Resilience has always been a key part of the Flyers identity this season. On Sunday afternoon, they were handed a dose of it from the opposition.
Despite holding 2-0 and 3-1 leads during the game, the Flyers allowed four unanswered goals to the Ottawa Senators, including three in the third period, to fall by a score of 5-3 at Wells Fargo Center.
After a sleepy start to the period, the Flyers took the lead on the power play on a strange goal. A shot by Joel Farabee deflected toward the net and the rebound popped high in the air to the opposite side of the ice. As a scrum broke out at the side of the net, Egor Zamula spotted the loose puck and fired into an open net for his fourth goal of the season to make it 1-0 at 11:57.
Less than five minutes later at 16:40, Zamula struck again for his second goal of the game, firing a wrist shot to the glove side of Mads Sogaard to make it 2-0.
Through 20 minutes, shots were 8-8.
The Senators got on the board at 4:04 of the second. A turnover at the offensive blue line by Zamula led to a breakaway for Zack MacEwen, who went upstairs with the shot to beat Sam Ersson and make it 2-1 with his second goal of the season.
The Flyers regained the two-goal lead at 10:50 of the second period with another power play goal. This time, Zamula set up Farabee for the goal, a laser off the post and in to make it 3-1 on Farabee’s 17th of the season.
The Senators answered back just 55 seconds later. On a delayed penalty call, Tim Stutzle was able to knock the puck home out of a netmouth scramble, cutting the lead back to one.
Through two periods, shots were 20-17 Ottawa.
Just 3:19 into the third period, the Senators turned a dominant shift into the tying goal. Claude Giroux was around the net to put home a rebound and make it a 3-3 game with his 14th goal of the season.
Ottawa continued to dominate the period from there. They finally grabbed their first lead of the afternoon off another Flyers turnover. Nick Seeler‘s bad pass allowed Mathieu Joseph to move ahead on a two-on-one. Joseph set up Vladimir Tarasenko for the one-timer, scoring his 12th goal of the season to make it 4-3 with 4:53 to play.
Stutzle iced the game with an empty-netter with 1:23 to play for his second of the game and 10th of the season.
Sogaard made 22 saves on 25 shots in the win. Ersson made 29 saves on 33 shots in the loss.
Both Zamula and Farabee had three-point games for the Flyers.
The Flyers close out the four-game homestand on Tuesday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning at 7 p.m.
Box Score
| 1 | 2 | 3 | T | |
| Senators | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| Flyers | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
Scoring Summary
1st Period
- PHI Egor Zamula (4) PP (Joel Farabee, Cam York) 11:57
- PHI Zamula (5) (Farabee, Cam Atkinson) 16:40
2nd Period
- OTT Zack MacEwen (2) (Unassisted) 4:04
- PHI Farabee (17) PP (Zamula, Travis Konecny) 10:50
- OTT Tim Stutzle (9) (Shane Pinto, Thomas Chabot) 11:45
3rd Period
- OTT Claude Giroux (14) (Brady Tkachuk, Jacob Bernard-Docker) 3:19
- OTT Vladimir Tarasenko (12) (Mathieu Joseph) 15:07
- OTT Stutzle (10) EN (Jakob Chychrun) 18:37
Game Statistics
| Senators | Flyers | |
| Shots | 34 | 25 |
| Power Play | 0/3 | 2/4 |
| Hits | 16 | 19 |
| Faceoff % | 62% | 38% |
| Giveaways | 4 | 1 |
| Takeaways | 6 | 5 |
| Blocked Shots | 18 | 12 |
| Penalty Minutes | 8 | 6 |
