Sabres Flip Script on Flyers, Philadelphia Falls 5-3 on Thursday

After a massive momentum shift, the Buffalo Sabres beat the Philadelphia Flyers 5-3 at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York, on Thursday night.

The Flyers came out with a dominant start, controlling play throughout the first period and into parts of the second. However, after Matvei Michkov got called for interference on Sabres’ goaltender Alex Lyon, a scrum ensued, and that was just the spark Buffalo needed to turn things around.

Buffalo scored three straight after that moment. The Sabres fought off a late push from the Flyers and held on to their lead.

For the Flyers, it was an epic collapse – a tale of two very different teams. They were a completely different team in the final 30 minutes than they were in the first 30.

With the loss, Philadelphia’s record dropped to 17-10-6 this season. Their point streak ends at five games. Here is how we reached the final score.

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Flyers control the first 30 minutes

The Flyers dominated this game from the start. A power play came just 18 seconds into the game as Christian Dvorak drew a hooking penalty while he had a wide-open look at the goal.

The power play showed improvement from the previous string of games, but to the man-advantage chance would come to no avail. Play would go on, but even at full strength, the Flyers dominated.

For the most part, the first period seemed to be played in their offensive zone. Despite that, it was Buffalo that would strike first.

Mattias Samuelson ripped a shot from the point, and Jack Quinn was there to deflect the shot past Sam Ersson. 7:40 into the game, the Sabres had a 1-0 lead. However, in typical Flyers’ fashion, it did not take long for Philly to answer.

Bobby Brink scooped up the loose puck behind the Sabres’ net and brought it along the boards and back toward the net. Brink (7) drew the attention of the Sabres defense, giving Noah Cates (8) the space needed to bury the goal and tie the game.

The Flyers’ dominance would continue throughout the first period, but they would not score again. Philly outshot Buffalo 12-4 after 20 minutes.

The start of the second was much of the same. While they did let Buffalo back in a little, the Flyers still looked strong. The Flyers had another power-play chance, which looked better again. Jamie Drysdale was not afraid to shoot from the middle – an encouraging sign. But, once again, no power play goal.

However, the Flyers would get back on the board just over 11 minutes into the period as Trevor Zegras and Cam York connected to give the Flyers the lead. Zegras (20) found York alone in the right-side circle, and York (2) did not look back.

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Sabres turn it around

From there, the Sabres took over. After being dominated for roughly 30 minutes. First, it was Tage Thompson, the recipient of a great between-the-legs dish from Rasmus Dahlin, who switched angles and found space to get the game-typing puck past Ersson. With 3:06 left in the second period, it was a tie game.

It looked like the game was headed into the second break tied, but Noah Ostlund had a different idea. Ostlund fired a shot from deep in the offensive zone and gave the Sabres a 3-2 lead heading into the third period.

The Sabres kept the pressure on the Flyers throughout the third period. Eventually, they were rewarded for that as well. After a high stick by Brink on Michael Kesselring, Buffalo went on the man-advantage and finally broke through.

Zach Benson found Josh Norris all alone out in front, and Norris made a nifty move to fake out Ersson and extend the Sabres’ lead to 4-2.

Now down two scores, Philadelphia needed to act quickly if it wanted to keep its hopes of coming back alive. It took just over four minutes, but Travis Konecny delivered. Konecny (10) scored from the top of the right-side circle, bringing the Flyers back within one.

An ill-timed Zegras hooking penalty put the Flyers on the late-game penalty kill. Philly would kill off the penalty and get a power-play chance not long after.

Even with the six-on-four advantage, the Flyers could not break through. Buffalo killed the penalty, and later, Ryan McLeod scored on the empty net, putting the nail in the coffin for the Flyers.

The Sabres held on, handing the Flyers the 5-3 loss on Thursday night.

What’s next for the Flyers

Philadelphia will head to New York City for a Saturday afternoon showdown with the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Puck drop is at 12:30 p.m. EST.

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