It was a rough afternoon on Broad Street for the Flyers.
The Philadelphia Flyers hosted their Halloween Spooktacular during their Saturday matinee tilt against the Anaheim Ducks at Wells Fargo Center, and the team's on-ice performance aligned quite nicely with the Halloween theme — it sure was scary.
The Flyers fell to the Ducks by a score of 7-4. Ducks forward Frank Vatrano netted a hat trick for the second time this season while Cam Atkinson, Travis Konecny and Joel Farabee potted the Flyers' goals.
Goaltender Sam Ersson finished the outing with 18 saves on 25 shots. It was a rough performance for the 24-year-old, and he was particularly hard on himself after the game.
"I'm very disappointed in myself. It's just not up to my standard," said Ersson. "I've got to find a way to be a lot better."
While Ersson wasn't on his A-game, his performance certainly wasn't the leading cause behind the Flyers' ugly showing. Turnovers, penalties and poor puck management were the true root problems behind the defeat.
"It's easy to look at the goaltender and throw it all on him," said head coach John Tortorella. "I don't think Ersson was good, but we're not blaming everything on him."
A pair of sloppy mistakes put the Flyers in a 2-0 hole early in the tilt. Ryan Strome gave his squad an early 1-0 lead just 58 seconds into the game after defenseman Travis Sanheim, who has been excellent to start the season, fanned on a breakout pass, sparking a rush the other way for Anaheim. Mason McTavish created a juicy rebound off of Ersson's pad, and Strome cleaned up the mess for the icebreaker.
Later in the frame, Ryan Poehling inadvertently sailed a puck over the boards and into the crowd, earning him a two-minute minor for delay of game. The Flyers nearly killed off the Ducks power play, but with four seconds remaining on their man advantage, Frank Vatrano netted his sixth goal of the season to double the Anaheim lead.
Things didn't get much better to start the middle frame. Just before the period's seven-minute mark, Vatrano netted his second goal of the game by (apparently) squeaking a loose puck past Ersson. The goal was reviewed, but confirmed by the officials, though it was difficult to identify any visual evidence of the puck actually crossing the goal line.
"Apparently the puck was in. It's definitely a puck I've got to have. It's my post, I've got to seal that," said Ersson.
A minute-and-a-half later, Adam Henrique added to the Ducks lead by cleaning up a rebound in front of Ersson.
The Flyers managed to orchestrate a mini comeback in the period's second half, though. Owen Tippett delivered a nice feed on a 2-on-1 rush to Atkinson, who buried his fifth goal of the season. Less than a minute later, Konecny snapped a shot past Ducks netminder Lukas Dostal to get the Flyers within two. Konecny collided with Scott Laughton hard at center ice moments before the goal, but stayed on the ice to pot the tally.
Unfortunately, Anaheim took the momentum right back early in the third period. Trevor Zegras scored on the power play after Bobby Brink was assessed a cross-checking penalty. Under a minute later, Brett Leason restored the Ducks' four-goal lead. Konecny scored his second marker of the game on a late power play, but Vatrano completed the hat trick with a shorthanded tally soon after.
"We kind of fell into what they wanted tonight," said Konecny. "We've played good all year. That's one game. It's done."
The Flyers now look ahead to Monday night's tilt against the Carolina Hurricanes, who are tied for the top spot in the Metropolitan Division. The puck drops at 7 p.m. ET.
"I know they'll be ready to play," said Tortorella. "These are all things as we go the growth of this team that come your way, and this is what we have to pay attention to — how we handle situations. But I think they'll have an aggressive mindset come Monday."