Flyers on brink of elimination after 4-1 defeat

PHILADELPHIA – They generated plenty of chances. The problem was they couldn’t convert enough.
It was another one of those nights for the Flyers, who now find themselves with their backs against the wall after a 4-1 loss to Carolina at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Thursday night, leaving them in an almost impossible 0-3 hole in this best-of-seven playoff series.
The Flyers had a number of golden opportunities, including five power plays, but could only come up with the one goal. For the series, they have just a grand total of three goals against a stingy Carolina defense.
Incredibly, Philadelphia has had 16 power plays and scored only once.
And on top of that, the Flyers gave up a shorthanded goal and that turned out to be the game-winner.
The Hurricanes can wrap up the series in Game 4, which will be played Saturday night (6 p.m.) at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Only four teams in NHL history have come back from an 0-3 deficit, including the 2010 Flyers against Boston.
After the game, the chief topics of conversation were the power play’s failure, the Flyers’ lack of composure, some questionable officiating (at least in the Flyers’ opinion) and can the team up the desperation level for Game 4 when facing elimination?
First the power play: The Flyers could have stayed in this game if they had taken advantage of their opportunities. They even had a five-on-three and managed only one shot.
“You can win games with the power play and lose them with the penalty kill,” Sean Couturier said. “And tonight that’s kind of what happened.”
The Flyers handed Carolina nine power plays and the Hurricanes converted on two of them. That alone made the Flyers’ task that much more difficult.
After a particularly borderline hit by Taylor Hall on Sanheim, the Flyers seemed to lose some of their discipline.
And the power-play woes just won’t go away.
“You have to give them credit,” Couturier said. “They’re one of the best PKs in the league for a couple years now. But we have to be better, we have to find a way to get more pucks to the net.”
“We had a great first (period) and then it was all power play, penalty kill,” coach Rick Tocchet said. “We took nine penalties. Five-on-five we were good, I thought we were the better team.
“That’s two games in a row with (that many) penalties, we’re not equipped for that.”
The five-on-three had to be particularly frustating. It produced only one shot on goal.
“We’re just too antsy,” Tocchet said. “You can tell the guys are nervous. We’ve got to try to help them.”
The power play has been a problem for five years. Why can’t it be fixed?
“Well, I’ll tell you we’re tryin’,” Tocchet said. “There are plays we have to make on the power play. It’s on me to try to figure it out.”
The Flyers weren’t crazy about the way the game was officiated either. The team felt Hall should have gotten more for the cheap shot on Sanheim.
“We had nine penalties, that’s a lot of penalties,” Tocchet said. “We have to understand, in a scrum, we take a punch in the mouth, if you’re going to go in, fight. If you’re not, get out of there.”
Sanheim wasn’t pleased with the way the hit on him was handled.
“I was in a vulnerable spot, he decided to finish his check,” Sanheim said. “Just felt like his hand drove my head through the wall. I thought it was a pretty dirty play. They thought it was only two minutes. So move on. Unfortunate we gave up a shorthand goal at the start of that power play.”
With the score tied at 1-1 late in the second period, the Flyers went on the power play. But in a matter of seconds, Carolina began a rush to the Flyer zone. Jordan Staal got the puck to Jalen Chatfield, who sent a shot past Flyers goalie Dan Vladar at 15:59.
In the third period, Andrei Svechnikov scored on a power play at 3:52 to give the Hurricanes a two-goal lead. Then Nikolaj Ehlers connected on a clear break-in at 7:08 to put the game away.
Down 1-0 after one, Trevor Zegras tied things up at 2:31 of the second. An entry shot deflected off Carolina defenseman Jaccob Slavin to the lower right circle to Zegras, who beat goaltender Frederik Andersen short side.
The Flyers were without one of their best two-way forwards, Noah Cates, who was injured late in Game 2 at Carolina.
Because of that, Tocchet made some significant changes with his lines.
He moved Zegras back to center, in between Alex Bump and Porter Martone. Denver Barkey moved to third line between Carl Grundstrom and Matvei Michkov.
The Flyers might have had the better of the play in the first period but still came out on the short end of a 1-0 score.
Carolina took advantage of a penalty to Couturier with 3:25 left in the period. A shot off the end boards came straight to Jordan Staal, who poked the rebound past Vladar into the net.
Philadelphia’s best chance came when Martone’s shot rattled off a post. The Flyer also failed on a couple power plays. They entered the game 14th in the playoffs at just 10.7 percent (three for 28).

>Short shots

Couturier entered the game with the highest faceoff win percentage in the playoffs at 69.9 percent. That was well ahead of second place Anze Kopitar (63.7 percent) of the L.A. Kings.
The two goals Jamie Drysdale and Couturier scored 39 seconds apart in Game 2 were the second-fastest by a Flyers’ duo in the last 15 years. In the 2012 playoffs, two goals were scored just 37 seconds apart.