Flyers fall in final minute as their struggles without Ersson continue originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The Flyers came oh-so-close to grabbing at least a point Tuesday night at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina.
But they were unable to survive a lengthy, ill-timed stay in the defensive zone and lost to the Hurricanes, 6-4.
Martin Necas scored the game-winner for Carolina with 31 seconds left after it wore the Flyers down for over a minute and a half. The Flyers were pinned in with tired skaters on the ice as Necas buried a rebound through traffic.
The Hurricanes iced the game with an empty-netter.
Travis Konecny led the way for the Flyers with a four-point effort (two goals, two assists). Owen Tippett and Morgan Frost also scored goals for the Flyers (4-8-1), who were opening a difficult three-game road trip.
Twenty-nine seconds after Frost drew the Flyers even at 3-3 early in the third period, Jack Roslovic put Carolina back ahead. Konecny’s second goal tied things up at 4-4, but the Flyers were outshot 27-6 over the final two periods.
John Tortorella’s club has the fewest points in the Eastern Conference.
The Hurricanes (9-2-0) own the NHL’s longest active win streak at seven games. They’ve outscored opponents 33-16 on this run.
The Flyers see Carolina again in a little over two weeks for the second of three regular-season meetings.
• In net for the injured Samuel Ersson, Aleksei Kolosov battled and converted 29 saves on 34 shots.
Three of the goals he allowed came on rebounds and loose pucks around the net. Some tough bounces and the Hurricanes are just relentless in firing shots and getting to the puck.
Carolina flipped a 1-1 game into a 3-1 lead when it scored twice in under a minute during the second period.
The Flyers had struggles from their young defensive pair of Emil Andrae and Egor Zamula. Andrae, a 22-year-old who has impressed since being called up 10 days ago, lost his footing in coverage on Roslovic’s go-ahead 4-3 goal. He finished with a minus-2 rating in 14:09 minutes. The 24-year-old Zamula was also a minus-2 in only 10:58 minutes.
Bobby Brink was one of the young forwards who got caught on the ice for the Hurricanes’ game-winning goal. The 23-year-old winger went scoreless with a minus-3 mark.
The Flyers were more opportunistic offensively, but they still had to defend a lot.
“I think we have improved defensively around our goalie because we’re getting a lot of practice at it in the games,” Tortorella said Monday. “We’re just there too often.”
The Flyers dropped to 0-8-0 in their last eight games that Ersson hasn’t started. Their last win without Ersson in net was March 2, when Felix Sandstrom beat the Senators, 4-2, last season.
Carolina netminder Pyotr Kochetkov entered 2-1-0 with a 1.35 goals-against average and .944 save percentage lifetime against the Flyers. The 25-year-old stopped 12 of the Flyers’ 16 shots Tuesday night.
• A couple of notable positives for the Flyers:
They took a contender down to the wire on the road without their No. 1 goaltender and a top-pair defenseman.
And they saw some offensive life. Tortorella’s club had scored just four goals (one an empty-netter) over its previous three games. Against one of the stingier defensive clubs in the NHL, the Flyers matched that total.
Tippett (one goal, one assist) and Sean Couturier (two assists) had multi-point games. That could be promising momentum for Tippett.
Frost’s goal was his first of the season.
“I know that I can be a good player,” the 25-year-old center said Monday. “You want to be in that spot, I want to be a contributor for the team. Got to get it going, I feel like I need one game, something. We’ll see.”
Matvei Michkov snapped a mini drought of four games without a point when he tallied an assist on Konecny’s 5-on-3 power play goal that started the game’s scoring in the first period.
The 19-year-old winger played 13:57 minutes (2:52 in the third period).
• The road trip continues Thursday when the Flyers visit the Lightning (7:30 p.m. ET/ESPN+, Hulu).
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