4 fights, 2 injuries and more overtime pain for Flyers originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Mats Zuccarello danced and dangled through the Flyers, handing them more overtime heartbreak.
John Tortorella’s club lost to the Wild, 3-2, Thursday night at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.
The Flyers (20-21-9) have dropped three straight games, with the last two coming in OT. They’re now 1-8 in overtime and 4-4-8 when entering the third period in a tied game.
Zuccarello finished them off Thursday night with a beautiful move and finish.
The Flyers emptied their net and forced the bonus session when Tony DeAngelo scored with 1:28 minutes left in regulation. Kevin Hayes, the extra skater, found him with a nice pass.
The Flyers went a costly 0 for 3 on the power play. In a 1-1 game, they nearly went ahead on a third-period man advantage but Marc-Andre Fleury, along with congestion in front of the net, kept the puck out.
Under two minutes later, Minnesota scored on its own power play to seize the 2-1 lead.
Noah Cates, who grew up in Stillwater, Minnesota, about a 25-minute drive away from Xcel Energy Center, scored the Flyers’ other goal.
Tortorella was down two skaters in the final stanza (more on that below).
Matt Boldy scored the first two goals for the Wild (26-17-4), who come to Philadelphia on March 23.
• Imagine where the Flyers would be if they somewhat balanced out their 1-9 record after regulation?
They might actually be in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
But their lack of high-end talent has been glaringly noticeable in OT. They’ve gone to the shootout only once (0-1).
• Carter Hart was pretty good. The 24-year-old made only 20 saves but a good number of them were high quality.
He hardly had a chance on Boldy’s third-period power play goal. Boldy first struck in the second period at Hart’s doorstep.
For Minnesota, the three-time Stanley Cup champion Fleury stopped 28 of the Flyers’ 30 shots.
The 38-year-old made a huge save on Travis Konecny in overtime.
• Three fights broke out during a span of 16 seconds in the first period.
Here were the bouts:
Patrick Brown dropped the gloves with Brandon Duhaime in the second period.
Both Allison and MacEwen did not finish the game. Allison departed early in the second period with a lower-body injury, while MacEwen did not return after his fight because of an upper-body injury.
The Flyers ran into an angry Wild team that was back home following three straight defeats on the road and trying to avoid a season-worst fourth consecutive loss.
To their credit, the Flyers did a solid job matching Minnesota’s energy.
• Rasmus Ristolainen made two key plays to help the Flyers go into first intermission with a 1-0 edge.
He assisted Cates’ goal and then blocked a shot in the final seconds of the opening stanza.
Staying on the defensive theme, Ivan Provorov was really good in 25-plus minutes. He had an assist on DeAngelo’s goal, made a handful of subtle defensive plays and blocked four shots.
• The Flyers have one more game before they go on their longest break of the season. They visit the Jets on Saturday (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP) and then have eight days without a game from Jan. 29 to Feb. 5, a stretch that includes the All-Star festivities.
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