Nightmare second period sinks Flyers in rematch with Devils

Jackie Spiegel, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Jan 29, 2025

Published in Hockey

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

NEWARK, N.J. — One of the hardest things to do is beat a team three times.

The Flyers learned that the hard way on Wednesday night in a 5-0 loss to the New Jersey Devils. They have now lost three of their past four games.

The teams traded chances but were unable to find the back of the net in the first period. But the tide started to turn in the waning seconds as Sam Ersson had to make back-to-back saves on quick shots from the doorstep.

Then came the second period, and the Devils are one the NHL’s best in the middle frame this season. They are the league’s second-best team in goals scored (63) and tied with the Edmonton Oilers for the fewest allowed (38).

It showed on Wednesday.

After the Flyers stymied the league’s second-best power play on Monday, they couldn’t stop it on Wednesday. Ondrej Palat scored from atop the crease off a pass from Jack Hughes to give the Devils a 1-0 lead 54 seconds into the second period.

Then the wheels started to come off. Owen Tippett was hit in the neutral zone by Devils defenseman Brenden Dillon — it should have been called for interference but did not elicit anything from the referees — and the Flyers forward immediately went down the tunnel. He did not return.

A few minutes later Luke Hughes extended the Devils’ advantage to 2-0 on a two-on-one after a Travis Sanheim turnover in the offensive zone. The New Jersey defenseman got the puck and skated through the check of Joel Farabee before finding the back of the net.

Then, before the Devils took a 3-0 lead, eight roughing penalties were handed out. Garnet Hathaway and Johnathan Kovacevic got a pair each.

With Sean Couturier in the box, Nathan Bastian added another power-play goal, and Dawson Mercer pushed the Devils’ lead to 4-0 with a snapshot off a royal road pass from Timo Meier. And that was it for Ersson, who allowed four goals on 16 shots.

Ivan Fedotov entered the game with 6:17 left in the second period and finished with nine saves on 10 shots, allowing a give-and-go goal to Jack Hughes after he got the puck back from Jesper Bratt. The Devils got the odd-man rush after Farabee was leveled as he couldn’t get the puck deep.

The Flyers did have their chances, but Jake Allen stood tall, stopping all 24 shots.

Breakaways

Egor Zamula missed his third straight game with an upper-body ailment. … Couturier returned after missing Monday with an illness.

Up next

The Flyers get right back to it on Thursday at the Wells Fargo Center when they host the New York Islanders. Islanders forward Max Tsyplakov, who was suspended for three games for a high hit on Ryan Poehling on Jan. 16, is expected to play. The Flyers are 1-7-1 in the second game of back-to-backs this season.