The Philadelphia Flyers faced a tough loss on Wednesday night at the Wells Fargo Center as they fell 5-2 to the Buffalo Sabres.
In terms of performance, the Flyers outshot the Sabres by a wide margin, with a shot tally of 40 to 15. Philadelphia took a downturn when goaltender Carter Hart was forced to exit just ten minutes into the match due to a mid-body injury.
"We started slow again. Gathered ourselves and I thought we played a pretty good hockey game from that point on," said coach John Tortorella.
Center Scott Laughton also expressed frustration over their inability to convert their strong performance into positive results.
"We played a pretty good game for 50 minutes and don't get the results, so go back to the drawing board," he said.
This outcome marked the Flyers' fifth loss in the last six games. They will have a chance for redemption in a rematch against the Sabres on Friday in Buffalo.
Regarding Hart's condition, Tortorella mentioned there was no available update. It's also unlikely there will be any updates soon as the Flyers will have a travel day before the Friday night game in Buffalo. If Hart is sidelined for an extended period, Felix Ersson, who has struggled in three games, would likely take over as the starter.
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Game recap
The game saw a standout performance from Sabres goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, a 6-foot-5, 217-pound Finnish native. Luukkonen, a former second-round draft pick, made 38 saves out of 40 shots.
"We locked down defensively," Luukkonen said. "Even though they had a lot of shots, the defense was unreal in boxing out and blocking shots. It wasn't pretty but a win is a win."
The game started with Joel Farabee scoring for the Flyers 55 seconds into the match. Mittelstadt tied the game at 3:38 with his third goal of the season, and Brandon Biro gave the Sabres a 2-1 lead at the 10-minute mark.
Cam Atkinson, who had missed the entire 2022-23 season due to neck surgery, tied the game at 2-2 with 3:47 remaining in the first period, marking his sixth goal of the season.
After a scoreless second period, Owen Power played a pivotal role in securing the Sabres' victory, scoring the decisive goal at 3:03 of the third period with a shot that managed to elude Flyers goaltender Felix Ersson and found the back of the net just inside the left post.
"Tage put it in a good spot and dropped it," said Power. "I just walked in and shot it. It's nice to get my first goal earlier than last year."
Tage Thompson capitalized on a Philadelphia turnover, scoring his fifth goal with 6:32 minutes remaining in the game. Biro then sealed the win with an empty-net goal with only 3:08 left on the clock.
"It was a good reset for us going in tied into the third and we limited second chances on the net," said Buffalo coach Don Granato. "This was a very competitive group we played against with pace."