SALT LAKE CITY — The wire metal laundry bin in the center of the visitors dressing room at Delta Center was filled to the brim with orange-and-black Philadelphia Flyers road jerseys after their 5-4 overtime loss to the Utah Mammoth on Wednesday.

One was still missing. The No. 19 sweater worn by Garnet Hathaway was still draped on the veteran forward’s back as he sat and steamed in his stall well after his teammates had already hit the showers.

There are a few reasons the Flyers, who led 4-2 after two periods, lost in heartbreaking fashion. Trevor Zegras was robbed by the glove of goalie Karel Vejmelka about four minutes into the third period. Owen Tippett rang a shot off the post a minute after that. Noah Juulsen’s ill-timed roughing penalty gave the Mammoth a power play that they capitalized on to make it 4-3 with 6:13 left in regulation. Goalie Sam Ersson couldn’t come up with enough saves on stoppable pucks including when he was too deep in his net on Clayton Keller’s tying goal at 19:25 after the winger zipped around Travis Sanheim. In overtime, the Flyers couldn’t sort out a backcheck, resulting in Keller’s game winner 2:01 into the extra session.

But no one will remember any of that in a few days or even a few hours. Hathaway’s getting caught and stripped of the puck from behind by Nick Schmaltz while staring at an open net with a little more than a minute to go, preventing what should have been an easy score that would have sealed a Flyers win, though, won’t be easily forgotten.

For Hathaway, an 11-year veteran, the play was just an exclamation point on what can only be described as the worst season of his career, as he’s sitting on just 1 point in 43 games.

Garnet Hathaway with one of the WORST empty net blunders you’ll ever see 😵

And Utah went on to win the game in OT… 😵‍💫 pic.twitter.com/NTeP8U1tHX

— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) January 22, 2026

Hathaway wasn’t given the option to speak about the error after the game by a Flyers PR rep. A couple of his teammates, though, were asked if they would have to say anything to Hathaway to pick him up after a play that will surely be viral by Thursday morning.

“He knows everybody’s got everybody’s back in here,” Ersson said. “We’ve had that all year. Nothing changes like that. Obviously, it sucks losing this game, but it’s not on one guy. It’s on everybody.”

Cam York, who gave the Flyers an early 1-0 lead, said, “I think he knows; he’s been in the league long enough. I don’t think (we have to say anything). Maybe a pat on the back, but Garnet is one of the best guys in this room, and we all love him. Just one of those plays.”

Flyers coach Rick Tocchet, whose team ended a six-game losing streak Monday at the Vegas Golden Knights, was as visibly angry after the game as he’s been all season. But his anger wasn’t primarily directed toward Hathaway. “What are you going to say? He knows it,” Tocchet said.

Instead, Tocchet was frustrated by the Flyers’ wilting in certain moments earlier in the third period. The Juulsen penalty, in particular, is the kind of play that can’t happen, in his view. He was also upset that no one challenged Dylan Guenther’s shot on the ensuing power play that nicked off of Barrett Hayton’s stick and got through Ersson. Sanheim was the closest player to Guenther, but he remained relatively stationary.

“I love Jules, but take a punch in the mouth,” Tocchet said. “You’ve got to win the game. … Then, the PK, you’ve got to come out and block the shot and play aggressive, and we sunk. Guenther is one of the best shooters in the league. We unraveled, and we’ve got to put the pieces back.”

Said Christian Dvorak, who had two goals and an assist: “We could have been a little bit better, a little more aggressive. Sat back a little bit.”

After York’s goal just 30 seconds into the game, the Flyers stayed on their toes for the rest of the opening frame. Dvorak scored his first on a breakaway at 4:36, sprung by Travis Konecny, and the Flyers outshot the Mammoth 14-7 over the first 20 minutes. A Bobby Brink power-play goal just 58 seconds into the second period gave the Flyers a 3-0 lead, as Brink pounced on the rebound of a Zegras shot.

But the momentum changed on a controversial call just 12 seconds after Brink’s score. Utah’s Liam O’Brien drilled Tippett at center ice, seemingly making head contact with the winger. Tippett took a few moments to get back on his skates, then shuffled off to the dressing room for repairs. O’Brien was initially tagged a five-minute major, but after a video review, the referees decided it wasn’t even worth a minor penalty.

That got the Mammoth going, as they immediately strung together multiple shifts in the Flyers’ end, eventually capitalizing when J.J. Peterka found a loose puck during a mad scramble in front of Ersson. Just 36 seconds later, Lawson Crouse blasted a shot past Ersson to bring the Mammoth back to within 3-2 at 6:11.

Tocchet then decided to use his timeout to calm his team’s nerves in front of the sellout crowd. A too-many-men minor on the Mammoth a little more than three minutes after that put the Flyers back on the power play, and Dvorak restored the Flyers’ two-goal cushion when he stayed with his own rebound and swiped it past Vejmelka at 10:28.

The Flyers power play, which entered the game as the league’s worst, finished 2-for-6. It was just the second time in their last 23 games that they scored multiple power-play goals.

But the urgency they showed on their first few power plays dissipated on a couple of later attempts. Sanheim drew a hook on Peterka on the shift immediately after Dvorak made it 4-2, and a violent Ian Cole high-sticking minor on Sean Couturier with eight seconds to go in the second period carried over into the third.

The Flyers couldn’t find the dagger that would have sealed their second straight impressive road win.

“That’s unacceptable, what happened tonight,” Tocchet said. “There’s really not much to say. We sunk in pressure situations. (It’s) something that we’ve got to get out of this team. You’ve got to rise to the occasion. You’ve got to want to be out there in pressure situations, and certain guys sunk in certain situations. That’s the bottom line. We’re going to have to recover from it.”

That won’t be an easy task, as the Flyers will close out their three-game trip Friday against the league-leading Colorado Avalanche.

“There’s some really good stuff, but when the pressure hits this team, we’ve got to learn how to play winning hockey,” Tocchet continued. “You might have to take a punch in the mouth. If there’s a puck along the wall, you can’t blow snow. When you have a puck, skate with it.”

And when you’re staring at an open net with a minute left, shoot.