Photo Credit: FNG’s Rob Windfelder
The Flyers were in Buffalo on Thursday night to faceoff against the Sabres for the second time this season. The Flyers took the first tilt handily 5-2 in Philly.
As they often do
The Flyers gave up the first goal in this game. 12:20 into the opening period Jack Quinn redirected a shot past Samuel Ersson to open the scoring.
As they also often do
The Flyers evened things up immediately. Just 58 seconds after the Buffalo goal Bobby Brink with a backhanded pass from the dot to the slot. Noah cates fired the puck beating Buffalo goaltender and former Flyers Alex Lyon to tie the game at one.
The Flyers kept the pressure on creating multiple chances and shots on goal. Philly was actually switching out players on the attack with the puck trapped in the Buffalo zone. Shots in the lopsided 1st period were 12-4 in favor of the Orange and Black.
Special Teams
Zach Benson had a point blank opportunity on the power-play as time was running out. Ersson stayed square and stoned him.
Buffalo started period number two with the remainder of a man advantage which the Flyers successfully killed off. The Flyers had a power-play of their own very early in this match and failed to get a shot on goal. It doesn’t seem to matter which players they use, who’s coaching the team, or what approach they take. The Flyers power-play is haunted. It’s a generational problem at this point.
Just under nine minutes into the middle period the Flyers on a prolonged possession were moving the puck well in the offensive zone. Brink to Zegras to York who wristed it in far side.
Turning point
Shortly thereafter the Sabres went on their 3rd man advantage of the game. Matvei Michkov was called for goaltender interference after colliding with Alex Lyon. A scrum ensued. But to be honest Lyon didn’t seem to react to the hit until after he realized there had been contact.
The Flyers were dominating this game up until that point and then they started to let it slip away from them.
With 3:06 left in the period Buffalo struck. A nifty between the legs back pass from Dahlin to Tage Thompson who made the extra move to give himself the angle on Ersson and dinged it in off the post to tie the game at two.
Yet again, you gotta hate those final minute goals. Everybody does except for the team that scores and their fans. Noah Ostlund fired a wrist shot through traffic from the top of the slot. Ersson didn’t seem to track it as it went past his glove and into the net with just 30 seconds left before the horn.
Suddenly Buffalo is up by a goal going into the final period. That scrum in defense of their goaltender really seemed to turn things around.
The Flyers have been sniffing around the top spots in the Metropolitan Division. This was a game that they should not have let slip away from them.
Sabres dominate
Buffalo came into the 3rd period guns-a-blazin’. Seven strong chances in a row luckily for the Flyers Ersson was up to the challenge. At the same time the Flyers sticks had gone totally silent. Their dominant shot advantage quickly evaporated as they went more than 15 minutes of clock time without a shot on goal.
With 9:30 left in the period the Flyers had a breakdown in their own end favoring one side of the ice and ignoring the other. Josh Norris ended up with the puck all alone in front of the net. He wasted no time beating Ersson five-hole. 4-2 Buffalo.
Final push
That goal proved to be a wake-up call. The Flyers got the puck into the Buffalo zone and managed to keep it there until they could do something useful with it. At the end of a long shift it was Travis Konecny who ended up with the puck firing a wrist-shot from the slot that illuded Lyon. 4-3 Buffalo with 4:32 to go.
Trevor Zegras took an unnessary penalty immediately after the goal That left the Flyers killing a penalty with their best scorer in the box at a very inopportune time.
The Flyers used up very valuable time successfully killing the penalty.Then the Sabres returned the favor by taking a delay of game penalty giving the Flyers a man advantage. Philly pulled Ersson at that point giving them a two man advantage for two minutes.
Buffalo stood tall and kept the Flyers from taking advantage of the 6-on-4 situation. Shortly after the power-play expired Buffalo fought the battles to get the puck down to the Flyers end and into the open net with eight seconds left in regulation. 5-3 Buffalo, final.
The Flyers could have used these two point in the very tight Metro Division race. It was a missed opportunity. They may have pushed harder in the first half of the game if they knew ahead of time just how much the momentum was about to swing. They failed to strike when the iron was hot and ended up getting burnt.
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