Flyers End Disappointing Homestand With Second Straight Loss to Tampa
Travis Konecny returning to the lineup and Dan Vladar getting the start last night did not help the Flyers stave off the season sweep by the Lightning. They were overwhelmed for a second straight game, as red-hot Tampa cruised to a 5-1 victory, earning their tenth straight win in the process. The Flyers thankfully have no more matchups with this Lightning squad this season, finishing the season series with an 0-3 record, being outscored 15-3.
The Flyers were playing from behind almost from the get-go, as Tampa scored on their first shot just over a minute in. After some weird confusion in front of the Flyers net with a loose puck, a shot was eventually thrown on net that somehow found its way past Vladar.
The rest of the first period was generally non-eventful, with a few Flyer shifts making an impact every few minutes but not being able to sustain the pressure with the next shift. Their best chance was created when Owen Tippett put a sweet inside-outside move on the Tampa defenseman and then set up Sean Couturier with a deft pass in the slot. Unfortunately, Coots’ shot rang off the right post.
To start the second period, the Flyers experienced some bad déjà vu, as Tampa scored on their first shot of the period yet again. This time, the point shot from Lightning d-man Eric Cernak went off the backside of Jake Guentzel to make it 2-0. Less than five minutes later, fellow Lightning star Brayden Point was able to put a rebound home in front, after Vladar made a great save on his initial redirection. Point unfortunately would leave the game with an apparent knee injury that occurred at the end of the play.
A minute later, Christian Dvorak made the sure the Flyers were not shutout for the second time against Tampa this season, beating netminder Jonas Johansson short side to make the game 3-1. Nick Seeler displayed good hustle on the play, as he skated hard through center ice to turn the play into an odd man rush. For the remainder of the second period, the Flyers had a chance to get back into the game, but again could not get help from their powerplay. Two disjointed and flat out bad powerplays left the Flyers still down by two goals, then Seeler took a poor interference penalty near the end of the period. Tampa cashed in on this, scoring a backbreaking goal with 30 seconds left to make it 4-1.
The remainder of the game sort of fell into disarray, as both teams were getting chippy with plenty of penalties issued in the third period. Both Nikita Grebenkin and Rodrigo Abols got into fights, TK was thrown out of the game with 10 minutes left after mouthing off to the official as he was entering the penalty box, the list goes on. The Flyers ended the night with 47 penalty minutes total, a pretty good indicator of how frustrated they were with how these two games against Tampa went.
With this loss being the first time this season the Flyers have lost consecutive games in regulation, they will need to rebound quickly with two important matchups coming up. A back-to-back on the road begins Wednesday 1/14, as the orange and black travel up to Buffalo and then visit their cross-state rival Penguins.
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-Tyler Grace/Olde City Sports Network
-Photo Credit- Leigha Grace/ Olde City Sports Network