Flyers’ point streak ends with 4-2 loss to Nashville Predators

This game had it all.

Goals. Saves. Five-minute major. An overturned goal.

Just nine days after the Flyers and Nashville Predators met up down south in a wild affair that saw the Orange and Black battle back from a 2-0 hole before losing in overtime, the two teams faced off again at the Wells Fargo Center. This time, the Flyers lost 4-2 in regulation after Philip Tomasino scored with 4:01 remaining on the clock to break the 2-2 stalemate. Nashville then padded its lead with an empty-net goal by Gustav Nyquist. The loss saw the Flyers’ point streak end at nine.

It was a different style of game from the last time, as the Flyers came out, well, flying. They took an early lead and seemed to hold it steady until the Predators tied things up in the second period. The Flyers again took a lead, but couldn’t maintain the pace as the Predators fought back, forechecked hard and withstood a barrage of Flyers shot attempts in the waning minutes.

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But the game was also disjointed with nine power plays, five for the Predators and four for the Flyers. Natural Stat Trick listed the five-on-five time for the second period at just 7 minutes and 50 seconds. Morgan Frost said it “took the wind out of our sails.” Coach John Tortorella called it an “ugly game.”

“Both teams had good minutes, both teams had bad minutes,” Tortorella said. “Comes down to the end as far as situational play. We’re going to have to learn, and this is a part of our game that I think we need to get better at, because we have turned our team around into a more transition-type team, but we’re going to have to forecheck sometimes.”

The Flyers have some bangers in guys like Nic Deslauriers, Garnet Hathaway, and Owen Tippett. But there’s a reason the Predators entered the game as the No. 1 team when it comes to hits at 705. The Flyers had 528.

“Stubbornness. It’s stubbornness. Nashville, they checked,” Tortorella said. “They gave us a clinic on checking. And we were talking about it. All of us were talking about it all game long, we have to get it in deep. We have to get it in clean; they’re not opening up. ... It’s a lesson that we learned.

“This team is going to have to forecheck. When this league gets going at the end of Christmas, after the holiday, that’s when the grind starts coming in. If we think we’re going to be this high-flying transition team, spread, stretching, and not forechecking, we’re in a for a rude awakening and we found that out tonight.”

Standing in the hallway outside the visitors’ locker room in Newark, N.J., Frost said that despite the early season struggles, and being in and out of the lineup, he still has to play his game by playing free and having fun. He potted 19 last year and had only put three in this season, but there is no one you’ll find with a bigger smile on and off the ice.

On Thursday he was grinning ear-to-ear when the puck luck came his way just 91 seconds into the game. Rushing down the right side, he tried to find Bobby Brink cutting to the net, but the pass was too far in front of the winger. Brink got the puck in the left corner and played it behind the net, where it popped off Frost’s skate and went into the net off the back of Juuse Saros.

“No, not really,” Frost said when asked if he’d ever seen a goal scored that way. “I could kind of tell once it went in the air that it looked like it had a chance but, obviously, very fortunate there.”

But while he was surely happy with a goal that broke an eight-game drought, Frost agreed with Tortorella that the Flyers needed to do more.

“I’d have to rewatch the game, to be honest, but, yeah, it just kind of seemed like where we were dumping it, we weren’t getting to pucks first too often,” he said. “I don’t think we had our best game throughout the neutral zone and when you do that, and turn pucks over, and don’t chip it to speed, it’s harder to control the game. I think we still kept ourselves in the game and had some chances and still could have won the game. ... But yeah, it’s hard to win when you don’t have the puck that much.”

You’d have to figure all the Flyers want for Christmas is a working power play. Well, they got it to work — before it short-circuited again.

Frost was once again a key cog on the Flyers second goal of the night. After the puck was dropped in the right faceoff circle, Frost sneaked in to take the loose puck from under Sean Couturier, but he was unable to get off a good shot. Instead, Yakov Trenin poked it up to Couturier in the slot, who waited out Saros before scoring five-hole.

It seemed that maybe, just maybe, the Flyers power play was righting itself by scoring on the thirdopportunity of the game and snapping an 0-for-17 stretch.

But when they had their next chance, the power play went cold again. In the second, Frost was crushed from behind hard into the glass by Trenin. He was originally assessed a two-minute minor for an illegal check to the head, before a long review changed it to a five-minute major for boarding and a game misconduct.

Before Cam Atkinson took a slashing call with 1:26 left in the power play, the Flyers had three shots on goal, three missed shots and two more blocked. In the end, the Flyers went 1-for-4 with the man advantage.

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He may have allowed three goals, but Sam Ersson was once again on his game as he made 27 saves.

Facing an onslaught of shots from high-danger areas, Ersson made several key stops. He did allow one from 15 feet out by Cole Smith as he streaked down the right side while shorthanded to tie things at 1-1, and another to Tomasino who tucked it around a stretched-out Ersson.

Tomasino scored again with 4:01 left on the clock with a snapshot from the left circle after Sean Walker carried the puck up and had his pocket picked. The Predators forward then held off Cam Atkinson before getting it back to give the Predators a 3-2 lead. A puck also got behind Ersson on a Ryan O’Reilly tip, but it was immediately waved off and a video review confirmed it was a high stick.

But the reason the Flyers even had a chance in this one was the netminder who has been feeling more and more comfortable and confident in net. Making his fifth start in a row, the Swedish goalie — who entered the game 3-0-1 in his past four — has shown he can come up big in games while also carrying the workload.

“Sam’s played very well, played well again tonight,” Tortorella said. “He has grown as a goalie.”

Ersson added: “I feel like I’m in good shape, and I think it’s very fun to play. You get energy from the game, and especially getting a couple of wins has been huge for my confidence and just energy-wise as well.”

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After missing Tuesday’s game due to illness, Carter Hart participated in morning skate and backed up Ersson against the Predators. Cal Petersen, who also participated in morning skate, was recalled on Thursday before the game. ... Marc Staal was back in the lineup on defense with Egor Zamula a healthy scratch. ... Head athletic trainer Tommy Alva was honored for his 1,500th NHL game.

The Flyers go wheels up after the game and head to Hockeytown for a rematch with the Detroit Red Wings (7 p.m. on NBCSP+).