Brink has 3 points, Flyers edge Lightning in shootout

PHILADELPHIA -- Bobby Brink had two goals and an assist as the Philadelphia Flyers ended a five-game losing streak with a 4-3 shootout win against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Wells Fargo Center on Thursday.

Ryan Poehling had a goal and an assist, Olle Lycksell had two assists, and Owen Tippett scored the winner in the fifth round of the shootout for Philadelphia (28-31-8). Samuel Ersson had 17 saves through overtime and made four saves in the shootout.

"I think it felt great for everyone," Brink said. "Bit of a schneid there for a couple games. So it feels good to get a win."

Gage Goncalves, Zemgus Girgensons and Cam Atkinson scored for Tampa Bay (37-23-5). Jonas Johansson made 26 saves through overtime and three saves in the shootout.

Tampa Bay played without leading scorer Nikita Kucherov, who was out because of an illness.

"We had 15 even-strength shots on goal for the game," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "We had the puck way too much to just have that. The boys are working, they're just ... it's the harder they work, not much is getting done. In the end, we left a lot of plays on the table, and ultimately you do that, the game is in the balance, and that's what happened, we lost the extra point."

Brink was shifted onto a line with Poehling and Lycksell for the first time this season. He had been playing most of the last few months on a line with Noah Cates and Tyson Foerster, which had been Philadelphia's best. But coach John Tortorella put Travis Konecny with Cates and Foerster in hope of getting Konecny going.

Instead the move sparked Brink to his first two-goal game of the season.

"Bobby's been playing good, period," Tortorella said. "He just hasn't finished. He hasn't scored. Finds a way tonight to score, makes a nice play on 'Poehls' goal.

"He's a good match for Tyson and Cates. I need to get 'TK' going, I need to get something going with him. That's why I switched that. ... You look, [Brink] has eight goals coming into tonight's game, but he ends up with a ton of chances during the year. He just hasn't finished. Take him off that line, he scores two."

Brink said he was able to take some of the good things he did playing with Cates and Foerster and replicate them with new linemates.

"Those two guys, Cates and Foerster, are great to play with," he said. "But 'Lycksy' and Poehls played great today. Unbelievable plays on the goals and made life easy on me."

Goncalves put the Lightning ahead 1-0 with his first NHL power-play goal at 8:29 of the first period.

Brink tied it with a shot from the right side at 14:20.

Girgensons made it 2-1 when he scored from the slot 15 seconds into the second period.

Brink's second of the game tied it 2-2 at 10:55. He took a rink-wide pass from Sean Couturier, skated in and beat Johansson in close with a backhand.

Poehling put the Flyers ahead 3-2 at 19:01 when Lycksell found him alone in the slot, and the forward deked around Johansson and tucked the puck inside the post.

"I saw he was out of his crease a bit and had a lot of time and space," Poehling said. "I've had that a few times and hasn't worked out. So it's nice that it did that time."

Cooper called the defensive breakdown on the play "inexcusable."

"That should never happen, that goal," he said. "One of them chasing the puck and three of us, and then all of a sudden within five seconds one of them all alone at our net. That's inexcusable. You get these tight games and you get down the stretch, you can't make mistakes like that."

Atkinson tied it 3-3 at 3:50 of the third period with a shot from the inside edge of the right face-off circle. It was the forward's first game in Philadelphia since the Flyers bought out the final season of his contract in June.

"Lot of emotions, family is in town, friends," he said. "Didn't get the job done. ... Have to do a little bit better at shooting when we have opportunities. That's what kicked us a little bit.

"I think we're just trying to pass the puck into the net sometimes instead of capitalizing on our opportunities. It's hard to score goals in this league, so when you have the opportunity to shoot the puck, we have to do more of that and usually good things happen."

NOTES: Brink had his second two-goal NHL game; he also scored twice against the Minnesota Wild on Oct. 26, 2023. ... Philadelphia also ended a five-game home losing streak. ... Tampa Bay defenseman Victor Hedman got his 40th assist of the season on Atkinson's goal. It's his ninth 40-assist season, passing Martin St. Louis and Kucherov for the most in Lightning history. ... Atkinson had been recalled from Syracuse of the American Hockey League on Wednesday. He had 78 points (36 goals, 42 assists) in 143 games with the Flyers.