Once again, the Flyers streaky season continues with a loss. After trending back in the right direction with five straight games with a point, the Flyers have now lost five in a row. Last night, the loss came against the playoff bound Dallas Stars in a 4-1 loss. Carter Hart made 26 saves in his return to net after dealing with a lower body injury for the last two weeks.
Dallas started off the game with four unanswered goals. It all began in the first period after Rasmus Ristolainen drew a tripping penalty near the end of the first. With a minute to go on the penalty kill and just seconds left in the period, Jason Robertson, skated around young Ronnie Attard and fired off a shot. Nick Seeler made the initial block, but it rebounded right off his skate back to Robertson who rifled off a second shot over the right shoulder of Hart for the score.
Fifty seconds into the second period, the Flyers were nabbed with a “too many men on the ice” penalty. Dallas went back on the attack. This time it was Joe Pavelski. A series of shots right after the opening faceoff for the man advantage had Hart scrambling with Ivan Provorov and Ristolainen right in front of the net. A blocked shot squirted past Risto to Miro Heiskanen who fired off another shot which Pavelski deflected in past Hart.
Wyatt Johnston and Evgenii Dadonov extended the Stars’ lead a few minutes later while on a 3-on-3 attack with Colin Miller. The two passed the puck back and forth with Johnston leaving the puck behind him for a drifting Miller. The Flyers defenders were concentrating on Johston and Dadonov which left Miller open to shoot the puck from near the blueline. Hart never had a chance to stop it with Provorov in front of him. The final Dallas goal came when Provorov turned the puck over behind the net. Pavelski shoveled the puck over to Roberston who easily scored his second of the night.
The lone Flyers goal came from, of all places, Kevin Hayes. Hayes hasn’t scored a goal since the second period of an 2-1 overtime loss against Nashville on February 11. The goal came on a dump in. Owen Tippett outraced Ryan Suter for the puck, went behind the net, and found Hayes who was streaking up toward the right side of the net.
It was nice to see Hayes score since, you know, he has not played well these last two months.
The win does little for the Stars as Colorado trounced San Jose 6-2 last night. Both teams remain tied for the Central Division lead with 100 points. As for the Flyers, their next game is Saturday night against the Islanders. It’s the final game of the road trip and the Isles will bring everything they can as they try to cement a playoff berth with Pittsburgh and Florida right behind them. The Flyers will return home for their final two home games of the season on Sunday and Tuesday.