Depleted Flyers fall hard at home against Tampa Bay, snapping a three-game point streak

The Flyers were facing an uphill battle in this one.

Against a Tampa Bay Lightning team riding an eight-game winning streak, the Flyers were without three key players in forwards Travis Konecny and Bobby Brink and defenseman Jamie Drysdale.

The result was a 7-2 loss, ending the team’s three-game point streak. Philly was handed a 2-1 overtime defeat by the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday.

Sam Ersson was handed several Bronx cheers for his saves throughout the game, notably his first save after allowing two goals on the first three shots he saw and in the third period after the game was well out of reach. He allowed seven goals on 23 shots, including four on eight shots in the third period.

Nikita Kucherov gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead just 109 seconds into the game.

Lightning defenseman Darren Raddysh sent a stretch pass up the ice from his own goal line. Kucherov wasn’t able to control it as it bounced into the Flyers’ end, and Travis Sanheim tapped it away from him as he was surrounded by four Flyers defenders.

Owen Tippett corralled the puck and, under pressure, sent it over to Denver Barkey as he curled up the boards — all while Kucherov hung out by the Flyers’ net all alone. Brayden Point stole the puck from Barkey, and as four Flyers focused on him, he sent the puck to Kucherov all alone at the right post. The Russian winger shot it off the pass and by Ersson, who was making his first start since New Year’s Eve.

» READ MORE: Flyers will be without Travis Konecny, Jamie Drysdale, and Bobby Brink as they begin pivotal stretch

Kucherov, who entered the game with 37 points in 29 games against the Flyers, would get a second. He got the puck in the neutral zone from the point and carried it down into the left circle — causing the Flyers to back up — before shooting against the grain while in stride past the glove of Ersson.

In between Kucherov’s goals, Garnet Hathaway finally got on the board.

“Yeah, I can’t go back and change the first half,” Hathaway said after Thursday’s game, acknowledging that he didn’t have a point in his first 36 games and was a healthy scratch for six games beginning on Dec. 20.

“I wish I could, but I can’t. I’m trying to go day by day. .... And I think the last few games I’ve played to my identity more than I have before that and and that’s what I need to rely on.”

Hathaway and Rodrigo Ābols put in the work along the end boards to take the puck away from Erik Cernak before Hathaway got away and went toward the slot. Noah Juulsen got the puck at the point and put a slap shot on goal that Hathaway deflected in.

In the second period, Nick Paul gave the Lightning a 3-1 lead when the puck bounced away from Barkey at the Bolts’ blue line.

» READ MORE: Flyers takeaways: Power-play struggles continue, Rick Tocchet frustrated about missed reads

Tampa Bay went the other way but also couldn’t control the puck, and it went to Flyers defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen, who tried to put it up the boards in the Flyers’ end. It was blocked by Anthony Cirelli, and he got the puck back for a shot attempt that was blocked by Nick Seeler.

Lightning defenseman Charles-Edouard D’Astous got the puck and put a high shot on Ersson that was stopped, but Paul skated through the Flyers’ defense relatively untouched and knocked in the rebound.

In the third period, the wheels fell off as the Lightning padded the lead to 5-1 with goals by Gage Goncalves and Brandon Hagel just 94 seconds apart. Goncalves’ goal came off the rush that initially started with a turnover by Matvei Michkov at the offensive blue line. Hagel scored as he blew past Barkey during a two-on-two.

Tippett did get on the board with a power-play goal off a face-off win by Christian Dvorak. The Flyers forward didn’t get good wood — or whatever sticks are made out of now — on it, and it seemed to fool Andrei Vasilevskiy.

The goal is Tippett’s 14th of the season and fifth goal in his past 10 games. He is on pace for 27 goals, which is one shy of his career high set two seasons ago.

Yanni Gourde scored on a breakaway after Zegras lost the puck inside the Lightning blue line, and Goncalves scored two minutes later.

Konecny and Brink are day-to-day with upper-body injuries and watched the game from the press box with Drysdale, who is on injured reserve with an upper-body injury. Joining them in the press box was Tyson Foerster.

In an interesting twist, the Flyers host the Lightning again on Monday at Xfinity Mobile Arena (7 p.m., NBCSP).

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