PHILADELPHIA: The Philadelphia Flyers had lost back to back games in regulation just once this season until the red hot Tampa Bay Lightning came to town.
In an odd scheduling quirk, the Flyers and Lightning played for the second straight game here in Philadelphia. Kind of like the home portion of a playoff series.
For the second straight game, the Lightning showed why they are a proven playoff tested team. While the Flyers showed they still have a long way to go to get to that point.
After the Lightning blew out the Flyers 7-2 in the first game, there was hope the Flyers would respond. It is something that they have done all season so far.
In games after a regulation loss, the Flyers are an impressive 9-1-2. That stat gets even better when you count any loss as they are 13-2-5.
However, for the second straight game, they were blown out by a red hot Lightning team who have now won ten straight games. The loss ended there seven game point streak after regulation losses.
Nothing went right for the Flyers for the second straight game. Tampa struck first just 33 seconds into the game and never looked back.
The Flyers did have their fair share of chances to get back into this one though in the second period.
Christian Dvorak scored his 10th goal of the season just 49-seconds after the Lightning made it 3-1. It seemed to flip a switch on the Flyers bench to spark some momentum that created two power-play opportunities.
But, the those power-plays came and went with just one shot to account for them.
The Lightning, however, would score on their late power-play opportunity with just 30.8 seconds left in the period.
Things would get very physical in the third period after both referee’s, especially Francis Charron, lost complete control of the game. In total 58 penalty minutes were given out in the period.
Travis Konecny, who made his return after missing Saturday’s game, would receive a 10-minute misconduct after being called for a cross check. Konecny would not go into the box and gave an ear full to Charron before he tossed him from the game.
Dan Vladar did everything he could to keep the Flyers in this one. He finished with 21 saves in the losing effort.
The Flyers return to action on Wednesday night when they travel to Buffalo to face the Sabres at 7:30pm.
