The Philadelphia Flyers rounded out their Western Canadian road trip by playing host to the Oilers in Edmonton.
Hoping to avoid dropping all three road games during this trip, the Philadelphia Flyers faced off against the 5-1-0 Edmonton Oilers. The Flyers were coming off of a horrid performance in their last game against the Calgary Flames and needed to get the win in this meeting in order to go back home with at least three points. Carter Hart got the nod from Alain Vigneault in-net and opposed Mikko Koskinen for the Oilers. Koskinen entered the game with a 2.41 Goals Against Average and a .914 save percentage in two starts while Hart had a 1.62 GAA with a .938 in three.
The Flyers got off to another poor start, allowing Leon Draisatl to score just over a full minute into the period to give the Oilers a 1-0 lead. Oskar Lindblom failed to clear the defensive zone, and Connor McDavid, who assisted on the goal, and Draisatl took advantage for the tally. Philadelphia went on to find the equalizer, though, as Jakub Voracek capitalized on a juicy rebound from Koskinen on the power-play for his first goal and point of the season. It was nice to see Voracek finally get on the scoresheet, especially when considering he was one of four Flyers who had yet to register a point coming into the contest. The teams traded chances as the frame went on, but Edmonton was the only side to convert on one them with an Ethan Bear shot beating Hart from the slot to gift the Oilers with a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes of action.
Philadelphia dominated play to begin the second, generating a litany of scoring chances and shots in the Oilers zone. But were they rewarded for their efforts? Nope, because Koskinen decided to be rude by doing his job and not allowing any of those pucks to land in the back of the net during that span.
The Flyers kept applying pressure through the period, yet were still unable to find a goal and it came back to bite them. McDavid did a McDavid thing on Justin Braun, outmuscling the Flyers blueliner for the puck and roofing a shot past Hart to extend the Oilers lead to two. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Draisatl would tack on two more power-play goals in the stanza, giving Edmonton a 5-1 advantage through two. Hart was replaced by Brian Elliott after the Nugent-Hopkins tally, as the young goaltender let in four goals on 14 shots.
The Flyers participated in another 20 minutes of professional ice hockey in the National Hockey League and eventually lost to Edmonton by a score of 6-3. Voracek netting his second of the night and Lindblom scoring his third of the year were one of the few positives to come out of the period, if not the only ones. This game was just a complete mess for the Orange and Black after the McDavid goal. It’s best that we just bury it down deep and try to forget about it.
Philadelphia is now 2-2-1 on the year. Next game is Saturday against the Dallas Stars.