The Flyers saw a comeback bid fall short Saturday afternoon as they suffered a 3-2 overtime loss to the Senators at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Matvei Michkov and Jamie Drysdale provided the Flyers’ goals. Michkov trimmed the Flyers’ deficit to 2-1 in the second period before Drysdale tied the game a little over halfway through the third period.
But Ottawa recovered as Tim Stutzle scored the OT winner with his second goal of the day. Trevor Zegras was a step behind in coverage after skating toward the bench for an attempted change.
“He wanted to come off, but you’ve got to be decisive,” Rick Tocchet said. “It was a tough play, but you’ve either got to come hard or you’ve got to stay on.”
The Flyers (8-5-2) have lost their last three home games, scoring just 1.67 goals per game.
They’ve played a lot of close games this season, with nine being decided by one goal. They’re 4-3-2 in those games.
Tocchet’s club is 0-1-1 against the Senators (7-5-3) with one more matchup to go Feb. 5 back here in Philadelphia.
• Samuel Ersson made his first start since Oct. 28 after being activated off injured reserve before Thursday’s game.
The 26-year-old converted 10 saves on 13 shots. The Flyers were able to shore things up after a rocky start and allowed just one shot in the third period.
But it wasn’t enough and an early hole didn’t help.
“I’ve got to do a better job getting the team ready,” Tocchet said.
Ottawa jumped out to a 2-0 lead not even six and a half minutes into the game. The goals came in the span of one minute and five seconds.
On the first goal, Bobby Brink was unable to play the puck up the boards, which allowed the Senators to find a wide-open Stutzle for a blast from the circle.
The Flyers were poor in coverage again on the second goal when Michael Amadio made a move in close off a nice pass by Claude Giroux.
“We came out flat,” Travis Konecny said. “It’s just something we can’t continue to do, we’ve been doing it a little too much.”
Two days ago, the Flyers gave up a goal just 1:44 minutes into the game, but they went on to beat the Predators, 3-1.
“Obviously I’ve got to look at myself,” Tocchet said. … “We’re a little bit slow starting the game, we just seem a little bit off. That falls on me.”
Senators netminder Linus Ullmark stopped 20 of the Flyers’ 22 shots.
“That’s two games now that the other team comes out stronger than us and out-battles us,” Sean Couturier said. “It makes it hard on us to come back. But as much as it could have been a frustrating day, we didn’t give them a whole lot after the first [period].”
The Flyers found themselves down 2-0 just 6:19 minutes into Saturday’s action. Rick Tocchet spoke about how his team needs to be better early in games.
• Michkov has scored a goal in back-to-back games, a really good sign for the Flyers.
“Every game, I feel better and better,” Michkov said through translator Slava Kuznetsov, a Flyers consultant.
The 20-year-old winger fended off Ottawa defenseman Jake Sanderson before making a move toward the net and ripping home a shot. He screamed to the crowd in celebration.
“Our staff, since we’ve been here, has been stressing body position before the puck,” Tocchet said. “That was classic, what he just did. A lot of times, guys will go to the puck and they get stripped. We’re a team that still has to get better at that. What Mich did is something that we’re preaching all the time, and that was textbook.”
In the first period, the Flyers had a failed power play. Michkov and Konecny had some words on the bench. It looked like they didn’t see eye to eye on what they were trying to execute.
But after Konecny recorded an assist on Michkov’s goal in the middle stanza, he gave the youngster a fist-pound and patted him on the head. Two competitive guys working through things.
Matvei Michkov’s second goal in as many games cut the Flyers’ deficit to one in the second period against the Senators.
• Giroux has enjoyed seeing his old team.
His first-period helper gave him 13 points (three goals, 10 assists) in 11 career games against the Flyers.
• Carl Grundstrom, who was acquired in the Ryan Ellis trade, made his Flyers debut after being called up Friday from AHL affiliate Lehigh Valley.
The 27-year-old winger came to the Flyers with 292 games and 43 goals on his NHL résumé. He wore No. 91 and opened the game on a line with Konecny and Noah Cates.
• The Flyers have three days before their next game Wednesday when they host Connor McDavid and the Oilers (7:30 p.m. ET/NBCSP).
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