The Philadelphia Flyers relinquished a late two-goal lead Thursday to the Boston Bruins and ultimately earned one point instead of two.
They're looking to gain that extra point when they visit the Bruins for the second time in a row on Saturday.
The Flyers led by a pair of goals heading into the third period but fell 5-4 in a shootout Thursday evening. They had too many turnovers and too many breakdowns to eventually overcome in front of goaltender Carter Hart.
Philadelphia gave up four goals in the third period.
"We gave the puck away too much in the third," said Jake Voracek, who had three assists to improve his career points total to 701. "We allowed them in the game instead of just playing our game. The effort was there. We battled really hard, but we should have put the game away in overtime."
The Flyers continued to be struck by injuries as Mark Friedman suffered a cut to the face in the second period and didn't return. However, head coach Alain Vigneault said that he didn't believe the injury was serious.
Philadelphia is already without Sean Couturier, Morgan Frost and Phil Myers.
There has been a troubling trend defensively as the Flyers have surrendered at least 30 shots in five consecutive games. This never occurred all of last season and Matt Niskanen's presence was a huge reason. Niskanen retired after the playoffs and the Flyers have already lost Myers for an extended period of time.
"Obviously, we need to tighten up defensively here," Vigneault said. "Those are areas we'll continue to work on and I'm confident we're going to improve."
The Bruins looked like a completely different team in the third period and through overtime and the shootout.
Head coach Bruce Cassidy reportedly scolded his group. And did they ever step up.
"It was great to see them respond," Cassidy said. "It's in the room. What was addressed? Essentially, we were too easy to play against offensively. We're a hard team to play against defensively and we're willing to play the right way, but offensively we were too easy to play against. We discussed a couple ways we can get better and harder to play against in a little bit of a forceful manner, so that hopefully the message gets across."
The Bruins fired 22 shots on goal alone in the third period. Unlike previous games and the first 40 minutes against the Flyers, the Bruins suddenly began attacking the net.
They never stopped on their way to a comeback win.
"I think intermission had a lot to do with it prior to my goal," said Jack Studnicka, who scored his first career goal. "We know we're an offensive group in there and we're just trying not to get frustrated. It was just fortunate that pucks started going in. It was a team mentality thing to take it to the net and keep things simple."
Veteran goaltender Tuukka Rask kept things simple in overtime and the shootout. Rask made several stellar saves in overtime and then stopped all three shots in the shootout to preserve the victory.
"He was lights out in the overtime and shootout," Cassidy said of Rask. "Last year we couldn't win a shootout to save our lives and this year we've won two of them. Go figure."
--Field Level Media