The undermanned Flyers were no match for the scorching Lightning in a 7-2 drubbing Saturday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena.<\/p>\n
The seven goals allowed marked a season worst for the Flyers.<\/p>\n
With two goals and two assists, superstar Nikita Kucherov did the most damage for Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n
On the Flyers’ side, Garnet Hathaway and Owen Tippett provided the goals. Hathaway recorded his first point of the season with a redirection just 4:15 minutes into the action.<\/p>\n
The Flyers (22-13-8) had a three-game point streak halted (2-0-1).<\/p>\n
Rick Tocchet’s club was without Travis Konecny, Bobby Brink, Jamie Drysdale and Tyson Foerster. More on the team’s injuries here<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Lightning (27-13-3) have ripped off nine straight wins, a stretch in which they’ve scored five goals per game.<\/p>\n The Flyers are 0-2-0 in their three-game regular-season series against Tampa Bay. The clubs will wrap things up in two days.<\/p>\n \u2022 Samuel Ersson, making his first appearance in January, surrendered the seven goals on 23 shots.<\/p>\n He has given up four or more goals seven times in 16 starts.<\/p>\n Kucherov got him twice in the opening 6:05 minutes of the game. The 2018-19 MVP was left all alone in front for the game-opening marker. Not even two minutes after Hathaway tied it up, Kucherov struck again.<\/p>\n Thirty-five seconds later, Ersson received a Bronx cheer when he made a save. He heard some more in the third period. The 26-year-old entered the game with the worst save percentage of his career at .868.<\/p>\n Ersson found his footing a bit after the early goals, but Nick Paul extended the Lightning’s lead to 3-1 in the second period. After Ersson made the initial stop, Paul rolled in unimpeded for the rebound opportunity.<\/p>\n Tampa Bay then went off for four goals in the third period to make it a total rout. The Flyers definitely opened up defensively as they pushed for offense, which didn’t help Ersson’s chances.<\/p>\n Andrei Vasilevskiy, who came in with consecutive shutouts over the Flyers<\/a>, stopped 18 shots for the Lightning.<\/p>\n \u2022 The Flyers began Saturday tied with the Capitals for the NHL’s second-worst power play at 15 percent.<\/p>\n