Flyers finish homestand 2-2-2 after suffering shootout loss originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Rick Tocchet warned against the Hurricanes’ relentless pressure.
“Full-out blitz,” the head coach said. “It’s the way they play.”
The Flyers didn’t handle it well enough Saturday night, especially when trying to protect a lead, as they lost to Carolina, 4-3, in a shootout at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
“There are positives, I’m going to take the positives,” Tocchet said. “I think we’ve just got to start to learn when teams put pressure on us, we’ve got to find the pressure; we can’t back off. That’s what I believe in.”
Jackson Blake scored the lone tally in the skills competition.
Trevor Zegras, Matvei Michkov, Travis Konecny and Bobby Brink came up empty for the Flyers.
Samuel Ersson suffered just his fourth career shootout loss in 16 opportunities.
Tocchet’s club relinquished a 2-0 lead in the second period. The Hurricanes turned up the dial and had the Flyers defending a lot.
“We were pretty bad,” Brink said of the second period. “We just lost battles, didn’t support each other great. We stopped taking it to them and let them take it to us.”
Seth Jarvis handed the Flyers their first deficit when he scored on a breakaway with 7:34 minutes left in the third period.
Brink, Zegras and Carl Grundstrom provided the Flyers’ goals. Grundstrom answered Jarvis’ goal just 23 seconds later.
Zegras and Konecny had a chance to win it in the final minute of overtime, but couldn’t convert on a 2-on-1 rush.
The Flyers (16-9-5) went 2-2-2 on their season-long homestand. Three of the losses came against top-10 teams — this one to Carolina, a 3-2 regulation decision to the Avalanche and a 3-2 overtime decision to the Golden Knights.
“I give the guys a lot of credit for this year, what they’re doing,” Tocchet said. “There are going to be some times that we’ve got to figure this out when teams make a push.”
His club dropped to 7-4-5 in games decided by one goal. It has gone to overtime 12 times. It’s now 5-1 in the shootout.
The Flyers are 0-0-2 in their four-game regular-season series with the Hurricanes (20-9-2). They’ve lost 15 of their last 17 games against Carolina(2-9-6).
• In the first game of a back-to-back set, Ersson made 18 saves on 21 shots for the Flyers.
The 26-year-old had a massive stop on Jordan Staal in the final seconds of overtime.
“We have a ton of confidence in our goalies,” Nick Seeler said.
Nikolaj Ehlers and Alexander Nikishin erased the Flyers’ 2-0 lead in a span of just over five minutes. Ehlers scored six seconds after Ty Murchison had a pass get picked off in the neutral zone. Nikishin then had a shot go off Noah Cates’ skate and past Ersson.
Hurricanes netminder Pyotr Kochetkov stopped 15 of the Flyers’ 18 shots.
Brink and Zegras gave the Flyers their 2-0 lead in the first period. Brink made a sharp move before sniping one past Kochetkov. Zegras scored off a very good feed from Konecny.
“I thought we got off to a good start,” Zegras said. “Kind of expected a big push [from Carolina], I think we just kind of got on our heels a little bit instead of playing that same game. They’re a real good team, we kind of expected that. I thought we responded and made some adjustments in the third. Obviously a tough one in the shootout.”
• Through 30 games with the Flyers, Zegras has already matched his goal total from all of last season.
He had 12 in 57 games with the Ducks. He’s at 12 goals and 30 points for the Flyers.
Talk about a change of scenery doing wonders. Tocchet has raved about how coachable the 24-year-old has been. General manager Danny Briere has to be thrilled about the return on the trade so far.
• The Flyers’ struggling power play was costly two nights ago in the team’s overtime loss to Vegas.
And against Carolina, they didn’t go on a single power play.
Tocchet has harped on the Flyers needing to generate more through the middle to create second and third opportunities on the man advantage. They’ve gotten away from that and entered Saturday night 5 for 38 over their last 16 games.
“I think we revert to bad habits,” Tocchet said after morning skate. “We need a chunk of guys to take ahold of it. We talked about it at the start of the year, it’s going to be a work in progress.”
• Cam York and Rasmus Ristolainen remained out, but both defensemen will be on the Flyers’ four-game road trip and are close to returning, Tocchet said after morning skate.
York has been out the last four games with an upper-body injury.
Ristolainen is nearing his season debut. Has been recovering from surgery in March on a second triceps tendon rupture.
• The Flyers and Hurricanes are right back at it Sunday when they meet at Lenovo Center (5 p.m. ET/NBCSP).