Postgame RAV4: Flyers Suffer Another Loss to Tampa

The Philadelphia Flyers lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning, 5-1, at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Monday evening. Tampa swept the season series against Philadelphia, winning all three games.

Pontus Holmberg (7th of the season) scored from below the left circle to give Tampa a quick lead in the first period. Most of the period was very tight checking until the action picked up in the final five minutes.

A Tampa-friendly deflection off Jake Guentzel (20th) gave the Bolts a 2-0 lead on the first shift of the middle frame. Brayden Point (11th) added a power play goal on a play in which he got injured. Christian Dvorak (10th) cut the gap to 3-1 with an odd-man rush goal at 4-on-4. A Brandon Hagel power play goal (22nd) restores a three-goal lead for Tampa late in the period.

At 16:39 of the third period, Nikita Kucherov (23rd) added an empty net goal.

The Flyers went 0-for-2 on the power play. They were 1-for-3 on the PK.

FIRST PERIOD SYNOPSIS

For the second straight game, Tampa scored on its first shot of the game. Holmberg shot the puck between Vladar's skates. The puck snuck home on the short side. The assists went to Zemgus Girgensons and Yanni Gourde at 1:10.

Shots were 2-1 Tampa through 14 minutes. At 14:41, Vladar hung in to make back-to-back stops on Brayden Point in front.

Owen Tippett had an elusive zone entry and fed Sean Couturier for a shot that hit the post. With 2:35 left in the frame, Emil Andrae made a nice feed to Trevor Zegras for a one-timer from the right circle. Jonas Johansson made the save.

A deflected Tampa shot went just wide of the right post in the final minute of the frame.

Shots: Flyers 5 - Lightning 6
Faceoffs: Flyers 12 - Lightning 4

SECOND PERIOD SYNOPSIS

On the first shift of the second period, Guentzel made it 20. Erik Cernak's one-timer from the point deflected off the back of Guentzel's right leg into the net. The secondary assist at the 33-second mark went to Hagel.

Rodrigo Abols received a tripping penalty behind the Tampa net at 4:06. At 4:29, on Tampa's ninth shot of the game, Point bagged a rebound goal, Point had to be helped off the ice because Travis Sanheim fell on his ankle. The assists went to Oliver Bjorkstrand and Guentzel.

A scrum broke out after the puck went in the net. Sanheim tussled with Bjorkstrand. Two minutes of four-on-four play ensued.

The Flyers scored off an odd-man rush at 5:40. It started with a mask save by Vladar. At the other end, puck carrier Dvorak showed like he'd pass and then fired the puck home high to the short-side. The goal was unassisted.

Philly had several good looks on a delayed penalty. At 7:39, Cernak went off for holding. The Flyers were unable to score and did not generate any shots on net.

The Flyers went back to the power play at 13:01. Hagel got the gate for neutral zone interference with Noah Cates. Once again, the Flyers failed to cut Tampa's lead to one goal.

At 16:18, Johansson made a good save. A scrum between Konecny and Charle-Edouard D'astous broke out as they exchanged slashes. The official call was coincidental roughing minors.

Tampa went to their second power play at 18:50. Nick Seeler received an interference minor on Dominic James during a Tampa dump-in. Tampa cashed in this power play, too, at 19:27 as Hagel scored from the left circle. The assists went to Darren Raddysh and Kucherov.

With a mere 0.6 second left on the clock, Grebenkin (cross-checking) and Gourde (roughing) received coincidental minors.

Through two periods, Couturier won 11 of 12 faceoffs.

Shots: Flyers 10 (15 overall) - Lightning 14 (20 overall)
Faceoffs: Flyers 11 (23 overall)- Lightning 2 (6 overall)

THIRD PERIOD SYNOPSIS

Shots were 1-1 through the first 2:30 of the game.

The Flyers fourth line, looking to inject some emotion, had a very physical shift. As Abols was being called for boarding Declan Carlile, two separate fights broke out: Abols and Nikita Grebenkin on the Philly side and both Paul and Max Crozier for Tampa. The Grebenkin-Paul fight was a secondary bout and both players received game misconducts.

Matvei Michkov had back-to-back turnovers on the same shift.

At 8:40, there was another scrum after a whistle. A roughing penalty on Hathaway was the only call. With four seconds left, after a Vladar save, Konecny (cross-checking) and Guentzel (slashing) went off for coincidental minors.

The Flyers pulled Vladar for a 6-on-5. Kucherov scored an empty net goal at 16:39, assisted by Raddysh and Cirelli.

Shots: Flyers 5 (20 overall) - Lightning 6 (26 overall)
Faceoffs: Flyers 6 (29 overall)- Lightning 10 (16 overall)

FLYERS STARTING LINEUP

Trevor Zegras – Christian Dvorak – Travis Konecny
Denver Barkey – Sean Couturier – Owen Tippett
Matvei Michkov – Noah Cates – Carl Grundstrom
Nikita Grebenkin – Rodrigo Abols – Garnet Hathaway

Cam York – Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler – Rasmus Ristolainen
Emil Andrae – Noah Juulsen

Dan Vladar
[Samuel Ersson]

Postgame RAV4 (RAV4 Things Revisited)

1. Konecny returns

The two-time Bobby Clarke Trophy winner was back in the Flyers' lineup after missing Saturday's game. He did not record a point.

2. Bounceback for Barkey

Coming off a tough game against Tampa Bay on Saturday, rookie winger Denver Barkey hoped to parlay a strong practice day on Sunday into a stronger showing in Monday's rematch with the Bolts. Barkey's ice time on Monday was reduced by all the special teams play and 4-on-4.

3. Containing Kucherov

Superstar Tampa winger Nikita Kucherov racked up seven points (2g, 5a) in the first two games of the regular season series with the Flyers. On Monday, Kucherov extended his point streak to 10 straight games. He had one goal and one assist on the night.

4. Between the Pipes: Dan Vladar

The Flyers split the two starts between Samuel Ersson and Vladar. On Monday evening, Vladar stopped 21 of 25 shots. Tampa Bay went with Andrei Vasilevskiy on Saturday and Jonas Johansson on Monday. Vasilevskiy made 18 saves on 19 shots.