Positive start from the youth goes for naught as Flyers fall apart in 2nd period originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The Flyers failed to capitalize on a 2-0 lead in the opening four minutes Saturday night and finished with a 4-3 loss to the Sabres at KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York.
Joel Farabee, Owen Tippett and Travis Konecny scored in the losing effort. The club has seven games left in its all-but-over 2021-22 season.
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The Flyers (23-41-11) have lost four straight, a stretch in which they've been outscored 22-8.
Their goal differential on the season has plummeted to minus-80.
The Flyers have gone 0-2-0 against the Sabres (28-38-11) and are in danger of being swept in the regular-season series.
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• Once again, the Flyers fell apart in the second period.
They allowed four goals to completely erase the positives from their 2-0 lead at first intermission.
In their four-game losing streak, the Flyers have been outscored 11-1 in the middle frame.
By the end of the second period against Buffalo, the Flyers were being outshot 27-11.
It took a perfect shot from Konecny to save the Flyers from being completely dominated in the second period Saturday night.
• The Flyers' league-worst power play was yet again costly. The man advantage went 0 for 4, coming up empty three times in the third period with the Flyers needing an equalizer.
The club's power play is 13 for 129 (10.1 percent) since the calendar turned to 2022.
No Claude Giroux or Sean Couturier on the man advantage has become glaringly noticeable.
• Farabee and Tippett staked the Flyers to their 2-0 lead.
Bobby Brink picked up his second assist through three NHL games with a nice breakaway move, which created a rebound for Farabee.
Tippett flushed a bouncing puck with a backhanded shot to give him his third goal in the last seven games.
The 23-year-old opened the game on the Flyers' first line. Tippett was acquired in the Giroux trade and the Flyers believe the winger is starting to show some of his upside.
"He's just sniffing and just scratching the surface of how good he can be," Flyers interim head coach Mike Yeo said Friday. "His athletic ability, his natural ability puts him in a position every game to get one, two, three, even four grade A scoring opportunities.
"I don't think that he quite understands or believes just how dominant of a hockey player he can be yet. I think a lot of that is confidence, some of that is experience.
"In terms of a guy who has the puck with his skill, with his power, they should never be able to get the puck off of him. I think he has the ability to dominate and to control games. We just have to keep teaching and keep showing in different areas how he can do that."
• Martin Jones made 25 saves on 29 shots.
Two of Buffalo's goals were power play markers.
Craig Anderson, the Sabres' 40-year-old veteran netminder, stopped 18 of the Flyers' 21 shots. He faced 10 shots in the third period after seeing only 11 through the first two periods.
• Egor Zamula started the night on the Flyers' top defensive pair alongside Ivan Provorov. The 22-year-old prospect finished with a minus-1 rating and a game-high four blocked shots in 17:41 minutes.
• The Flyers were without Carter Hart (lower body), Cam Atkinson (lower body), Cam York (lower body), Rasmus Ristolainen (upper body) and Patrick Brown (upper body). More on their statuses here.
• The Flyers and Sabres are right back at it Sunday in Philadelphia (5 p.m. ET/NBCSP+).
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