Nashville Predators Fall to Philadelphia Flyers, 2-1, in Third Straight Loss

The Nashville Predators (27-39-8, 62 points) kicked off a three-game road trip with a 2-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers (31-36-9, 71 points) Monday at Wells Fargo Center.

The Predators outshot Philadelphia, 29-18, including by a 16-5 margin in the second period alone, but the Flyers held the struggling Nashville offense to just one goal in the loss.

Justus Annunen made 16 saves in his second consecutive start in goal for the Predators, while Ivan Fedotov made 28 saves in the Flyers' third straight win.

Forsberg-O'Reilly-Stamkos
Bunting-Svechkov-Evangelista
Smith-McCarron-L'Heureux
Vrana-Bellows

Skjei-Blankenburg
Del Gaizo-Barron
Englund-Stastney
Oesterle

Annunen
Saros

Extra: Sissons (week-to-week, lower-body), Marchessault (day-to-day, lower-body), Wood
IR: Lauzon, Wilsby, Josi

While navigating multiple injuries to their forward group, including Colton Sissons (week-to-week, lower-body) and Jonathan Marchessault (day-to-day, lower-body), the Predators went with 11 forwards and seven defensemen against the Flyers.

Matthew Wood, who signed his three-year, entry-level contract with the Predators on Saturday, has yet to make his NHL debut.

The Flyers outshot Nashville, 7-1, to begin the first period, and Annunen came up with some key saves early. Eventually, the Predators started to click offensively; while neither team found the back of the net during the first 20 minutes of play, Nashville was able to pull even with Philadelphia with seven shots on goal by the end of the frame.

The Flyers finally broke the scoreless tie roughly midway through the second period, when Ryan Poehling completed a tic-tac-toe passing play from Matvei Michkov and Travis Konecny and cashed in to give Philadelphia a 1-0 lead at the 8:50 mark.

Zachary L'Heureux netted the equalizer for Nashville at 13:14, putting away the rebound on a Michael McCarron shot to tie the score at 1-1. The goal snapped a 24-game scoring drought for L'Heureux, whose last goal came on Dec. 21 against the Los Angeles Kings.

It took the Flyers just 34 seconds to respond, however, when defenseman Jamie Drysdale buried the rebound off a blocked shot in the low slot to restore Philadelphia's one-goal lead.

The Predators held Philadelphia to just five shots on goal in the third period, but the Flyers held on for the 2-1 final.

The Predators travel to Columbus to take on the Blue Jackets on Tuesday.