Flyers lose second game in a row yet again in overtime
By Scott Cole
There’s that old joke by Rodney Dangerfield: “I went to a fight last night and a hockey game broke out.” Last night, that was pretty apt. Four fights broke out, including three in a 16-second span. Good times……Oh yeah, the game. In their second game in a row, the Flyers battled a playoff team into the overtime period but fell short as Mats Zuccarello ended it two minutes into overtime. The Flyers lost 3-2 to the Minnesota Wild.
The Flyers scored first on a goal by Noah Cates. It was after this goal that things between the Flyers and the Wild got…well….wild!
Nicolas Deslauriers, a former enforcer for the Wild, faced off against Ryan Reaves about midway through the first. Nicky D held up well, but Reaves got a few more rights in and seemed to take the fight. That was settled up and 14 seconds later, Wade Allison is tangling with Mason Shaw.
Allison got Shaw up against the boards and got up on top of him. The refs separated everyone into the penalty boxes and then dropped the puck. At that point, Zack MacEwen threw down with Marcus Foligno. You can see the results of that fight here.
Flyers lose to Wild 3-2 in overtime
Oh yeah…the game. Matt Boldy would score two goals in the game. The first was in the second period to tie the game up. The second goal was near the midpoint of the third period to give them a 2-1 lead.
But wait! There’s more! After a great save by Marc-Andre Fleury, Travis Konecny leveled a great, if not late, hit on Wild defender Jon Merrill. That caused another scrum.
With 90 seconds left in the game, Tony DeAngelo would score the tying goal that would send the game into overtime. But again, just two minutes in, Zuccarello scored to give Minnesota the victory.
The Flyers are 0-1-2 this week. And while it’s good that they are gaining points with these recent losses, it’s clear that the team could have won both of these OT losses. Even more so, they could have defeated the Jets on Sunday had they not dug themselves a hole. The Flyers have a chance to get even with Winnipeg. They face the Jets on Saturday in their last game before the All-Star Break.
However, the Flyers could be shorthanded. Allison and MacEwen left the game with injuries. In the second period, Allison did not return after suffering a lower-body injury. MacEwen did not return after his fight with an upper-body injury; possibly a result of his bout.
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Updates have not been given on their injuries. It is possible that Kieffer Bellows, long a healthy scratch, could fill in on Saturday night. The Flyers could also ask Justin Braun, another scratch, to fill in for defense and either rotate through seven defenders or bump Nick Seeler up to the fourth line.