UPDATE 3:00 PM EDT
Flyers Lineup
49 Noah Cates - 13 Kevin Hayes - 11 Travis Konecny 25 James van Riemsdyk - 21 Scott Laughton - 74 Owen Tippett 86 Joel Farabee - 48 Morgan Frost - 46 Bobby Brink 23 Oskar Lindblom - 44 Nate Thompson - 17 Zack MacEwen
9 Ivan Provorov - 6 Travis Sanheim 54 Egor Zamula - 8 Kevin Connauton 3 Keith Yandle - 47 Ronnie Attard
32 Felix Sandström [35 Martin Jones]
Starting Lineups: Flyers vs Sabres pic.twitter.com/sU65yM84nE
— Bill Meltzer (@billmeltzer) April 17, 2022
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Game 76 Preview: Flyers vs. Sabres
In the latter half of a home-and-home set, interim head coach Mike Yeo's Philadelphia Flyers (23-41-11) will host Don Granato's Buffalo Sabres (28-38-11) on Easter Sunday at the Wells Fargo Center. Game time is 5:00 p.m. EDT (NBCSP, 97.5 The Fanatic).
This is the third and final meeting of the season between the teams and the lone game in Buffalo. The Flyers are 0-2-0 against the Sabres this season.
On the afternoon of Jan. 22, the Flyers suffered a 6-3 road loss to the Sabres. The Flyers held a 2-1 lead in the first period on goals by Rasmus Ristolainen before the wheels fell off. Buffalo led, 4-2, by the end of the first period and then expanded the edge to 5-2 in the second period. Tage Thompson (three points), Jeff Skinner (three points) and Peyton Krebs notched two goals apiece for the Sabres, while Giroux scored twice for the Flyers. Three of the Sabres' goals came on the power play.
Last night, the Flyers led Buffalo, 2-0, at the end of the first period but then got massively outplayed (including an 18-4 shot deficit and a 10-1 scoring chance differential) jn a disastrous second period.
The Sabres struck for four goals in the middle stanza and went on to defeat the Flyers, 4-3. Joel Farabee (17th goal of the season), Owen TIppett (9th overall, 3rd as a Flyer) and Travis Konecny (14th) scored for the Flyers. Kyle Okposo (power play, 20th), Rasmus Dahlin (11th), Vinnie Hinostroza (12th) and Tage Thompson (power play, 34th) tallied for Buffalo. Martin Jones stopped 25 of 29 shots in a losing cause for the Flyers. For the Sabres, 40-year-old Craig Anderson earned the win with 18 saves on 21 shots.
Neither team will hold a morning skate on Suday. The projected goaltending matchup will pit Felix Sandström against Dustin Tokarski.
For an in-depth preview of Sunday's matchup, statistical trends and players to watch, see Five Things on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com. For a full synopsis, analysis and highlight clips from Saturday's game in Buffalo, see the Postgame Five
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Phantoms Update
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms lost via shootout, 3-2 (1-0), to the visiting Providence Bruins at the PPL Center on Saturday night. The Phantoms overcame a pair of one-goal deficits on tallies by Cal O'Reilly (PPG, 20th) late in the first period and Wade Allison (10th) early in the third. Tanner Laczynski and Adam Clendening assisted on both Lehigh Valley goals.
The Phantoms' bottom-ranked power play went 1-for-7 on this night but once again contributed to the team's failure to win a vital game. Most notably, the Phantoms failed to capitalize on a 4-on-3 power play in overtime. During the third period, a would-be go-ahead power play goal for Allison was disallowed and Allison was penalized for goalie interference at 5:42.
Pat Nagle and Providence's Brandon Bussi each stopped 28 of 30 shots over the course of regulation and overtime. In the skills competition, Clendening, O'Reilly and Max Willman were unable to convert their shootout chances. A goal by Providence's Georgii Merkulov in the second round proved to be the winner. During regulation, Chris Wagner (15th) and Justin Brazeau (power play, 13th) scored for Providence.
The Phantoms entered this weekend realistically needing a regulation win over Bridgeport and any kind of win over Providence to strengthen their faint playoff hopes. On Friday, the Phantoms had to settle for one point from an overtime loss to the Islanders and another one-ooint outcome against Providence.
However, the free-falling Hartford Wolf Pack lost in regulation both on Friday and Saturday so the Phantoms gained on them. Bridgeport lost to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in regulation on Saturday so the weekend ended up being a wash with both the Phantoms and Islanders picking up two of four possible points.
Thing is: Time is running short for the Phantoms (27-30-13, .479 points percentage) to surpass both Hartford (30-31-8, .493 points percentage) and Bridgeport (30-29-11, .507 points percentage). There are no head-to-head games remaining with either of the teams the Phantoms need to pass in points percentage.
The Phantoms have six games remaining, starting with a road game in Providence on Tuesday. Bridgeport, due to the unbalanced schedule, has two games left (hosting Springfield next Friday and the Wolf Pack on Saturday). Hartford has three games remaining (hosting the Charlotte Checkers on Friday, visiting Bridgeport on Saturday and hosting W-B/S next Sunday).