GAME RECAP: Flyers 5, Oilers 2

EDMONTON, AB – Connor McDavid extended his league-best point streak to 15 games with a goal and an assist, but the Edmonton Oilers couldn't recover from a three-goal hole during the first period on Saturday afternoon in a 5-2 defeat to the Philadelphia Flyers at Rogers Place.

The Flyers scored three times in a 7:22 span of the opening frame before McDavid notched his 25th goal of the season with 3:52 left in the period, giving his side something to build on entering the second, where the captain added an assist on Evan Bouchard's power-play tally that made it 3-2 for Philadelphia.

Defenceman Nick Seeler restored the two-goal lead with 9:09 gone in the final frame before Owen Tippett added the empty-netter to seal the Flyers' victory, handing the Oilers their second straight defeat on home ice and their first of the 2026 calendar year while losing three of four since the holiday break.

"It's just been a small stretch," defenceman Spencer Stastney said. "Not the way we want it to go, but I think we're going to come into the rink tomorrow and try to figure it out and play our best hockey moving forward. There are going to be times like this. It's not good, it's not fun, but we're going to do all we can to turn it around as fast as we can."

Goaltender Calvin Pickard stopped 25 of 29 shots in the defeat, while Ryan Nugent-Hopkins added an assist and now sits at 499 for his career.

The Oilers will be back in action at Rogers Place on Tuesday night when they host the Nashville Predators.

FIRST PERIOD

Despite Connor McDavid closing out the scoring in the opening 20 minutes by extending his point streak to 15, the Oilers found themselves in an early three-goal hole against the Flyers, leaving them plenty of work to do entering the intermission and for the rest of Saturday's matchup.

"It's a sloppy start," Spencer Stastney said. "I think it's always hard when you get down 3-0 so try to fight back, but it just didn't happen in the end."

Vasily Podkolzin had the first big chance just over four minutes into the period when he was found coming through the neutral zone at full flight by a terrific cross-ice pass from Leon Draisaitl, who collected himself from being tripped on the breakout to give his Russian linemate a dangerous shooting opportunity that Dan Vladar shut down.

After the Oilers owned the better start, the Flyers would go on to score three goals over a 7:22 span in the middle stages of the second period, starting with rookie Denver Barkey's first NHL goal that came past the seven-minute mark by quickly snapping it past Calvin Pickard off the rush with Sean Couturier.

Over two minutes later, defenceman Travis Sanheim scored unassisted to make it 2-0 on a play that resulted from Podkolzin trying to control the puck along the boards with his skate, but instead kicked it into the middle for Couturier. The Flyers captain took a shot on goal that Pickard stopped before Owen Tippett's follow-up was cleared by Nurse straight to Sanheim, who ripped it up high and short side past Edmonton's netminder to double Philadelphia's lead.

Just 4:07 after that, the Flyers got a bounce on their third goal when Bobby Brink picked off Evan Bouchard's pass up the middle before he had Cam York's shot from the slot off the ensuing rush go in off his skate inside the crease, increasing the advantage to 3-0 for the visitors with 5:22 left in the opening frame.

"I think they were definitely winning more 50-50 battles," Stastney said. "Maybe some pucks that were bouncing there, and they came up with it. So I think it's always just knowing what you're going to do with that next play, and I know I lost a couple of those myself. Just a little quicker with the puck there and try to go north faster."

Darnell Nurse and Garnet Hathaway dropped the gloves in a heavyweight scap just over a minute later, and the Oilers were able to cut into the lead before the intermission by taking advantage of a Sanheim giveaway to give Connor McDavid a breakaway with the chance to extend his point streak to 15 games.

"Not playing with enough intensity to start the game," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "After we're down 3-0, Nurse got in the fight, and we had a great response. We finished that first period strong, but it's tough to come back after you're down three."

Sanheim gave the puck away to Ekholm coming over the blueline, and McDavid was open at centre ice to take a quick pass from his Swedish teammate and come in all alone on a breakaway that snapped past Vladar's blocker to make it 3-1 with his 25th goal of the season.

McDavid extended his league-leading point streak to 15 games, which marked the sixth time he's reached a 15-game point streak in his career and the third-most in NHL history behind only Wayne Gretzky (19) and Mario Lemieux (7), passing Peter Stastny (5) in the process and pulling the Oilers within two.

"He always brings it," Stastney said. "We know that, and I know we want to support him as much as we can. So I think there's always a time and place for us to try to step up, but it's a team game, so he's going to do his thing, but we've got to help him out there too."

SECOND PERIOD

Pickard & the Oilers didn't have the first period they would've wanted by allowing three goals on nine shots, but the 33-year-old netminder came up with a terrific save early on in the frame when he got his pad to Christian Dvorak's wrap-around attempt just inches from the puck crossing the goal line.

Edmonton was outshot 11-5 by Philadelphia in the middle frame, but their first power-play opportunity that arrived at 11:13 of the period on a high-sticking call against Matvei Michkov on Mattias Janmark in the neutral zone opened up the chance for their top-ranked man advantage to pull the score within one.

After the Oilers passed it along the top of the zone on the man advantage, McDavid gave it to Bouchard to tee up a one-timer that was rocketed past Vladar on the far side, bringing the score to 3-2 with his eighth goal of the campaign and his season totals to 38 points (8G, 30A) in 41 games.

McDavid's helper pushed his 15-game point streak totals to 36 points (14G, 22A), while a secondary helper for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins means he's now one assist shy of reaching 500 career assists as he tracks towards reaching the 1,000-game milestone (currently at 992) later this month.

The Oilers continued to pour on the pressure after getting a goal back on the power play, turning that momentum into another man advantage two minutes later when McDavid was held off the rush by forward Rodrigo Abols before still creating a dangerous look in front for Zach Hyman.

This time, however, they couldn't convert with the man advantage before they had to kill off their first penalty to Alec Regula in the final three minutes of the second period, finishing 3-2 in favour of the Flyers through 40 minutes.

THIRD PERIOD

After the Oilers worked hard to pull themselves within a goal by the end of the middle frame, all it took was a seeing-eye shot from Nick Seeler that came right off an offensive-zone faceoff to derail their comeback hopes in the final 20 minutes.

Abols won the faceoff cleanly right to Seeler, whose shot through traffic managed to find its way through bodies in front before striking the inside of the post and beating Pickard to make it 4-2 at 10:51 of the final stanza, restoring Philadelphia's two-goal lead with less than half a period left in regulation.

The Flyers won 36-of-61 draws (59.1 percent) on Saturday, with one directly resulting in a goal.

"They got some good centremen," Adam Henrique said. "I don't know if it was a problem, but faceoffs are a roller coaster thing sometimes. There's a lot that goes into the faceoff, so I don't think it was a problem. You always want to win them, but it's a difficult area."

The Oilers then faced a critical penalty kill 1:11 later, when Ekholm was called for holding Trevor Zegras, setting up a Flyers' power play that they fortunately killed off, but the task was still a tall one for Edmonton as they needed two goals with less than eight minutes to go.

The Oilers pulled Pickard for the extra attacker with loads of time left to make it happen. Despite their efforts, Owen Tippett iced the 5-2 victory into the open net during the last minute of regulation, handing the Blue & Orange their second straight defeat on home ice and their first of 2026.

Despite remaining in the top spot in the Pacific Division with a 20-16-6 record after the loss, the Oilers continue to trade wins for losses this season and feel there's urgency after the holidays to get back to the fast and structured way they know how to play.

"It's not a concern," Henrique said. "Everybody's really good. You want to be able to string three, four, or five big win streaks at times during the season, and we haven't been able to find a way to get there yet, but I am confident in this group that we will."

"There's urgency," Hyman added. "It's a long season. It's an 82-game season. You want to play your best every game. You want to take advantage of every home stretch, but unfortunately, that's not the case. Having said that, it's time that we string a bunch of games together here, and it starts with competing and being fast. When you're working up the ice, and you're working back, you look fast, and when you look fast, you usually play better. So that's what we have to do. We're at our best when we're a fast team."