Special teams has often been a key area of focus when noticing the talent gap between the Flyers and other teams around the league. Even for a team riding its first five-game losing streak in nearly a decade, that was a recipe for success.
The Tampa Bay Lightning scored three power-play goals in the game, pacing the way to a 5-2 loss for the Flyers on Tuesday night.
The Flyers opened the scoring at 5:52 of the first. Off a rush, Joel Farabee set up Morgan Frost for his 12th goal of the season to make it 1-0.
The Lightning answered back quickly on a power play at 7:38. A slap-pass by Nikita Kucherov was right on the money to Alex Killorn for his 18th goal of the season to even things up at one.
Through 20 minutes, shots were 15-7 Tampa Bay.
The Lightning had a power play carry into the second period, and just 34 seconds in, they capitalized. This time, Kucherov fired a one-timer that beat Carter Hart to make it 2-1 Tampa Bay.
Tampa continued to carry the play into the middle of the period. At 8:46, Ross Colton was able to take the puck to the net between two Flyers defenders and score his 15th goal of the season to make it 3-1.
Just over two minutes later, at 10:49, Killorn scored his second of the game, taking advantage of a turnover as Hart fell behind the net.
The Flyers got one goal back at 12:40 as Cam York fired a shot that was deflected by Brendan Lemieux and past Andrei Vasilevskiy to make it 4-2.
Through two periods, shots were 26-23 Tampa Bay.
The Lightning kept the pressure on in the third, out-shooting the Flyers, 13-12, in the final 20 minutes.
As the Flyers were pulling the goalie, Tony DeAngelo was assessed a major penalty and game misconduct for spearing Corey Perry. That gave the Lightning a five-minute power play for the remainder of the game. Kucherov scored during the power play for his second of the game to cap the scoring.
Vasilevskiy made 33 saves on 35 shots in the win. Hart made 34 saves on 39 shots in the loss.
Killorn and Kucherov each had three points in the win. Mikhail Sergachev had two assists as well.
The Flyers are back on the ice on Thursday night to take on the Carolina Hurricanes at 7 p.m.
Box Score
| 1 | 2 | 3 | T | |
| Flyers | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Hurricanes | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Scoring Summary
1st Period
- CAR Andrei Svechnikov (23) PP (Martin Necas, Brent Burns) 2:09
2nd Period
- No Scoring
3rd Period
- No Scoring
Game Statistics
| Flyers | Hurricanes | |
| Shots | 19 | 29 |
| Power Play | 0/1 | 1/4 |
| Hits | 21 | 8 |
| Faceoff % | 37.0% | 63.0% |
| Giveaways | 8 | 23 |
| Takeaways | 6 | 10 |
| Blocked Shots | 22 | 6 |
| Penalty Minutes | 10 | 4 |
