The Philadelphia Flyers came two-thirds of the way back from a cavernous 5-2 deficit but were unable to find an equalizer in a 5-4 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena on Thursday night.
With the loss, the Flyers fell to 1-3-0 on their current six-game road trip and to 9-12-1 overall on the road. Overall, the Flyers dropped to 5-6-0 over their last 11 games.
For the second straight game, the Flyers gave up four goals in the first period. They've also given up four power play goals to the opposition over the last two games.
Max Pacioretty had even strength and power play goals for Vegas, as did Sean Couturier for the Flyers. Claude Giroux and Travis Konecny also scored in a losing cause, while Shea Theodore and Jon Merrill scored in Vegas' four-goal deluge in the first period.
This was not a night where any goalie was going to leave with a nice-looking stat line. However, both Marc-Andre Fleury (34 saves on 38 shots) and Carter Hart (28 saves on 33 shots) stepped up big at times over the final 40 minutes of the game after a wild first period.
Unfortunately for the Flyers, a disastrous span of 4:41 with the first period saw the Golden Knights score a pair of even strength goals, a power play goal (the Flyers' penalty kill has suddenly become a worry after being a primary strength through the Christmas break) and Fleury to stuff Scott Laughton's penalty shot attempt was was put the Flyers into "chase-the-game" mode the rest of the night. Rather than leading 1-0, they were now trailing 3-1 in rapid succession.
The Flyers got the start they wanted, scoring first as Claude Giroux got open in the slot to finish off a Jakub Voracek feed. Beyond that, it was yet another road period where Philadelphia did itself no favors.
They lost too many battles in their own zone and gave up too much space. A turnover at their own blueline ended up in they a few seconds later. Moreover, even after a great individual effort goal by Travis Konecny, taking the puck to the net and outmaneuvering Marc-Andre Fleury, Philly found itself in another two-goal goal as Max Pacioretty finished off his second goal of the period as he slid a backhander between Hart's pads.
Scott Laughton ran out of room -- and into Fleury -- on his penalty shot attempt at 13:23 of the first period. This one didn't come close. Konecny's subsequent highlight-reel goal was a huge strike for the Flyers, but one final breakdown ended up in the Philly net as Pacioretty finished in close.
The second period had a different tone that the first; more under control from a Flyers standpoint as the period moved along. However, all the Flyers could do was cut a 3-goal gap back to two after Couturier had a tap-in goal after a nice bank play by Matt Niskanen to get the puck to the net. Earlier, Hart was heavily screened and the Flyers got a bad bounce on what turned into the fifth Vegas goal.
In the third period, after Couturier scored on a well-executed power play puck movement sequence as he find soft ice and ripped home a Giroux feed, the Golden Knights swarmed the puck for much of the remainder of the game. Hart had to made four or five tough saves to keep the deficit to a single goal.
The night ended in frustration as Philly's 6-on-3 power play push fell short with Hart pulled for an extra attacker. Two blocks by Brayden McNabb were crucial.
The Flyers are in Glendale on Saturday night to take on Rick Tocchet's Arizona Coyotes. The absolute best the Flyers can do on this trip is to salvage a .500 record. That, however, would be a decent accomplishment given how the trip has gone so far.
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Flyers Home/Road Splits at midpoint of 2019-20 season
Record: 13-2-4 / 9-12-1 GPG: 3.79 (4th) / 2.50 (23rd) GAA: 1.95 (1st) / 3.68 (29th) PP: 24.3% (8th) / 15.9% (20th) PK: 85.9% (5th) / 76.5% (21st)