Flyers collapse late in overtime, losing to Carolina

Just when it looked like the Flyers might be able to defeat another powerful opponent, things fell apart on Saturday night.

With the Carolina Hurricanes in town, the Flyers took a 3-2 lead into the final minutes.

But Philadelphia missed a tying goal by Martin Nekas with 2:05 to play and then went home with one point in a 4-3 loss. The Hurricanes scored a Brent Burns goal at 4:06 of overtime to win.

The Flyers came back from an early 2-0 deficit, got a gutsy goal from Wade Ellison at 6:09 of the third period off a feed from Lukas Sedlak, but couldn’t finish the job.

Philadelphia’s record fell to 5-3-1.

The Flyers have made a habit of coming back in the second period this season, and this game was more of the same.

Trailing 2-0 after one period, the Flyers rallied thanks to a pair of goals by Nick Deslauriers and Owen Tippett, both of whom put a score on the scoreboard for the first time this season.

Deslauriers scored at 5:14. Ellison started the game by winning the puck battle in the right corner and getting the puck to Sedlak at the opposite elbow. Sedlak played a pass to Deslauriers in front for a short shot past goalkeeper Antti Raant.

Tippett, who just returned Thursday night from a concussion in the season opener, then tied the score at 7:18. With the Flyers on the power play, Tippett got a timely pass from Travis Konechna, fired a shot into the bottom of the left circle, and Raanta had no chance.

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“We had a lot of traffic there,” Tippett said. “TK [Konecny] made a great support and I just tried to beat my guy to the net and TK made a great pass.’

The Flyers entered the game ranked 15th on the power play at 22.7 percent, a far cry from last season when they finished 32nd at just over 12 percent.

“Yeah, it’s coming,” Tippett said. I think we use each other well and support each other all over the ice.”

Carolina, coming off the aforementioned 6-2 home loss to the Islanders on Friday night, came out in high spirits with goals from Eric Staal and Jordan Martinuk.

Stahl scored at 5:27 when Carter Hart failed to get a post and the puck bounced over his skates and into the net. Martinuk followed that up with a goal of his own. Stahl made a good turn from the corner and the pass managed to find its way under the sliding Nick Seeler. Hart had no chance of a poke-out shot.

Kiefer Bellows, who was waived by the Islanders on Thursday, made his debut wearing No. 20. He played alongside Morgan Frost and Zach McEwan. . Defender Yahor Zamula was scratched. . .The Flyers are off until Tuesday when they begin a three-game road trip against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.

Wayne Fish is a freelancer for The Morning Call. Follow him in flyingfishhockey.com.