Flyers Suffer 3rd Straight Loss to Devils

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

The New Jersey Devils entered Sunday's opener of a four-game series with the Flyers on a nine-game winless streak. They had their sights set on snapping that streak when two goals by Claude Giroux in the final two minutes of regulation forced overtime and eventually a shootout win for the Flyers.

But the Devils were closing in on that elusive victory. Not only did they snap their streak on Tuesday, but they followed it up with another win on Thursday. On Saturday, in the series finale, the Devils finished off the series win, cruising to a 4-0 shutout win over the Flyers at Wells Fargo Center.

The Devils got off to a good start and managed the first goal of the game. At the five-minute mark of the period, Jesper Bratt took a shot from a distance and beat Brian Elliott to make it 1-0 with his seventh goal of the season.

The Flyers thought they had a tying goal midway through the period. Scott Laughton pushed the puck into the slot and it went off of Yegor Sharangovich and through the legs of Mackenzie Blackwood. The official signaled goal, but upon review, the puck never crossed the goal line and the game remained tied.

From there, the Flyers held the better of the play, taking nine of the last 10 shots in the period, but trailed by one after 20 minutes. The Flyers had a 9-5 lead in shots after the first period.

Just 52 seconds into the second period, the Devils were on the board again. Jack Hughes got the puck across to Janne Kuokkanen for a one-timer, and he fired it home to make it 2-0.

The Flyers again had the higher shot total in the period, finishing with a 17-9 lead, but they were held off the board again. 

The Flyers got a power play less than five minutes into the third, but it was a nice play by Nico Hischier that set up a goal. Hischier stole the puck along the boards to create a two-on-one, then beat Elliott for the shorthanded goal, his sixth of the season. 

With 5:01 to play, the Devils put the icing on the cake as Sharangovich scored from the slot. The Flyers got on the board with 1:18 left on a goal by Joel Farabee.

Blackwood made 31 saves in the win. Elliott made 17 saves on 21 shots in the loss.

The Flyers are back on home ice on Monday to start a back-to-back with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Game time is 7 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• NJ Jesper Bratt (7) (Pavel Zacha, Kevin Bahl) 5:00

2nd Period

• NJ Janne Kuokkanen (7) (Jack Hughes, Yegor Sharangovich) 0:52

3rd Period

• NJ Nico Hischier (6) SH (Unassisted) 5:14
• NJ Sharangovich (15) (Hughes) 14:59
• PHI Joel Farabee (16) (Shayne Gostisbehere, Nicolas Aube-Kubel) 18:42

Game Statistics