Flyers drop 3rd straight in lackluster loss to Kraken

Jackie Spiegel, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Mar 8, 2025

Published in Hockey

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PHILADELPHIA — It isn’t expected to be pretty down the stretch.

After trading away three roster players, Andrei Kuzmeko, Scott Laughton and Erik Johnson, the Flyers lineup on Saturday looked quite different than just a few days ago. Unfortunately, the result was the same: another lackluster loss.

This time it was 4-1 to the visiting Seattle Kraken.

Ersson struggles again

It may surprise some but Saturday was a stark reminder of how young Sam Ersson is: the 25-year-old goalie played his 100th game — 95 were starts. Entering Saturday, he was the sixth-youngest netminder who has played over 20 games this season.

On Saturday, after two straight poor starts, he suited up for his 37th game, tying the younger Dustin Wolf (37); Lukáš Dostál is younger than Ersson and entered Saturday with 39 games played this season.

But after allowing three goals on five goals in the shortest outing of his NHL career on Tuesday and another four on 27 shots to the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday — albeit the first two were on the power play, and not even Bernie Parent would have stopped those — he allowed four on 32 shots on Saturday.

Tye Kartye tied the game in the second period after he carried the puck behind the net and into the right face-off circle for a turnaround shot. On replay, it looked like there was a chance Ersson, who didn’t fully react to it, was screened by Rodrigo Ābols, who was recalled on Friday from Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League.

The Kraken potted two goals in 41 seconds late in the middle frame to take a two-goal lead.

Matty Beniers scored during four-on-four action when he carried the puck below the goal line and cut to the crease, flipping the puck in. On that play, he had an open lane when Emil Andrae fell as he crossed with Rasmus Ristolainen, who was sticking with Jaden Schwartz. Andrae was also recalled on Friday from the Phantoms and is expected to stay in the NHL for the remainder of the season.

Less than a minute later, Chandler Stephenson scored a short-handed goal when he intercepted a pass by Ristolainen intended for Sean Couturier. In the third period, Brandon Montour stepped in a face-off win by Berniers that Tyson Foerster appeared to screen Ersson on.

Tipp-ed it in

The Flyers did get on the board first with Owen Tippett getting his 19th of the year. The speedy forward picked up a bouncing puck in the neutral zone, skated down the left wing, turned toward the net in the left face-off circle, and the puck was in.

Well, they don’t ask how, they ask how many. On replay, it looks like Kraken defenseman Ryker Evans poked the puck away from Tippett but it went into the air and was knocked past an unsuspecting Philipp Grubauer off Tippett’s body.

Matvei Michkov got the primary assist giving him 47 points on the season.

Power-less

Stop if you’ve heard this one before — the power play struggled.

Across the game, the Flyers had five chances to get on the board with a man advantage; one power play was 18 seconds long because Couturier was called for hooking in the offensive zone.

The first power play of the game, one of three in the opening frame, saw six shot attempts with two shots having to be stopped by Grubauer. The second power play had another five with three shots on goal. But then they went cold the rest of the way with just one shot attempt — a shot on goal by Owen Tippett during that 18-second power play.

Breakaways

Forward Olle Lycksell was also recalled from Lehigh Valley and played on Saturday. ... Forward Garnet Hathaway missed his fourth straight game with an upper-body injury.

Up next

The Flyers host the New Jersey Devils on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, TNT, truTV, max).