The Flyers’ most troubling stretch of the season worsened Thursday night.<\/p>\n
Rick Tocchet’s club lost convincingly to the Penguins, 6-3, at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh. It trailed 4-1 at second intermission for a third straight game and was down 6-1 in the final stanza.<\/p>\n
Samuel Ersson was pulled in the middle frame.<\/p>\n
Rodrigo Abols, Nick Seeler and Matvei Michkov provided the team’s goals.<\/p>\n
The Flyers (22-16-8) have dropped five straight (0-4-1). They’ve been outscored 25-9 over this season-long skid.<\/p>\n
Tocchet’s club is 1-2-0 in its four-game regular-season series against the Penguins (22-14-10). The clubs wrap things up March 7 back at PPG Paints Arena.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Ersson denied 11 of 14 shots in a period and change of work.<\/p>\n
The 26-year-old has surrendered 15 goals over his last three starts. He entered the game with the worst save percentage of his career at .855.<\/p>\n
For a second straight game, Cam York committed a first-period penalty and the opponent struck first on the ensuing power play. It marked the Flyers’ 32nd 1-0 deficit in 46 games.<\/p>\n
A little over 10 minutes later, Pittsburgh made it 2-0 with another power play goal after Garnet Hathaway was whistled for tripping. The Flyers gave up two or more power play goals for a third consecutive game.<\/p>\n
Aleksei Kolosov was called up from AHL affiliate Lehigh Valley to back up Ersson. Dan Vladar was unavailable after suffering an undisclosed injury<\/a> Wednesday night in the first period of the Flyers’ 5-2 loss to the Sabres<\/a>.<\/p>\n Kolosov ended up taking over 2:17 minutes into the second period after Abols drew the Flyers to within 3-1. About a minute before then, Ersson gave up a transition goal to the Penguins.<\/p>\n The 24-year-old Kolosov made 13 saves on 16 shots.<\/p>\n There has been no official word on Vladar, but the fact that he hasn’t been placed on injured reserve is a good sign for his status.<\/p>\n Pittsburgh netminder Stuart Skinner stopped 30 of the Flyers’ 33 shots.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Flyers showed a little fight late in the third period Thursday night. Matvei Michkov scored his first goal since Dec. 22 after a great pass from Denver Barkey.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \u2022 This felt like a critical game for the Flyers.<\/p>\n They really needed to stop the bleeding, but couldn’t. The Flyers have been mostly uncompetitive on this losing streak, their special teams have been costly and they’ve battled injuries.<\/p>\n You can’t blame fans if they’re thinking this is the inevitable slide that will ultimately sink the Flyers’ playoff push. It’s only mid-January and Tocchet’s club is still right there in a busy mix. But the Flyers had a collapse in 2023-24 that spoiled a surprise playoff push<\/a>.<\/p>\n They’ve missed the playoffs in five straight seasons, matching the franchise’s longest drought.<\/p>\n \u2022 One positive for the Flyers was Michkov dropping the gloves in the third period to defend Denver Barkey, who took a big hit from Blake Lizotte.<\/p>\n Later in the period, Barkey recorded his second assist of the night on Michkov’s goal.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFor the first time in his career, Matvei Michkov picked up a major penalty as he defended Denver Barkey after a huge hit.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n