Flyers Allow 5 in 1st, Fall in Rout to Blues

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

If Tuesday's slow start in Dallas wasn't enough, the Flyers found a way to out-do themselves in their final road game of the 2018-19 season.

In total, eight goals were scored in the first period between the two teams, including seven in the first 9:41 of the game, as the Flyers fell into a 5-2 deficit by the midpoint of the first period on the way to a 7-3 defeat to the Blues on Thursday night.

Like Tuesday, the Flyers gave up the first goal in the first three minutes of the game with Ivan Barbashev batting his own rebound out of the air to make it 1-0 just 2:49 into the game. 

On a power play seconds later, Ryan O'Reilly finished off a tic-tac-toe passing play to make it 2-0 at 3:28.

The Flyers got a power play moments later but the Blues kept piling on, as Alexander Steen scored shorthanded to make it 3-0 at 5:33.

The Flyers got on the board at 6:45 with Oskar Lindblom tapping in a goal, but just 13 seconds later Patrick Maroon scored to restore the three-goal lead.

That fourth goal for St. Louis marked the end of Brian Elliott's night. He allowed four goals on five shots.

James van Riemsdyk scored his 27th goal of the season by knocking a puck out of the air at 7:24 to cut the lead to two. The Blues got the three-goal lead back on the power play with David Perron beating Carter Hart. 

Claude Giroux scored his 22nd goal of the season in the final minute of the period to make it 5-3.

The Blues scored the only two goals of the final two periods. Brayden Schenn scored on a rebound to make it 6-3 with 6:54 left in the second period. Steen scored his second of the game on a nice backhand with 9:26 remaining in the third.

Hart finished the game with 27 saves on 30 shots in relief. Jordan Binnington made 26 saves on 29 shots.

Alex Pietrangelo finished with three assists. Steen had two goals and an assist. Schenn, Barbashev, Perron and Vladimir Tarasenko each had two-point games. 

The Flyers close out the 2018-19 season on Saturday night when they host the Carolina Hurricanes at 7 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• STL Ivan Barbashev (14) (Alexander Steen, Alex Pietrangelo) 2:49
• STL Ryan O'Reilly (28) PP (David Perron, Brayden Schenn) 3:28
• STL Steen (9) SH (Oskar Sundqvist, Pietrangelo) 5:33
• PHI Oskar Lindblom (16) (Ryan Hartman, Scott Laughton) 6:45
• STL Patrick Maroon (10) (Tyler Bozak, Robert Thomas) 6:58
• PHI James van Riemsdyk (27) (Unassisted) 7:24
• STL Perron (23) PP (Pietrangelo, Vladimir Tarasenko) 9:41
• PHI Claude Giroux (22) (Sean Couturier, van Riemsdyk) 19:17

2nd Period

• STL Schenn (16) (Vince Dunn, Tarasenko) 13:06

3rd Period

• STL Steen (10) (Barbashev) 10:34

Game Statistics