Flyers’ five-game home winning streak ends in loss to Leafs

PHILADELPHIA – In certain hockey game situations, it might be OK to shoot first and ask questions later.
That could have been the case for the Flyers on Saturday night in a 5-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
The Flyers spent the first two periods of the game generating only 14 shots, passing up what looked like a number of decent scoring chances and falling behind by a couple goals.
By the time they woke up in the third period, one in which they produced 19 shots, it was too late. Their five-game home winning streak had come to an end.
The Flyers probably caught the Maple Leafs at the wrong time. Toronto entered Saturday night’s game as the only NHL team without a point on the road (0-3-0) and played with more desperation than the home team.
Also, Flyers goaltender Dan Vladar’s season-opening streak of allowing no more than two goals in a game also came to an end at six games. He was pulled after allowing Toronto’s fourth goal in the third period and replaced by Aleksei Kolosov.
Toronto picked up goals from Jake McCabe at 8:14 and Nicolas Robertson at 17:34 of the middle frame.
McCabe scored on a point shot through a screen and Robertson finished off a rush after the Flyers had controlled play in the Leafs’ zone for the better part of a minute.
In his post-game press conference, Flyers coach Rick Tocchet acknowledged his team should have been more aggressive when it came to taking shots.
“Offensively we were struggling, passing instead of shooting the puck,” Tocchet said. “That’s probably the biggest struggle this year, trying to get the guys to understand that.
“You have it (shot chances) when up front. Have to get people shooting the puck at the net. We’re trying all this fancy stuff. We have to correct it.”
The players know they can’t keep going for the fancy plays. It doesn’t work when another team is dug in on defense.
“As D-men, we probably need to get a few more pucks through,” defenseman Travis Sanheim said. “We obviously need to get more shots to the net. Start crashing the net and start looking for some ugly ones.”
Christian Dvorak echoed those beliefs.
“Sometimes you just got to get pucks on net,” he said. “Make the simple play, get some bounces and they’ll go in. Yeah, we passed up too many opportunities tonight. I think we’ll be better with that tomorrow (vs. Calgary).”
As was the case up in Ottawa back on Oct. 23 (a 2-1 loss), the Flyers scored early and then their sticks went quiet.
With Sean Couturier sidelined, the Flyers juggled their lines and the move looked like an instant success.
Just 1:09 into the game, a new trio of Dvorak, Travis Konecny and Nikita Grebenkin clicked.
As Dvorak drove to the net, Konecny dropped a pass to Grebenkin in the left corner. In turn, he found Dvorak open in the slot for a shot past former Flyer goaltender Anthony Stolarz.
Toronto tied it at 6:16. Matthews took control at the top of the slot and beat Vladar with a rising shot.
The Flyers were then back on their heels as they had to kill off a double-minor for high sticking and unsportsmanlike conduct to Konecny. They got the job done. The penalty killing entered the game third in the NHL at 89.2 percent.
In the third period, the Leafs needed only 33 seconds to make it 4-1. Easton Cowan beat Vladar with a wide-angle shot from the right circle.
Tyson Foerster scored a power-play goal in the closing minutes to cut the deficit to 4-2. Toronto added an empty-net goal with 18 seconds to play.
The Flyers would like to pick up where they left off late on Saturday night when they fired those season-high (for a period) 19 shots in the third.
“The guys worked hard, don’t get me wrong,” Tocchet said. “The fourth line played really hard for us. The penalty killing was good.”

>Short shots

It’s a quick return to action for the Flyers, who play host to the Calgary Flames on Sunday night. There’s a good chance Kolosov, just called up to replace injured goalie Sam Ersson, might get the start in goal for the Flyers. The Flyers will get Monday off before embarking on a two-game road trip through Montreal and Nashville.
Vladar entered the game with a .939 save percentage, tops in the NHL. . .Trevor Zegras, selected in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft, ranks fifth in that class with 198 points. New Jersey’s Jack Hughes tops the list with 366 points. . .The Flyers had a goal disallowed at 4:06 of the third period. Officials ruled a high-stick infraction on the play.
Toronto’s Chris Tanev was taken off on a stretcher after getting hit from behind by the Flyers’ Michkov at 8:23 of the third period. Michkov received only a two-minute interference penalty on the play. The game was delayed for about 10 minutes as medical officials worked carefully with Tanev’s departure. For this game, Tanev was just coming back from a recent concussion.