With the Vegas Golden Knights boasting an NHL-best 15-4-0 home record, the Flyers knew the odds were stacked against them in Thursday night’s game in Sin City.
The Flyers held their own for a period but eventually got worn down in a 5-2 defeat at T-Mobile Arena.
Aleksei Kolosov, who was filling in for the injured Samuel Ersson (lower-body), tried his best in goal for the Flyers but the Knights simply kept up their home-ice winning ways, earning their seventh straight victory at T-Mobile.
The Flyers fell to 2-3 on their current trip and 17-18-4 overall.
Trailing 1-0 after one period, the Knights didn’t need long to turn the tables.
Jack Eichel hauled the puck down the slot and backhanded a shot through traffic that deflected off Mark Stone at the 51-second mark. Then Vegas took the lead at 2:13 when defenseman Nicolas Hague circled the net, emerged at the far post and slid a shot past Kolosov.
Finally, with just 1:38 left in the period, the Knights’ Pavel Dorofeyev wound up with the puck in the right circle and made no mistake.
In the third period, Alexander Holtz locked things up with a goal at 2:46.
On a positive note for the Flyers, they scored right after that on a power-play goal from Travis Konecny at 4:56.
Coach John Tortorella knew this game was going to be a tall order. Vegas does so many things well, it takes almost a mistake-free effort to come away with a positive result.
He liked the way his team hung in there though.
“I thought we put in a lot of good minutes tonight,” the coach said in a televised interview. “We made some mistakes but I thought we played a good game.”
The coach was particularly pleased with the play of the Ryan Poehling-Owen Tippett-Konecny line. They hustle and they’ve played a smart game.
“We certainly use them as an example when we do our tape work,” Tortorella said. “It’s evident why they’ve been so good for so long. They’re close. TK is finding some success being close. It’s determination and support that makes that line go. It’s very exciting for me because it’s three kids that we move forward with as a team.”
Cam York was asked about the positives from this game. The Flyers did hold a lead for at least a period.
“That’s a really good team over there,” York said. “Just felt like they capitalized on their chances. We had some good looks. Just couldn’t put them in the back of the net.”
Added Tippett: “Like I’ve said all year, we’re a confident group in here. We’ve come back in games before. So that was our mentality going into the third period.”
The Flyers wasted little time getting on the scoreboard first in this one.
In fact, they needed only 21 seconds after the opening faceoff.
The puck wound up on Noah Cates’ stick down near the right side of the crease. Cates tried to circle out in front but the puck slid off his stick right onto the one belonging to Tyson Foerster, who made no mistake with a shot past goaltender Ilya Samsonov.
“We came out hard and chipped in pucks the way we’ve been doing the last couple games,” Foerster said at the first intermission. “And we got rewarded.”
>Tippett on top of his game
Tortorella clearly has been impressed by the recent play of Tippett, who has been charging nets with impressive results.
“I think he’s the full package,” Tortorella said before the game. “Quite honestly, when he’s on, he made a great seam pass on the power play the other night to TK (Travis Konecny).
“He creates so much on his own. A lot of players can’t do it on their own. I think that’s one of his biggest strengths. If you ask me for the full package, I still think he has room to grow on the other side of the puck.”
The coach would like to see Tippett finish his checks on defense.
“He gets there to check,” Tortorella said. “I think he understands positioning. He just doesn’t stay in the area. Sometimes it needs to be a stop-and-start game. He’s always on the go. Sometimes he needs to stop. I think that will help him in that part of the game.”
>Short shots
The Flyers head back to the Eastern time zone to visit the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday and complete the long holiday road trip. . .Bobby Brink went scoreless again and hasn’t had a goal in 15 games. . .Vegas improved to 15-0-0 when reaching the four-goal mark. . .Tanner Pearson scored into an empty net in the final minute for Vegas. . .Cates has eight points in his last eight games.
