Flyers’ stumble hits 5th straight loss on homestand

Flyers’ stumble hits 5th straight loss on homestand originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Flyers were a more competitive team Tuesday night.

But it wasn’t good enough to stop the bleeding.

John Tortorella’s club fell to the Senators, 5-2, at the Wells Fargo Center. The Flyers (27-31-8) are a confounding 0-5-0 on their season-long seven-game homestand, a stretch in which they’ve been outscored 22-8.

The Flyers never led Tuesday night. Jamie Drysdale and Rodrigo Abols provided game-tying goals.

“We just haven’t found a way,” Tortorella said. “We haven’t found a way to get a lead.”

Ottawa took its first two-goal lead of the night in the third period by capitalizing on a Flyers turnover. It iced the game with an empty-better.

“This is obviously a really frustrating, tough stretch for us,” Nick Seeler said. “But I thought tonight we competed. … We just need to get out of this together.”

The Flyers are 1-1-0 against the Senators (34-25-5). The clubs have one more matchup April 13 at Canadian Tire Centre.

• Fourteen seconds after the Flyers killed off a penalty to keep the game tied at 2-2, Ivan Fedotov let one in that he needed to stop. Michael Amadio snuck a shot through the five-hole of Fedotov with 4:59 minutes left in the second period.

“Once we tie it up, I think we need a save,” Tortorella said. “I thought Feds made some really big saves, but we’re trying to get traction, we’re trying to get momentum and they score right after. Especially the third one, that hurts.”

The Flyers also lost momentum just 1:09 minutes after Drysdale drew them even at 1-1 in the middle stanza off a feed from Travis Konecny. Fedotov had a Tyler Kleven shot beat him from the blue line and there wasn’t a ton of traffic in front.

“When you’re not scoring, the goalie has to almost be perfect,” Tortorella said.

The 6-foot-7 netminder finished with 19 saves on 23 shots.

The Flyers had an ominous start when they gave up a goal to Brady Tkachuk just 24 seconds into the game. Noah Cates and Cam York appeared to have a miscommunication, which led to a breakdown in coverage.

But the Flyers picked it up from there, twice drawing even in the second period. Given the Flyers’ demoralizing state, they could unraveled against a team in playoff position. They had a good response, though. Still, not nearly good enough.

“We were in the game the whole night,” Drysdale said. “We’ve just got to figure out a way to get on the other side of it.”

Ottawa goaltender Anton Forsberg stopped 20 of the Flyers’ 22 shots.

• York looked like that catch-me-if-you-can defenseman, wanting to make things happen with his legs and skill.

He made a confident play below the goal line to set up Abols’ game-tying 2-2 goal. He escaped and made plays up ice.

The 24-year-old wasn’t perfect defensively, but he definitely offered a reminder of his puck-moving upside.

“I feel like some of those plays have been there for me, they just haven’t been going in the net,” York said. “Just going to continue to chip away at it and hopefully start to see some more fall.”

• Garnet Hathaway hasn’t played this month after taking a blindsided hit in Pittsburgh at the end of February. The Flyers have missed him. Right now is a time in which they could really use his momentum-swinging energy.

• The Flyers are back in action Thursday when they host the Lightning (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP).

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