You can’t win them all, but this was a tough one for the Philadelphia Flyers to drop, as the Detroit Red Wings brought their A-game on Thursday night, leaving home with a 6-3 win.
The Flyers had a very strong first period but John Gibson made sure that the game was tied 1-1 going into the intermission. All hell broke loose in the early minutes of the second period as the Wings scored three goals in the first 4:56 – two on the power play and one shorthanded.
Porter Martone gave the Flyers life with a power play tally midway through the second period, but that was all she wrote for the Flyers.
The Red Wings scored twice more in the third period to seal the deal before Luke Glendening added a late third period tally.
Dan Vladař was pulled after allowing 4 goals on 8 shots, Gibson exited the game after Martone’s goal and never returned due to an undisclosed injury, but the Flyers couldn’t really solve Cam Talbot as he stopped 10 of 11 shots fired his way.
FIRST PERIOD
The Red Wings opened the scoring 2:28 into the game after Alex DeBrincat notched his 40th goal on the power play. Matvei Michkov was nailed for a roughing minor, which only lasted 20 seconds after DeBrincat made a nice move in front on Dan Vladař for the backhand finish.
On the play prior to the goal, DeBrincat was absolutely robbed by Vladař from the exact same spot. This time around, instead of going with a forehand shot, the Wings’ leading scorer went with a nifty backhander.
With the Flyers pressuring, Christian Dvorak was able to get his stick on a Porter Martone slap shot from the point to tie things up at the 13:24 mark. The Flyers had just killed off a penalty, were cycling well in the zone courtesy of Rasmus Ristolainen, before Travis Konecny found Martone. Dvorak was positioned perfectly in front of John Gibson and was able to get his stick on the shot for his 18th of the season.
The period came to a close with both teams tied at 1-apiece but the Flyers holding an 11-4 advantage in shots and a 23-8 edge in shot attempts.
SECOND PERIOD
The Flyers late-period power play was negated to start the second after Martone, Ristolainen, and Lucas Raymond took penalties in a period-ending scrum.
To make matters worse, Owen Tippett received a goaltender interference minor 15 seconds in, giving Detroit a short 4-on-3 power play, before an eventual 5-on-3 advantage. They ended up scoring twice, the first one off a one-timer from Moritz Seider, and then Dylan Larkin beat Vladař in tight.
The Flyers then went back onto the power play, and even an abbreviated 5-on-3 for 28 seconds, but after far too many missed passes, the Red Wings made them pay for it. Larkin raced down after a blocked Tyson Foerster pass and beat Vladař on the breakaway, subsequently ending his night at the 4:56 mark of the period.
With 9:25 remaining in the period, the Flyers power play finally struck gold courtesy of Martone’s second career goal. With Martone and Noah Cates parked at the front of the net, Trevor Zegras fired a pass, which deflected and allowed the former to deposit the puck into the open cage.
Coming out of the second commercial break, Cam Talbot entered the game in lieu of Gibson, who went to the locker room after feeling some discomfort earlier in the period, perhaps after the contact from Tippett.
There were some odd man rushes early for Samuel Ersson to deal with and Talbot wasn’t tested too much coming into the game cold as the Flyers headed into the intermission down 4-2.
THIRD PERIOD
7:01 into the third period, the Red Wings scored a massive goal off the stick of Patrick Kane. With offensive zone time, Simon Edvinsson was able to send a cross-seam pass to Kane, who was left unmarked, and he made no mistake with a yawning cage in front of him.
Larkin later iced things up with 8:21 remaining, earning his hat trick after firing a shot off the rush over the glove of Ersson. Seider earned the primary helper on the play, which was his 5th point of the game.
Luke Glendening stopped the bleeding with 111 seconds remaining after he finished off a nice passing play from Sean Couturier and Denver Barkey. The former Red Wing deposited the one-timer past Talbot for his second of the year.
The Eastern Conference standings remain in flux after the Red Wings’ victory. Detroit now has 91 points but are 3 points out of the second Wild Card spot due to Ottawa winning in regulation over Florida.
The Senators now have 94 points and are just two back of Boston for the top Wild Card spot. As for the Flyers, they remain in third place in the division with 92 points, but their lead is just by one after the New York Islanders defeated Toronto. However, Columbus remains two points back after losing to Buffalo.
UP NEXT
The Flyers head to Winnipeg and take on the Jets on Saturday at Canada Life Centre with puck drop scheduled for 7:00pm ET.
