With tall order in Vegas, Flyers fail to build momentum

With tall order in Vegas, Flyers fail to build momentum originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Flyers were hurt by some mistakes and untimely goals allowed Thursday night as they dropped to the Golden Knights, 5-2, at T-Mobile Arena.

Tyson Foerster and Travis Konecny scored the Flyers’ goals. Konecny’s came on the power play in the third period after Vegas took a commanding 4-1 lead. Alexander Holtz scored on a shot that went off of Aleksei Kolosov’s glove. At that point, the Flyers were going to need a ridiculous comeback if they wanted to pick up a second straight win.

The Golden Knights iced the game with an empty-netter.

John Tortorella’s club hasn’t won consecutive games since Dec. 10-12. Prior to visiting Vegas, the Flyers (17-18-4) had won two of the first three games of a five-game road swing. But this was arguably their toughest test of the trip.

The Golden Knights (26-9-3) have an NHL-best .724 points percentage. They improved to 16-4-0 at home, where they’ve outscored opponents 77-49.

The Flyers went 0-1-1 in their two-game regular-season series with Vegas. They relinquished a 3-0 lead in the first matchup for a 5-4 shootout loss at the Wells Fargo Center.

• With Samuel Ersson out because of a lower-body injury, Kolosov was in net for the Flyers and stopped 22 of 26 shots.

Just 2:13 minutes into the second period, the Flyers saw a 1-0 lead flip into a 2-1 deficit.

On Mark Stone’s game-tying goal, Owen Tippett sent a backward pass to Konecny, which resulted in a turnover and Jack Eichel transitioning the puck the other way.

Not even a minute and a half later, Nicolas Hague scored on a wraparound goal after he stripped Joel Farabee of the puck along the side boards.

Kolosov gave up a backbreaking goal with just 1:38 minutes left in the second period as the Flyers fell into a 3-1 hole at intermission. Pavel Dorofeyev blasted one from the circle five seconds after Noah Cates couldn’t win the faceoff.

The rookie Kolosov has had some stiff challenges over his last three starts, facing the 22-10-5 Kings twice and then the Golden Knights. The soon-to-be 23-year-old has surrendered 15 goals on 72 shots in those outings.

Vegas netminder Ilya Samsonov entered 12-2-0 with a 2.61 goals-against average and .908 save percentage in his career against the Flyers. The 12 wins were his most against any club. He denied 23 of the Flyers’ 25 shots Thursday night to record win No. 13.

• After the Flyers got a number of key performances on their back end in a 4-0 win Tuesday night over the Sharks, some of their defensemen couldn’t sustain it against the Golden Knights.

Egor Zamula, Jamie Drysdale and Rasmus Ristolainen were each a minus-2 and combined for one shot.

• The line of Foerster, Cates and Bobby Brink was at it again, this time right off the opening draw.

The trio got the scoring started only 21 seconds into the game when Foerster finished from the slot. Over the last eight games, Foerster (five goals, three assists) and Cates (five goals, three assists) each have eight points, while Brink has six (all assists).

Cates just continues to look more and more like his 2022-23 version. He has recorded at least a point in nine of the Flyers’ last 11 games. In that span, he has 10 points (six goals, four assists).

• Sean Couturier, centering the fourth line, played a team-low 10 minutes.

• The Flyers wrap up their trip Sunday when they visit the Maple Leafs (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP).

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