Flyers suffer ugly home loss to Blackhawks at bad time

Flyers suffer ugly home loss to Blackhawks at bad time originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Considering the circumstances, this was a brutal loss for the Flyers.

They stumbled to the Blackhawks, 5-1, Saturday night at the Wells Fargo Center.

Chicago owns 52 losses and is now 7-29-1 on the road.

The Flyers trailed for all but two-plus minutes of the game.

Tyson Foerster scored the lone goal for the Flyers (36-29-10). It was the rookie winger’s 20th of the season.

John Tortorella’s club has lost four games in a row (0-3-1). The Flyers are two games into a stretch of six straight against teams not in playoff position. So far, they’re 0-2-0 and have been outscored 9-2.

After winning four straight out of the bye week and All-Star break, the Flyers have gone 7-10-4.

The Flyers went 1-1-0 against the Blackhawks (22-47-5) in their two-game regular-season series.

Chicago got third-period goals from Joey Anderson and MacKenzie Entwistle to put the Flyers away for good.

• The Flyers were in danger of falling out of third place, a spot they’ve held since Jan. 24.

They came into Saturday only one point up on the Capitals, who were hosting the Bruins tonight. Washington, which has played two fewer games than the Flyers, entered Saturday in the second wild-card spot of the Eastern Conference.

If the Flyers are passed by the Capitals in the Metropolitan Division race, they’ll be battling the Red Wings, among others, for the second wild-card berth. Detroit lost in a shootout Saturday, 3-2, to the Panthers and is two points behind the Flyers.

Tortorella’s club went into Saturday with a 68.1 percent chance to make the postseason, according to Hockey-Reference.com’s probabilities report. It has seven games remaining.

• For the third time in the last four games, the Flyers fell behind 2-0.

Lukas Reichel batted home his own rebound off a wraparound attempt to hand the Flyers a 1-0 deficit just 2:01 minutes into the game.

With three minutes left in the first period, the Flyers gave up a 3-on-2 rush to Chicago and Philipp Kurashev beat Samuel Ersson with a good shot.

The 24-year-old rookie finished with 19 saves on 24 shots.

Foerster pulled the Flyers within 2-1 only 17 seconds into the second period. But as the Flyers threatened, they missed on opportunities to tie it. Their power play finished 0 for 3.

With under three and a half minutes to go in the middle stanza, Scott Laughton was whistled for a tripping penalty. The Blackhawks took advantage with a power play from Nick Foligno, putting the Flyers back down two at second intermission.

Backing up Ersson, Ivan Fedotov donned the Flyers’ jersey and took the Wells Fargo Center ice for the first time.

He acknowledged the crowd in warmups and embraced his teammates at morning skate.

After a long and difficult journey, the 27-year-old Russian goalie finally joined the Flyers on Friday.

Chicago netminder Arvid Soderblom stopped 29 of the Flyers’ 30 shots. The 24-year-old came in 4-20-1 with a 4.02 goals-against average and an .875 save percentage.

• The Flyers got an important piece back in Nick Seeler.

The 30-year-old defenseman missed 11 games with an injury to the area of his left ankle and foot. Over those 11 games, the Flyers surrendered 4.00 goals per game and 10 power play goals.

Seeler was placed on injured reserve the same day Sean Walker was traded, wiping out the Flyers’ second defensive pair in early March.

“I don’t think there was a first or second pair, especially when we saw the marriage between Walks and Seels, how that worked,” Tortorella said Saturday before morning skate. “They played some big minutes as a first pair would.”

• Jamie Drysdale has continued his on-ice rehab from an upper-body injury, presumably to the area of his left shoulder and arm.

The 21-year-old defenseman went through some contact drills Friday in a workout and was a participant at morning skate Saturday.

He has been out for a little under five weeks.

• The Flyers host the Islanders on Monday (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP). They then have three days before their next game and 11 before their next home game.

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