Postgame 5: Flyers Beaten by Bruins in OT, 4-3

The Philadelphia Flyers lost in overtime to the Boston Bruins, 4-3, at TD Garden on Saturday afternoon. Philly held leads of 2-0 and 3-1 but the team was unable to close out the game in the third period.

Rookie winger Matvei Michkov scored two goals.Travis Sanheim collected two assists, reaching the 200-point milestone for his NHL career. Trent Frederic scored twice for Boston. Brad Marchand tallied the game-winning goal.

In a penalty-filled first period, the Flyers took a 2-0 lead to intermission courtesy of power play and even strength goals from Michkov. Shots on goal favored Boston, 9-8, but the Flyers significantly outplayed Boston at five-on-five. Boston had trouble navigating through Philly's neutral zone forecheck.

Boston had five of the game's first six shots on goal. The Flyers were called for too many men on the ice at 1:41 of the opening period. Boston generated three shots on goal but did not score.

The Flyers went to their first power play as Egor Zamula was tripped up by Mark Kastelic. Michkov (10th goal of the season, 5th on the power play) scored from the right circle to the short side off a pass from Sean Couturier from a 1-0 lead at 7:23. The assists went to Couturier and Emil Andrae.

Cam York took a slashing penalty at 7:42, putting Boston on their second power play of the opening of the first period. The Flyers once again killed it off successfully.

Michov tallied again (11th of the season, second of the period) scored a backdoor goal for a 2-0 lead at 18:24. On a failed clear by Boston that bounced off an official, Travis Sanheim made a perfect feed off the wall for the tally. Morgan Frost and Owen Tippett provided puck pursuit on the front end but the lone helper went to Sanheim.

In the middle stanza, the two teams traded off one goal apiece. Shots on net were 12-9 (19-18 Flyers through two periods).

The Flyers had the first two shots on net of the second period when York went back to the box for tripping at 3:32. Kolosov made a 10-bell save on Morgan Geekie but Boston eventually scored.

Trent Frederic (PPG, 4th) potted a rebound with a backhander along the ice to make it a 2-1 game at 5:26 of the second period. The assists went to Mason Lohrei and Geekie.

Cam York (3rd goal of the season) scored from between the circle to restore the two-goal edge as the Flyers cashed in forechecking pressure for a 3-1 lead at 15:29. Sanheim swung around behind the net and fed out to York for the tally high to the glove side. The assist went to Sanheim and Travis Konecny.

At 16:31, Philly went back to the power play as Michkov was tripped by Charlie McAvoy. They were unable to score but Egor Zamula put a challenging shot on net through a Tyson Foerster screen with the second unit on the ice.

The third period saw the Flyers take three penalties and lose leading scorer Konecny to a potential injury.

On the' second shift of the third period, Bobby Brink had an excellent scoring chance from the slot.

Frederic (2nd of the game, 5th of the season) cut the gap to 3-2 as he scored off a broken play at 5:18. Philly's fourth line was on the ice along with the defense pairing of Egor Zamula and Nick Seeler. The assists went to Charlie Coyle and Kastelic.

At 6:06 of the third period, a Konecny interference penalty put the Bruins on their fourth power play of the game. Konecny went up the tunnel after taking a hit up high from McAvoy. Brink served the penalty. Brad Marchand was robbed from point blank range with a chance to tie the game. Philly navigated the rest of the kill.

A Garnet Hathaway tripping penalty gave Boston their fifth power play at 10:33 of the final stanza. An Elias Lindholm deflection nearly tied the game among two shots on net during the man advantage.

Marchand (11th of the season) made it a 3-3 game at 14:38 . The third-line forwards were unable to backcheck in time after Boston countered on a missed shot by Sanheim. The lone assist went to Justin Brazeau.

Power play number six for Boston came at 18:03 on a Couturier tripping penalty on Pastrnak. Play went to overtime. Third period shots on goal were 12-6 Boston (30-25 Bruins through regulation, 13 via power play shots).

Eighty-seven of the first 90 seconds of overtime were played at 4-on-4. At 3-on-3, Pavel Zacha (7th) won the game for the Bruins off a David Pastrnak setup.

In a losing cause, Aleksei Kolosov (27 saves on 31 shots) had assorted misadventures on shoot-ins and dump-ins but made excellent saves on scoring chances. Jeremy Swayman earned the win with 23 stops on 26 shots.

FLYERS STARTING LINEUP

86 Joel Farabee - 14 Sean Couturier - 11 Travis Konecny
74 Own Tippett - 48 Morgan Frost - 39 Matvei Michkov
71 Tyson Foerster - 27 Noah Cates- 10 Bobby Brink
21 Scott Laughton - 25 Ryan Poehling - 19 Garnet Hathaway

6 Travis Sanheim - 8 Cam York
36 Emil Andrae - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
24 Nick Seeler - 5 Egor Zamula

35 Aleksei Kolosov
[82 Ivan Fedotov]

PP1: Andrae, Brink, Couturier, Konecny, Michkov
PP2: Sanheim, Tippett, Frost, Farabee, Foerster

Scratches: 33 Samuel Ersson (lower-body) ,77 Erik Johnson (healthy), 44 Nicolas Deslauriers (IR), 9 Jamie Drysdale (IR).

TURNING POINT

The Flyers were in the driver's seat entering the third period. Unfortunately, penalty trouble added up for Philly. The Bruins built momentum as the period moved along, scoring twice to force overtime.

POSTGAME 5 ("5 Things" Revisited)

1. Farabee seeks redemption: In 16:33 of ice time across 25 shifts, Farabee had three shots on goal. This included an overtime breakaway.Unfortunately, he remained frustrated offensively.

2. Tippett and Michkov finding chemistry: The line with Michkov, Tippett and Frost was in the thick of prime scoring chances in the first period (Michkov's 5-on-5 goal) and second period (Frost's shot attempt was blocked). In the third period, Michkov received a pass from Ristolainen and ripped a shot off the side of the net.

3. Personnel deployment -- Heavy reliance on Couturier's line: The high volume of special teams play and the third period departure of Konecny interfered with the line rotation. Couturier (two shots on goal, four shot attempts, four charged giveaways, one minor penalty, one credited hit, 11-for-19 on faceoffs) led Flyers forwards with 17:29 of ice time across 27 shifts.

4. Flyers special teams: The Flyers went 1-for-2 on the power play.They were 5-for-6 on the penalty kill but the problem was the sheer volume of time spent shorthanded.

5. Keeping track of Pastrnak: The Flyers blocked four of Pastrnak's nine shot attempts in the game. Ultimately, Boston's leading scorer assisted on Zacha's game winning goal. Pastrnak finished the season series against the Flyers with two points (0g, 2a) in three games.