A possible well-played win over a red-hot team like Utah on the road seemed almost too good to be true.
And it was.
The Flyers took a 4-2 lead into the third period of Wednesday night’s game at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah and then watched it disappear faster than you can say gut-wrenching.
The Mammoth scored twice in regulation-time, including a goal by Clayton Keller past goalie Sam Ersson with 35 seconds to play, then got the game-winner from Keller at 2:01 of overtime as the Flyers lost a tough one, 5-4.
Coach Rick Tocchet was clearly unhappy with the team’s performance. It crumbled under pressure.
“That’s unacceptable what happened tonight,” Tocchet said in a televised postgame media session. “There’s really not much to say.”
And then Tocchet proceeded to say a lot.
“We stunk in pressure situations,” he said. “That’s something we have to get out of this team. You’ve got to rise to the occasion. You want to be out there in pressure situations. A couple guys stunk in certain situations. That’s the bottom line.
“So we have to recover from it.”
As for the third period, there can be no excuses.
“You’ve got to seize the moment,” he said. “We’ve got to get that out of our system. We unraveled and we’ve got to put the pieces back.”
It should be noted Garnet Hathaway had a chance to score into an empty net for an insurance goal in the closing minute but got caught from behind, and the opportunity was lost.
Did Tocchet say anything to him?
“No,” the coach said. “He knows it.”
After a power-play goal by Barrett Hayton with 7:13 to play cut the Flyers’ lead to one, Utah pulled its goalie and got the tying goal from Keller. Keller got past Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim and shoveled a shot past goalie Sam Ersson for the winner.
Christian Dvorak led the offensive charge with a pair of goals for the Flyers. The Flyers woke up on the power play with two goals (one by Dvorak).
“I thought for the most part we were the better team,” Dvorak said after the game. “Sat back a bit. Tough loss. It stings. We could have been a little more aggressive in the third period. Definitely something to learn from.”
Ersson had this game under control until the final minutes.
“Obviously they’re a very skilled team,” Ersson said. “Most parts of the game we did a good job. You know after we went up three-nothing they were going to make a push. It’s tough giving up a late one.”
The Flyers raced to a 3-0 lead early in the second period before Utah scored a pair just 26 seconds apart.
That’s when Tocchet called time-out, gave an inspired 30-second speech from behind the bench and the Flyers responded with some better structured hockey.
The opening 20 minutes of the game might have been the Flyers’ best first period of the season.
They took a 2-0 lead and kept Utah’s best shooters at long distance.
Cam York broke through just 30 seconds into the game. He took advantage of a Sanheim shot/rebound to send the puck past goaltender Karel Vejmelka.
The Flyers doubled their lead at 4:36. Again, Konecny was instrumental in springing Dvorak for a break-in goal at 4:36.
A Bobby Brink power-play goal just 58 seconds into the second period made it 3-0. Brink was positioned at the doorstep when a long shot deflected right to his stick.
The Mammoth finally got on the board at 5:35 of the middle frame. The Flyers did a poor job protecting Ersson at the left post and Utah’s JJ Peterka finally poked the puck in.
Just 36 seconds later the Flyers’ lead was cut to one. Utah scored again on a goal by Lawson Crouse. A turnover by Matvei Michkov led to the goal. After that marker, Tocchet called timeout, gathered his players at the bench and let them have it.
The speech apparently had the desired effect. At 10:28, with the Flyers on a power play, Dvorak scored his second goal of the game with a power rush down the right side. Vejmelka made the initial save but Dvorak pounced on the rebound and slid the puck behind the goaltender. Trevor Zegras had the primary assist.
It was the 17th multi-goal game of Dvorak’s career.
>Tippett injured but OK
Owen Tippett had to leave the game after a collision with Utah’s Liam O’Brien. Although Tippett was hit in the head, no penalty was called on the play. Tippett returned to action in the second period after doctors checked him out for a possible concussion.
>Short shots
The Flyers complete the three-game road trip with a Friday night game at Colorado. . .Konecny’s game-winning goal in Monday night’s 2-1 victory at Vegas was the 42nd of his career. He now ranks 10th on the Flyers’ alltime list. One more game-winner will tie him with the late Rick MacLeish for ninth on the list.
Nick Seeler continues to block shots at a prodigious rate. Since the 2022-23 season, he has 656 blocks, which is fourth in the NHL. Seeler has averaged 18 minutes, 56 seconds per game, the highest amount of playing time of his career.
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