Flyers lose 18 seconds into OT, but come home with plenty of progress originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
As the puck trickled off of Samuel Ersson’s leg pad and sat there for Filip Forsberg to tap home, the Flyers just narrowly missed out on a sweep of their three-game road trip.
They were handed a 3-2 overtime loss Tuesday night to the Predators at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Flyers’ comeback attempt was thwarted by the Predators when Forsberg followed up his own shot and scored the winner only 18 seconds into OT.
Sean Couturier and Travis Sanheim scored goals to erase the Flyers’ 2-0 deficit.
John Tortorella’s club went 2-0-1 on the trip and outscored its opponents 11-6.
While the Flyers (15-10-3) grabbed a point Tuesday night, they also missed out on an opportunity to match their season-best winning streak of five games. However, they’ve earned at least a point in seven of their last eight games (5-1-2).
On the season, the Flyers are 4-3 after regulation and 4-4-3 in games decided by one goal.
They see the Predators (16-13-0) again in nine days when the clubs wrap up their two-game regular-season series at the Wells Fargo Center.
• Overall, a very good road trip for the Flyers.
When Gustav Nyquist gave Nashville a 1-0 lead on a redirection 9:42 minutes into the game, it marked the first time the Flyers had trailed at all on the trip.
After picking up wins over the Penguins in the shootout and overtime, the Flyers got better. To open the trip, they beat both the Coyotes and Avalanche somewhat convincingly, games that were close to complete efforts from the Flyers.
Despite losing in OT to finish the trip, Tortorella’s club should come home feeling pretty good about itself. The Flyers could see some decent crowds at the Wells Fargo Center the rest of this week.
• Ersson faced 22 shots from the Predators and stopped 19 of them.
He came in 5-1-0 with a 1.79 goals-against average and .930 save percentage over his previous six starts.
Forsberg’s OT winner was a tough one. It appeared as if the Flyers thought the play was going to be whistled dead. But the puck was still loose as Ersson couldn’t quite swallow it up. Forsberg alertly pounced on it for the winner.
The Flyers controlled play for a good portion of the game and they also blocked 23 shots.
Nashville netminder Juuse Saros was excellent, denying 37 of the Flyers’ 39 shots.
Couturier and Travis Konecny assisted Sanheim’s game-tying goal 6:49 minutes into the third period.
• The Flyers’ power play went 0 for 4.
The penalty kill did its part, turning away three Predators power plays and improving to 43 for 45 over the last 14 games (95.6 percent).
Couturier didn’t score on the PK, but his goal came nine seconds after the Flyers killed off a penalty in the final minute of the second period.
With 2:34 minutes left in the middle stanza, Nicolas Deslauriers hopped right over the bench and immediately challenged Jeremy Lauzon to drop the gloves. Deslauriers was standing up for teammate Owen Tippett, who took a hit along the boards from Lauzon. The Nashville defenseman obliged.
The Flyers went on the PK because Deslauriers was hit with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. Couturier rewarded Deslauriers for his defense of Tippett by getting the Flyers within 2-1.
• Ryan Poehling returned to the lineup after missing the first two games of the trip because of an illness.
• The Flyers are off Wednesday before hosting the Capitals on Thursday (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP).
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