Philadelphia Flyers fall to Avalanche 4-1

The Philadelphia Flyers hosted the Colorado Avalanche looking for their fifth win on the season.

After a solid performance in the 5-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils, the Philadelphia Flyers hoped to obtain their first win streak of the season as they faced the Colorado Avalanche. The Avalanche are 3-0-2, and were on a two game winning streak coming into the game.

Brian Elliott started in-net, opposing Semyon Varlamov. Varlamov had a record of 3-0-1 coming in, and held the Flyers to just two goals in their last meeting earlier in the season.

The first period started with Jordan Weal taking a tripping penalty and put the Avalanche on an early power-play opportunity. Mikko Rantanen cashed in on the man advantage, and put Colorado up 1-0. Later on in the period, Christian Folin put the Avalanche back on the power play with a delay of game penalty. They generated some chances, but the Flyers killed it off. The period ended with Colorado having the shots on goal advantage, leading 14-11.

Patrik Nemeth took a slashing penalty to kick off the second period, giving the Flyers their first power play opportunity of the game. They couldn’t capitalize, as Colorado killed the penalty. The Flyers got another man advantage later in the period on a tripping minor from Alex Kerfoot. Philadelphia couldn’t convert, but created some chances in the process.

After trading shots back-and-forth, Matt Nieto scored and gave Colorado a 2-0 lead. It was Nieto’s first goal on the season. Michael Raffl went down behind the play soon after, and had to be helped to the locker room by a trainer. Gabriel Landeskog took a hooking penalty with two seconds left in the period, and set the Flyers up for their third power play chance of the evening to start the third stanza.

The Flyers couldn’t get anything going on the power play as Colorado killed it off to start the period. Landeskog blew by the Flyers defense and made it a 3-0 game. Philadelphia responded quickly as Nolan Patrick deflected a Travis Sanheim point shot past Varlamov and made it a 3-1 game. Raffl did not return to the game due to a lower body injury after taking a hit in the second period. Shayne Gostisbehere also got hurt in the third after deflecting a puck off his knee but played through the pain. The Flyers tried all they could to score in the period, but Colorado had every answer. Rantanen scored his second goal of the game on an empty-netter and won the game for the Avalanche 4-1.

The Flyers are now 4-5-0 on the season in another inconsistent performance. Next game is Thursday against the Bruins.