Flyers Rally to Force OT, Fall to Seattle in Shootout

Things looked bleak for the Philadelphia Flyers after 40 minutes on Tuesday night. Another 2-0 deficit. An eighth-straight loss, and fifth straight in regulation, loomed. But it was far from a crisp game for the Seattle Kraken, and that allowed the Flyers to eventually chip away and get the game tied.

But after a bench minor in overtime, the Flyers never had time to utilize the 3-on-3 and didn't completely find their shootout mojo from a season ago. Seattle claimed the win in the skills competition, and the Flyers remained winless with a 3-2 defeat at Xfinity Mobile Arena.

How It Happened

The Kraken opened the scoring at 7:57 with a power-play goal. A bouncing puck was corralled and fired home by Bobby McMann for his third goal of the season to make it 1-0.

Through 20 minutes, shots were even, 6-6.

Seattle extended the lead at 8:54 of the second. Ville Ottavainen scored his first NHL, finding open space in the high slot and firing it through a crowd to make it 2-0.

Through two periods, shots were 18-16 Flyers.

The Flyers finally got on the board at 6:07 of the third. Oliver Bonk made a slow cross-ice pass that went through Tyson Foerster and over to Christian Dvorak, who scored his second goal of the season to make it 2-1.

Just over a minute later at 4-on-4, Travis Sanheim set up Trevor Zegras for the game-tying goal at 7:20.

At the end of regulation, shots were even at 26.

The Flyers killed off a bench minor penalty in overtime, eventually leading to a shootout.

Matty Beniers and Matvei Michkov scored in the first two rounds to even things up in the shootout. In the fifth round, McMann scored the game-winner to hand the Flyers another loss.

Box Score

1st Period

SEA Bobby McMann (3) PP (Jordan Eberle, Chandler Stephenson) 7:57

2nd Period

SEA Ville Ottavainen (1) (Mackie Samoskevich, Josh Mahura) 8:54

3rd Period

PHI Christian Dvorak (2) (Oliver Bonk, Dan Vladar) 6:07
PHI Trevor Zegras (1) (Travis Sanheim, Owen Tippett) 7:20

Overtime

No Scoring

Shootout

PHI Trevor Zegras - Save
SEA Matty Beniers - Goal
PHI Matvei Michkov - Goal
SEA Berkly Catton - Save
PHI Tyson Foerster - Save
SEA Frederick Gaudreau - Miss
PHI Porter Martone - Save
SEA Mackie Samoskevich - Save
PHI Denver Barkey - Save
SEA Bobby McMann - Goal

By the Numbers

Shots: Flyers: 26, Kraken: 31
Power Play: Flyers: 0-for-3, Kraken: 1-for-5
Faceoffs: Flyers: 55.4%, Kraken: 44.6%
Goalies: PHI Dan Vladar: 29 saves on 31 shots, SEA Philipp Grubauer: 24 saves on 26 shots

Key Performers

⭐ Bobby McMann — Opened the scoring with his third goal of the season, then delivered the heroics with the shootout winner.

⭐⭐ Trevor Zegras — He was engaged throughout, getting physical with Grubauer and finally getting on the board with his first goal of the season.

⭐⭐⭐ Philipp Grubauer — For most of the night, Grubauer had all the answers. The Flyers solved him twice in the third, but Grubauer handled business in the shootout to secure the win.

The Takeaway

There were some positives, like the fact that the Flyers didn't just roll over in this one. But there was plenty that show this is nowhere near over.

Perhaps it would have been better for the Flyers to secure the shootout win, get in the win column in some fashion, and be able to take that off their shoulders. Instead, they get to sit with another game with less than three goals. They get another game where had things been crisper, had there been more zone time, more pucks to the net, more quality chances, maybe this one is different.

Instead, the season-long slide has reached eight games, and despite getting a point in the standings, usually a moral victory in October, there's no reason to look at it with any sort of satisfaction.