The Flyers will be happy to be done with the Lightning this season.
They were outclassed by Tampa Bay again in a 5-1 loss Monday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Christian Dvorak provided the Flyers’ lone goal when the Lightning already had a 3-0 lead.
The Flyers (22-14-8) couldn’t rebound from their worst loss of the season, a 7-2 drubbing right here two days ago to this same Tampa Bay team.
Rick Tocchet’s club has dropped consecutive games in regulation for just the second time. The Flyers are now 9-2-2 in games following a regulation loss.
A banged-up Travis Konecny returned to the lineup after he missed his first game of the season with an upper-body injury. Konecny, though, is now dealing with a lower-body injury after he took a puck to his knee Sunday at practice.
It didn’t keep him out Monday night. His game ended early with 9:24 minutes left in the third period when he was tossed for “abuse of officials” after being whistled for crosschecking.
The Lightning (28-13-3) are on an absolutely torrid stretch in which they’ve scored five goals per game over 10 straight wins.
The Flyers were swept in their three-game regular-season series with Tampa Bay and were outscored 15-3.
• Dan Vladar could do only so much for the Flyers.
He wasn’t at his best, but he really wasn’t a problem. The 28-year-old finished with 21 saves on 25 shots.
The Lightning’s final goal was an empty-netter.
The Flyers fell behind 1-0 for the 30th time. Tampa Bay’s game-opening goal came just 1:10 minutes into the action when the Flyers couldn’t locate a loose puck at the feet of Pontus Holmberg.
Then, only 33 seconds into the middle stanza, Erik Cernak’s shot went off Jake Guentzel and past Vladar. Not even four minutes later, Brayden Point padded the Lightning’s lead to 3-0 on the power play. Vladar made the initial save on Point, but he had little to no chance at stopping the next shot off the rebound.
Dvorak stemmed the tide for the Flyers with a goal. The Flyers had a chance to trim the deficit to 3-2 with a couple of power plays, but they didn’t record a shot on either one.
Tampa Bay took advantage, extending its lead back to three with another power play goal in the final minute of the second period.
Lightning netminder Jonas Johansson stopped 19 of the Flyers’ 20 shots.
• Matvei Michkov was held without a point.
Since the start of December, the 21-year-old winger has just one goal — an empty-netter — in 19 games. Michkov has eight assists over that span, but the Flyers could really use his goal-scoring ability.
It just hasn’t been there right now.
• Rodrigo Abols and Nikita Grebenkin both dropped the gloves for the Flyers simultaneously in the third period.
It wasn’t a donnybrook, but close to it. Nikita Grebenkin and Max Crozier got game misconducts after their fight, while Rodrigo Abols and Nick Paul got five minutes for fighting.
• The Flyers are back in action Wednesday when they visit the Sabres (7:30 p.m. ET/TNT).