‘that's Inexcusable' — Flyers Cough Up Third-period Lead In Loss To Open Important Trip

‘That's inexcusable' — Flyers cough up third-period lead in loss to open important trip originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

NEW YORK — The Flyers relinquished a third-period lead Thursday night and fell to the Rangers, 3-2, at Madison Square Garden.

Rick Tocchet’s club couldn’t nail down a 2-1 advantage.

“That’s inexcusable,” the Flyers’ head coach said. “Being up 2-1 and then you give them those goals we gave, it’s inexcusable.”

The Flyers gave up a game-tying power play goal with 6:08 minutes left in regulation. Denver Barkey was in the penalty box for slashing.

Tye Kartye scored New York’s game-winner with 4:39 minutes to go. Jamie Drysdale and Travis Sanheim were both checking up ice on the opposite side. The Flyers’ fourth line was out there. Sean Couturier got caught in the neutral zone, which left Kartye open through the middle.

“We’ve got to reload,” Tocchet said. “If you’re not going to score on your chances — we had breakaways and stuff — when you’re up 2-1, you’ve got to protect the interior of the ice. For whatever reason, when pressure hits us, we forget that.

“You’ve got to protect the interior of the ice. If something bad happens, you give them the outside stuff. It’s something that we’re going to have to continue to preach and go through this. Winning hockey is protect the middle of the ice. And we just gave them two plays in the middle of the ice. Even on the penalty, we can’t let people get to the interior.”

Simon Benoit and Noel Acciari found the back of the net for the Flyers. The goals came in the second period as the Flyers erased a 1-0 deficit.

“I think the third period, we were a little bit more on our heels than we were in the other two periods,” Acciari said. “I think we were trying to defend a lead rather than just play the game and do what made us successful during the other periods.”

The Flyers have lost five of their last six games (1-4-1) and 14 of 18 on the season (4-10-4). They own a minus-21 goal differential (excluding the shootout) and have scored just 2.17 goals per game.

On Thursday night, they were opening a five-game road trip that has them away from home until next Sunday.

“We know we have it in this room, we’ve shown it in periods,” Acciari said. “We’ve just got to, as a group, find a way to bring it for all three periods.”

This was the first of four meetings between the Flyers and Rangers (9-7-1).

“For a while, I thought we were in control of the game,” Tocchet said. “And then all of a sudden, they make a push and that’s when we really have got to dig in. You’ve got to protect the middle of the ice, that’s just Hockey 101 for me.”

• Joseph Woll denied 25 of 28 shots.

The 28-year-old was making his first start in a little over a week.

Pavel Dorofeyev scored New York’s game-tying power play goal. Woll had kept the Rangers off the board for a while until then.

“They’re down, they’re obviously going to push,” Sanheim said. “They get a break on a power play where the puck bounces to the guy in the middle and he makes a good shot. It’s what we do after that that’s kind of frustrating. You hate to give that next one up, you’d like to lock it down and at least get it to overtime and get a point out of it. Lesson learned and we’ll move forward.”

New York struck first just 4:39 minutes into the action on a double deflection. Gabe Perreault got a piece of J.T. Miller’s redirection. The Flyers had gotten stuck in the defensive zone and the Rangers made them pay.

New York rookie netminder Dylan Garand stopped 23 of the Flyers’ 25 shots.

Benoit was the unlikely spark for the Flyers. The 28-year-old defenseman scored just his seventh career NHL goal to tie the game at 1-1.

Just under two minutes later, the Flyers took the lead. Drysdale showed great mobility at the blue line to help set up Acciari’s goal. Barkey had the primary assist with good composure and vision around the net.

• Cole Knuble centered the Flyers’ second line.

Tocchet wanted to move him from the wing to the middle for some added speed.

At morning skate, Knuble was working on faceoffs with Acciari and Couturier. The 22-year-old rookie went 0 for 5 in the dot against the Rangers. But he did some good things.

• Matvei Michkov lost some ice time later in the second period. Earlier in the period, he had an extended shift and also iced the puck.

But he got back out there for a power play with 1:58 minutes left in the middle stanza and he started the third period.

• Rasmus Ristolainen participated in morning skate. The 32-year-old defenseman is recovering from an injury to his left hand.

“It’s going to come to pain tolerance for him,” Tocchet said, “but that is a step in the right direction.”

Ristolainen has missed 14 of the last 15 games.

• The Flyers are back in action Sunday when they visit the Flames (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP).