny narrowly missed tying the game, following up on a chance by Cates. The Coyotes iced the puck. A shift later, Hayes had time and space to move in front. Arizona iced the puck again. The Flyers attacked again before the puck went out of play.
The Frost line struck agat at 18:42. The Flyers' forwards worked the puck on the walls. Frost made a nice spin move to create a little room with JVR sending the puck from the half boards out to Tippett at the point. Tippett fired the puck at the net and it found its way into the net to tie the game at 3-3. The assists went to van Riemsdyk and Frost.
4) Second period shots on goal were 17-9 Flyers. Shot attempts were a staggering 32-16 in Philly's favor. Scoring chances were 16-8 Flyers, with a 7-3 high-danger edge.
5) The Coyotes iced the puck exactly one minute into the third period. Arizona won the draw but the Flyers had the first bonafide scoring chance of the period. Sanheim created it, and Sedlak missed by inches. As play continued, Zack MacEwen dropped the gloves with Josh Brown. Both received fighting majors at 1:30.
Cates tipped a Ristolainen point shot. The Flyers got an offensive zone draw. Hayes lost the faceoff, and Coyotes cleared. A Chychrun shot on goal was Arizona's first in over 10 minutes of game action.
Tippett made a good defensive play and wheeled up ice with the puck for a shot on net. On the next shift,Ristolainen wristed a one-handed shot on net. Later, Vejmelka made a big stop on Hayes.
The Frost line couldn't generate a shot on their next shift but spent it in the Arizona zone. Laughton's line followed it up with a very aggressive forecheck. The puck deflected out of play.
At 7:27, the Coyotes retook the lead at 4-3. A Konecny shot was blocked by Ritchie. Ritchie went off on a breakaway. He slid a backhander between Hart's pads.
The Flyers went to their second power play at 8:31 as Chychrun caught MacEwen with a high stick. The opportunity went by the wayside.
Zack MacEwen left the game with an apparent lower body injury with about 6:30 on the clock.
The Cates line gave the Coyotes problems exiting their zone. With 5:47 remaining in regulation, Konecny put a backhander on net. On the next shift, Frost came up with a loose puck and sent it to JVR. Vejmelka made the save on the chance from the doorstep.
With 2:29 left, van Riemsdyk attempted to stuff in a puck that went behind the net on a Sanheim shot. The Flyers' called timeout and pulled Hart for an extra attacker.
Hayes lost the ensuing faceoff but the Coyotes iced the puck. This time, Hayes won the draw. A scramble ensued around the net, Frost made a quick backhand pass in front and Konecny tied the game. The assist went to Frost at 7:43 on the 6-on-5 goal.
With 1:01 left on the clock, the Coyotes committed an icing. No further chances of note ensued. Third period shots were 13-5 Flyers.Shot attempts were 28-6. Scoring chances were 16-2 with a 7-1 high danger edge for the Flyers.