The Philadelphia Flyers remain one of the hottest teams in the NHL despite a 7-4 setback to the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday.
Now, with their five-game winning streak snapped, the Flyers will host the Ottawa Senators on Sunday looking to start a new streak.
The Flyers trailed 5-2 and then 5-4 before falling short against the Avalanche.
“I thought we did a pretty good job overall,” said Cam Atkinson, who had one goal and two assists. “We played with a lot of confidence and found a way to crawl back into it a little bit. We’ll take some things we did really well and move on.”
Atkinson has seven points during his current four-game points streak.
Flyers goaltender Carter Hart struggled in allowing five goals on 15 shots through two periods. Samuel Ersson played the third period and made eight saves.
Following the game, coach John Tortorella didn’t name a starter for Sunday.
“I felt like we were in the game,” Tortorella said of why he pulled Hart. “Pucks were going in for them, and they’re good.”
Tortorella also didn’t provide an update on Owen Tippett, who went to the locker room at 1:25 of the third period with a lower-body injury. Tippett was ruled out for the remainder of the game, and his status is unclear for the second leg of this back-to-back against Ottawa.
Joel Farabee, Travis Konecny and Tyson Foerster each added one goal for the Flyers. Morgan Frost continued his stellar all-around play with a pair of assists.
The Senators will arrive in Philadelphia having split their previous four games.
Ottawa defeated the San Jose Sharks 5-4, fell to the Avalanche 7-4, beat the Montreal Canadiens 6-2 and lost 2-1 in overtime to the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday.
Parker Kelly scored the lone goal for Ottawa while Joonas Korpisalo made 27 saves.
Senators interim coach Jacques Martin said he was very pleased with his team’s effort and execution despite the overtime loss.
“I think it’s probably the first game that we stuck with the game plan,” he said.
Josh Norris returned to the lineup after a four-game absence with a lower-body injury. He was hurt against Winnipeg with an apparent arm injury but returned to the game.
In addition, Shane Pinto served the final game of his 41-game suspension related to sports betting. Pinto, who signed a pro-rated one-year contract this week, is expected to play against the Flyers.
“It’s going to be like my first NHL game again,” Pinto said. “I just want to go out and play.”
Martin said he remains cautiously optimistic about Pinto’s return.
“When you miss half a season, the difficulty sometimes is the timing,” Martin said. “Usually, you have training camp and, as camp progresses, you’re getting ready for the game tempo. It’s no different than missing time for injuries and coming back. It takes some time, but he’ll be a good addition for the team.”
–Field Level Media
