Flyers blow lead and fall to Boston, 5-4, in shootout; Jake Voracek reaches milestone

After an awful start, the Flyers seemed to find their game in the second period Thursday night at TD Garden, only to revert to their earlier form.

As a result, they blew a 2-0 third-period lead and ruined a milestone night for Jake Voracek, falling to the Boston Bruins, 5-4, in a shootout that was won on Jake DeBrusk’s goal.

The Flyers, who went 0-for-3 on their shootout attempts, allowed four third-period goals as they slipped to 3-1-1.

With 4 minutes, 42 seconds remaining in regulation, Brandon Carlo scored on a one-time blast from above the left circle to put the Bruins ahead for the first time in the game, 4-3. But the Flyers knotted it on a power-play goal by James van Riemsdyk with 3:32 left.

Boston’s Tuukka Rask made great point-blank saves to stop Voracek and Kevin Hayes in the overtime.

Voracek collected three assists and van Riemsdyk scored a pair of goals, but it wasn’t enough to propel the Flyers past the Bruins (2-1-1) in their first road game of the season.

The Flyers also got goals from Claude Giroux and Travis Sanheim.

“We gave the puck away too much in the third,” said Voracek, whose team was outshot, 43-26, including 22-10 in the third period. “We allowed them in the game instead of just playing our game. ... The effort was there. We battled really hard, but we should have put the game away in overtime. We had three or four Grade-A chances and, unfortunately, Rask stopped them.”

Voracek collected the 699th, 700th, and 701st points of his career, and he moved into fifth place on the franchise’s all-time assists list with 398 as he passed the great Mark Recchi.

Boston, playing its home opener, tied it at 3-3 as Nick Ritchie converted a Patrice Bergeron pass into a power-play goal with 6:38 left in regulation. Scott Laughton was in the penalty box for cross-checking.

The Flyers lost the services of rookie defenseman Mark Friedman, who got tangled with Brad Marchand and appeared to hit his face on the ice midway through the second period. He went to the locker room for repairs and did not return. After the game, coach Alain Vigneault said Friedman was “fine” and that he was held out for precautionary reasons.

The teams will meet again Saturday in Boston.

Friedman became the fourth Flyer injured in the first five games, joining Sean Couturier, Phil Myers, and Morgan Frost.

Sanheim joined the rush and charged the net and was in great position as Voracek’s pass/shot deflected off his skate and into the net to snap a 2-2 tie with 12:47 left in regulation.

The Bruins had tied it at 2-2 with two goals 69 seconds apart early in the third, getting tallies from .Jack Studnicka (first of his career) and Charlie Coyle.

After a sleepy first period in which the Flyers were thoroughly dominated, the Flyers took a 1-0 lead on Giroux’s first goal of the season, a power-play tally with 13:43 remaining in the second.

A few seconds after Voracek drilled a shot off the crossbar, Giroux beat Rask with a top-shelf, left-circle blast as Travis Konecny distracted the goaltender in front. The goal ended an 0-for-8 power-play skid.

“I closed my eyes and shot the puck,” Giroux kidded. “I just saw TK in front and tried to get it to the net. Sometimes when you keep it simple, things can open up after that, and it was able to go in there.”

Van Riemsdyk, stationed down low, converted a slick one-time pass from Voracek to make it 2-0 with 2:29 to go in the second.

In the first period, the Flyers sat back, had virtually no offensive-zone time, won just 24% of the face-offs, and were outshot, 14-3.

But because Carter Hart was flawless, they left the ice in a scoreless tie.

It was a good sign because Hart’s road numbers last season were sore on the eyes: a 4-10-2 record with a 3.81 goals-against average and .857 save percentage. (At home, he was brilliant: a 20-3-2 record with a 1.63 GAA and .943 save percentage.)

Boston, which was playing without David Pastrnak, their star right winger who is recovering from hip surgery, had not scored an even-strength goal this season until Studnicka struck early in the third period.

The Flyers have allowed 30-plus shots in five straight games. That didn’t happen at any time last season, when Matt Niskanen was on the top pairing. Niskanen retired after the season.

“Obviously, we need to tighten up defensively here,” Vigneault said. “Those are areas we’ll continue to work on and I’m confident we’re going to improve.”

Ivan Provorov played a career-high 30:46 and had five blocks and three hits. ... Nolan Patrick won 10 of 12 faceoffs (83.3%); the rest of the team won just 13 of 50. (26%). The Flyers won 37.1% of the faceoffs, marking just the sixth time in the last eight seasons they were below 37.5%. ... Friedman’s absence over the last 35 minutes caused most of the defensemen’s minutes to rise. ... The Flyers allowed four third-period goals for the first time in nearly two years. Prior to that, they had not allowed a goal in 102:08. ... Vigneault liked the energy and physicality provided by fourth-line center Connor Bunnaman, who made his season debut and played 11:15