Flyers dumped by Detroit, 6-3 PHN's Best Shots of the Game

PHILADELPHIA – Alex Nedeljkovic made 21 saves as the Detroit Red Wings doubled-up the Flyers, 6-3, on Wednesday night.

The Flyers had won two in a row before the loss.

Dylan Larkin scored the game’s first goal, off the power play, to give the Red Wings a 1-0 lead in the first period.

Detroit improved to 21-21-6.

“I liked the fact that we really didn’t give them much in the third,” Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill said. “We’ve been in that position a lot and didn’t really play the hockey we needed to play. … I believe in taking steps in the right direction. I thought that third was a step in the right direction.”

After Larkin posted the opening goal, the Red Wings and Flyers traded three goals each.

 Lucas Raymond, Pius Suter, and Robby Fabbri scored before end of the middle frame.

“Everyone can score,” the Red Wings’ Seider said. “We have a really good lineup. Guys are chipping in. We’re really happy with the [win] tonight.”

Isaac Ratcliffe, Travis Sanheim, and Scott Laughton were the Philadelphia strikers.

“I drew it up a million times in my head how I was going to get my first NHL goal since I was young,” Ratcliffe said. “I don’t think any of the times I drew it up, it was going to go off my pants and in, but I’ll take what I can get.”

Philadelphia dropped to 15-23-8.

“It’s not like one part of our game broke us down tonight,” Flyers coach Mike Yeo said. “You can start with 1-on-1 battles, loose puck races, you can move into execution, you can move into the structure, the details of our game.

“We’ve started to try to establish what our standards are in certain areas and today we didn’t meet those standards.”

The two teams meet in Detroit for the back end of a home and home set.

The Red Wings took a 4-3 lead into the third period and extended it with goals from Givani Smith midway through the frame, and from Vladislav Namestnikov on an empty-net strike in the closing seconds for the 6-3 final.

Carter Hart made 28 saves in the Flyers loss.

“We were playing some good hockey before the break,” Laughton said. “Seemed like we were watching too much tonight and they were making plays around us and spending too much time in our [defensive] zone, and then you can’t get out of the zone and have energy to go on offense. Definitely frustrating.”