Tarasenko, Blues Hand Flyers 6th Straight Loss

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

The Flyers had the game tied against the St. Louis Blues with 11:51 to play in the third period. They were once again involved in a tight game against a clearly superior opponent. 

The tie game lasted just 42 seconds. The Blues got the lead back on a goal by Vladimir Tarasenko and held things down the rest of the way in a 4-1 defeat for the Flyers on Tuesday night at Wells Fargo Center for their sixth straight loss.

Both teams came out with quality chances to start, but the Blues kept the pressure on for longer. With 8:10 remaining in the first period, they finally struck.

A shot went off the post and a rebound chance was stopped by a sprawling Martin Jones. The third chance came to Brayden Schenn, who went upstairs and scored his 15th goal of the season to make it 1-0 St. Louis.

Through 20 minutes, shots were even, 10-10.

The Blues kept the pressure on early in the second, opening up a 17-14 lead in shots. Things evened out from there, as both teams got power-play opportunities, but could not score. Through 40 minutes, the Blues had a 21-17 lead in shots.

The Flyers did not score on their remaining power play time to start the third, but they did keep the pressure on and finally solved Jordan Binnington at 8:09.

After nearly scoring off a rush earlier in the period, Oskar Lindblom fired a shot that made its way through for his eighth goal of the season.

But just 42 seconds later, the Flyers gave it right back. Tarasenko scored the go-ahead goal with 11:09 remaining in the third for his 19th of the season.

The Flyers could not score on a late power play and had a deflected chance stopped by Binnington in the final three minutes of play. The Blues scored two empty-net goals from there, the first by Ivan Barbashev and a second from Brandon Saad to ice the game. 

Binnington made 25 saves in the win. Jones made 22 saves on 24 shots in the loss.

Barbashev had a goal and an assist. Niko Mikkola had two assists.

The Flyers return to the ice next on Saturday afternoon to face the Washington Capitals at 12:30 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• STL Brayden Schenn (15) (Ivan Barbashev, Jordan Kyrou) 11:50

2nd Period

• No Scoring

3rd Period

• PHI Oskar Lindblom (8) (Travis Sanheim, Travis Konecny) 8:09
• STL Vladimir Tarasenko (19) (Robert Thomas, Niko Mikkola) 8:51
• STL Barbashev (16) EN (Oskar Sundqvist, Mikkola) 19:07
• STL Brandon Saad (17) EN (Unassisted) 19:53

Game Statistics