In St Paul, after the Wild took a 3-1 lead on the visiting Philadelphia Flyers on Friday in the third period, the Flyers responded with a pair of strikes to knot the game and force extra time.
The Flyers’ Joel Farabee hit for his second of the game at 3:36 of the extra session for a 4-3 win.
“We had a turnover in our zone,” Farabee said. “I forget who made the play but then we just kind of quick-upped it. They were kind of scrambling on their change and then just a really good shot by [Zamula] to get it through, and just lucky to get a piece of it there.”
Carter Hart made 26 saves in the win.
Philadelphia improved to 22-14-6.
The Flyers Tyson Foerster scored at 9:31 of the third period to get them within one at 3-2.
Owen Tippett knotted the game, 3-3, at 10:56 to force the extra session.
“I think we’re comfortable with where our game’s at,” Tippett said. “I think when we went down two there early in the third we didn’t really think anything of it. We just kept going shift after shift and knew it was going to come. So it shows a lot of kind of what we have in this room, and it’s a big win for us.”
The Wild dropped to 17-19-5.
“It wasn’t a change in style of play,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “It’s the discipline and details at key moments in the game, particularly when you have a lead. You have to do your job in those situations. That’s the difference in the game.”
After a scoreless opening stanza, Minnesota grabbed a 1-0 lead on a marker from Marcus Johansson with 51 seconds gone in the middle frame.
Farabee hit for his first of the double at 3:37 of the second period to tie the game, 1-1.
“We played a good hockey game,” the Wild’s Ryan Hartman said. “We’ve got to find ways to win those games. We’ve got to be better. We’ve got to be able to hold those leads, and I think we sat back a little bit and caused some mental mistakes and we should have been trying to get, you know, four or five goals there instead of trying to keep the puck out of our net.”
Hartman struck at 1:48 of the third period to give the Wild a 2-1 lead.
Matt Boldy pushed the tenuous advantage to 3-1 at 4:38 of the third.
“First two periods, neither team was developing a whole bunch,” Flyers coach John Tortorella said. “We let in a couple, a couple mistakes, ends up in our net, but we just kept playing. I like the group. They just keep on playing and try to find a way.”
Marc-Andre Fleury made 31 saves in the loss.
“I thought for us this was a good game, one of our good ones lately I think,” Fleury said. “Didn’t give them too much. Didn’t give them too many great chances. We got the lead in the third, too, so that was nice. But yeah, still stings to lose it.”
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