Flyers fight back late but come up just short in 4-3 loss to the Maple Leafs

TORONTO — With the youth of Toronto cheering them on, the Toronto Maple Leafs took down the Flyers, 4-3, in their “Next Gen” game on Thursday afternoon.

The game, which started at 2 p.m., featured the next generation of hockey fans in every aspect of the game, from the jerseys to the DJ to the dance team. It also featured the next generation of NHL players. Between the two teams, there were 19 players who are 25 or younger. One of those, the Flyers’ Morgan Frost, once was one of the kids in the crowd cheering on the Maple Leafs as his father announced the games.

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However, until the final minutes, it was the veterans who stepped up and showed the kids how it’s done.

Tony DeAngelo, 27, got the Flyers on the board first with a first-period power-play goal. James van Riemsdyk, 33, and Kevin Hayes, 30, registered the assists on the goal.

When the Maple Leafs tied it in the second, just after a power play expired, it was Calle Järnkrok, 31, who tipped home a point shot from Mitch Marner. Marner, one of only two Maple Leafs 25 years old or under to score a goal or assist, scored the next goal, and veteran John Tavares, 32, got the assist.

The Maple Leafs’ third goal came when William Nylander, 26, and Auston Matthews, 25, assisted 27-year-old Michael Bunting, who beat Carter Hart with a quick one-timer. Their fourth, scored by Nylander and assisted by Mark Giordano (39) and Justin Holl (30), was the Leafs’ oldest combination.

But with the Flyers down, 4-1, DeAngelo and Travis Konecny, 25, connected with the 23-year-old Frost for a breakaway goal in the third period.

“It’s really special for me. A lot of memories for me here,” Frost said of scoring a goal at home.

Just over a minute later, Joel Farabee, 22, scored to bring the Flyers within one. They pushed on from there, but despite a few near misses on golden opportunities, they were ultimately unable to find a late tying goal. Coach John Tortorella said after the game that he didn’t see enough from the Flyers’ top players in terms of generating chances.

“I thought our offensive guys struggled through a lot of the game, but they came alive at the end,” Tortorella said.

The Flyers came into the game with a 15.6% success rate on the power play, the third-worst in the league. DeAngelo’s power-play goal was the Flyers’ first in three games and seven power plays. The Flyers failed to build on that early tally, going 0-for-3 with the man advantage the rest of the way. Tortorella wasn’t happy with the power plays after the opening goal, saying the team struggled to get it set up and calling a failed five-on-three opportunity in the third period “frustrating.”

DeAngelo’s goal was his first in three games and more significantly his first goal since before Tortorella scratched him on Dec. 9 against the Vegas Golden Knights. The benching snapped his four-game point streak. When DeAngelo returned, Tortorella said he thought the defenseman looked rusty, and he failed to register a point for the next two games. The goal marked his first point since the Dec. 7 game against the Washington Capitals and his first goal since his power-play tally against the Colorado Avalanche on Dec. 5.

Hart once again stood on his head to give his outplayed team a chance. Early on, his teammates controlled the pace of play and had longer offensive possessions. However, they failed to create scoring opportunities. For more than nine minutes, their only shot on goal was DeAngelo’s goal.

The Maple Leafs more than tripled the Flyers’ shot count through two periods (26-7). In addition to the initial shots, Hart also had to stop rebound attempts because his teammates weren’t clearing the puck out of the danger zone.

Once the Maple Leafs got into a rhythm late in the second period, they peppered Hart with even more shots. He made some big saves (30 saves on 34 shots overall), but he couldn’t stop every high-danger chance his teammates gave up as the Leafs scored twice in the final four minutes of the second period to pull ahead.

When Farabee was called for a delayed penalty for holding against Matthews, the Maple Leafs still had the puck on their sticks. And they kept it there. By the time the play was whistled dead and the Maple Leafs’ power play actually started, the Flyers had already been shorthanded for more than a minute and 30 seconds.

The Flyers had rendered the Maple Leafs’ power play ineffective on its first two opportunities. While they technically killed this penalty, they let up a goal the second it ended. That goal tied the game, but it spelled the end for the Flyers.

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Already tired, they had to kill another power play five minutes later when Rasmus Ristolainen was whistled for holding. The four players out there had weary legs and weren’t able to get out to Marner at the point. Marner’s shot trickled through Hart and gave the Leafs a 2-1 lead entering the third period. With the momentum from the power plays, the Maple Leafs were able to assert their dominance from there.

“I think that killed us,” Frost said. “Their power play is obviously really special. I thought we were playing a really good game up until that part in the second.”

The Flyers found a late burst of energy at the end, but it was too late as the long stretches when they were dominated proved to be their downfall. Despite the late comeback effort, the Flyers didn’t want to talk about moral victories following the loss.

“It doesn’t really mean much,” Farabee said of scoring in defeat. “I’d rather not score the rest of the year and win every game than score every game and lose.”

The Flyers head to Raleigh, N.C., to play the Carolina Hurricanes at 7 p.m. Friday in their last game before the holiday break.