PHILADELPHIA – Well that didn’t go as planned.
The Flyers hosted the Buffalo Sabres in a Sunday matinee. Philadelphia was looking to gain on the Boston Bruins and put some distance between the themselves and the New York Rangers.
It all went according to script in the first period when Oskar Lindblom and Joel Farabee put the Flyers up 2-0 in the first period.
That was really the highlight of the afternoon for Philadelphia as Sam Reinhart and Arttu Ruotsalainen (first NHL goal) scored in the middle frame to get the Sabres even at 2-2.
“It’s hard to explain,” Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault said. “We had that game in total control. We were giving them almost nothing. We just blew it. The icing that we didn’t need to do and lost the puck in our end in the corner there when we had control and they found a way to jump on one of their rebounds. We just couldn’t get it done.”
Linus Ullmark made 40 saves as the Sabres rallied from another deficit with three straight goals in the third period for a5-3 win.
“That was a desperate hockey team over there and they need the points,” Buffalo’s Kyle Okposo said. “We knew that they were going to come out hard and they did. We could’ve folded when it was 2-0, and we didn’t. So we’re learning how to win games different ways. You need to do that to become a good team and we’re starting to take steps.”
Shayne Gostisbehere put the Flyers back in the lead, 3-2, early in the third period, Buffalo was determined.
“It’s awesome. It’s a dream,” Ruotsalainen said. “I think it was like a 3-on-2 rush and ‘Cozy’ made a nice play. I just closed my eyes and made a shot and it went in.”
Jeff Skinner tied the game, again, at 16:57.
“You just have to stick with your game, and I thought we had some chances,” Skinner said. “Weren’t able to capitalize and obviously as the game goes along, it sort of tightens up and desperation level sort of rises a little bit. Lately we’ve been able to find those plays and that’s what you need, especially late in games. You need big plays in big moments.
“On top of it, I think Linus [Ullmark] played great. He made some huge saves to keep us in it and then a couple big goals. ‘Aspy,’ obviously huge play there going to the net and getting the game-winner for us. It’s a good feeling when everyone chips in like that.”
Rasmus Asplund scored 25 seconds later for a 4-3 lead to Buffalo.
“We’ve had a much better belief system progressively the last couple weeks and it’s getting stronger,” Sabres head coach Don Granato said. “You can feel that down the bench, up and down the bench. More confident speak, less emotional speak. So, yeah, a lot of subtlety but good signs.”
Casey Mittelstadt added an empty-net goal to seal the win.
“We made some mistakes that we just gave them goals,” Vigneault said. “Three of them. That face-off goal and obviously the third and fourth goal. Things that you can’t do in this League and things that we did tonight with some of our most experienced players.”
The Buffalo Sabres are competitive team without Taylor Hall and Jack Eichel.
Carter Hart took the loss on 26 saves.
“We had a nice 3-2 lead. Blew a 2-0 lead, then had a 3-2 lead and we just let it slip away,” Gostisbehere said. “It definitely hurts right now. I don’t know what else you could do. We’ve got to move on and get some points in these next games.”
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