Flyers Lose 2 More Forwards in Loss to Minnesota

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

The Flyers entered Saturday's game in Minnesota with heavy hearts over the news of Oskar Lindblom's diagnosis with Ewing's sarcoma and a shorthanded lineup with Travis Konecny still out with injury in addition to Michael Raffl. By game's end, they were down two more regular forwards.

Scott Laughton and Tyler Pitlick each played less than six minutes before exiting the game with injury, leaving the Flyers with just 10 healthy forwards.

An early goal was not nearly enough to jumpstart the Flyers, who quickly fell behind and never recovered in a 4-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night.

The Flyers got on the board right away. Just 1:34 left into the game, the Flyers got the game's first goal as James van Riemsdyk finished on a two-on-one to make it 1-0.

The Wild answered back at 6:16. Ryan Donato fed Kevin Fiala with a pass and Fiala went below the goal line, getting Carter Hart out of position. Fiala put a wraparound in front and it hit off Zach Parise and went in to tie the game at one.

Just 1:45 later, Eric Staal was able to collect his own rebound at the side of the net and finish to make it 2-1.

Minnesota outshot the Flyers, 7-5, in the opening 20 minutes.

The second period has commonly been the Flyers best period in most games. In this second period, the Flyers only managed three shots on goal and saw the deficit get deeper. Staal scored his second of the game, getting a rebound chance and knocking it in off of Hart and across the goal line.

The Flyers started to generate more chances in the third, more than doubling their shot total with 10 shots in the period. Minnesota did not let up, taking 13 shots in the period and scoring into an empty net to seal the victory with 2:14 remaining. Carson Soucy got the goal that ultimately put the Flyers away.

The Flyers were 0-for-3 on the power play. A lone bright spot of the game was the Flyers penalty kill, which went 5-for-5. 

Hart finished the game with 24 saves in the loss. Alex Stalock made 17 saves in the win.

It's a quick turnaround for the Flyers, who will likely need to get reinforcements from the minors for their final game of a three-game road trip on Sunday. They take on the Winnipeg Jets with the game set to start at 5 p.m.

Box Score

  1 2 3 T
Flyers 1 0 0 1
Wild 2 1 1 4

Scoring Summary

1st Period

  • PHI James van Riemsdyk (7) (Morgan Frost) 1:34
  • MIN Zach Parise (13) (Kevin Fiala, Ryan Donato) 6:16
  • MIN Eric Staal (10) (Jonas Brodin, Ryan Suter) 7:51

2nd Period

  • MIN Staal (11) (Unassisted) 9:47

3rd Period

  • MIN Carson Soucy (4) EN (Brodin) 17:46

Game Statistics

  Flyers Wild
Shots 18 28
Power Plays 0/3 0/5
Hits 10 6
Faceoff % 60.8% 39.2%
Giveaways 2 4
Takeaways 3 4
Blocked Shots 4 14
Penalty Minutes 15 11
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