Flyers Held Scoreless Again, Fall 2-0 To the Lightning

The Philadelphia Flyers were shut out for the second straight game, this time falling 2-0 to the Tampa Bay Lightning. An early game breakaway goal by Nikita Kucherov gave the Lightning the 1-0 lead for a good portion of the game. Jake Guentzel hit the empty net for the dagger, leading Tampa to the win and the Flyers to their second straight shut-out loss.

The Flyers’ last non-shootout goal came from Ryan Poehling late in the second period of their shootout win against the Lightning. It has now been 140:59 since they have last goal.

With the loss, the Flyers record fell to 28-33-8.

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Nikita Kucherov Breaks the Ice

Not that there is any NHL player that you’d want to allow a breakaway opportunity, but Nikita Kucherov is towards the top of the list of guys you do not want to see coming at you all alone if you’re a goaltender.

In a four-on-four chance, it seemed as if Travis Konecny just could not find the puck beneath him, and Kucherov took it away and made him pay.

It was a critical error by Konecny. Ivan Fedotov played a great game, but there was nothing the Flyers’ netminder could do to stun that chance.

For as fast-paced of a game as Monday’s game was, that would be the last scoring until late in the game.

Flyers Almost Tie It in the Second

As shocking as this may sound, the Flyers almost tied the game up on the power play.

Early in the second period, Philadelphia was on the power play thanks to a Brandon Hagel holding call against Travis Sanheim.

As the power play was winding down, the Flyers had a great chance in front of the net. Both Matvei Michkov and Tyson Foerster were poking at the puck while Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy laid down to freeze the puck.

While it was unclear who had pushed it through, it had looked like the Flyers tied the game up for the moment, with Michkov putting his arm up in the air in celebration. However, the referees immediately waived the goal off as the whistle blew prior to the puck reaching the back of the net.

Play would resume, and neither team would score for the remainder of the period.

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Fedotov Keeps the Game in Reach

As mentioned earlier, Ivan Fedotov played a great game Monday night. The Flyers’ goalie faced 22 shots in the game, and he stopped 21 of them. Fedotov has been a streaky goaltender this season, but the good side showed up on Monday.

Early in the third period, Brandon Hagel had a chance to extend the Lightning lead to two with a breakaway chance of his own. Fedotov stood tall and stopped the puck with a flashy glove save.

At the moment, I thought it would have led to a momentum swing for Philly, but that would not be the case.

The Flyers could not get anything to go and were put into desperation mode.

Despite being on the penalty kill, the Flyers pulled Fedotov with less than two minutes to play. Guentzel scored easily on the empty net, and the Lightning would finish the game with a 2-0 win.

What’s Next for the Flyers

The Flyers will travel to Washington, D.C., on Thursday to take on the Capitals at Capital One Arena.

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