Energy and attention to detail were lacking at time for the Philadelphia Flyers fell to the Vancouver Canucks, 3-0, in the home opener at Wells Fargo Center on Saturday night. The Flyers dropped to 1-3-1 on the season, while Vancouver improved to 2-1-2.
Samuel Ersson (29 saves on 32 shots) did a good job of keeping the Flyers in the game. However, two coverage breakdowns -- Scott Laughton on the wall on the game's first goal, Owen Tippett losing his man on the second along with redundant coverage later -- led to a 2-0 Canucks lead. Less than a minute after the second Vancouver goal, a lost faceoff and a quick shot created a three-goal deficit.
Nils Hoglander (2nd), Brock Boeser (3rd) and Kiefer Sherwood (1st) scored for the Canucks. Kevin Lankinen recorded a 26-save shutout.
A key moment: A near tic-tac-toe hookup (Morgan Frost to Matvei Michkov to Erik Johnson) bounced off Johnson's stick about four minutes into the second period with the score 1-0 Vancouver.
The Flyers went 0-for-3 on the power play. They were 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.
For a complete rundown, analysis and stats from the game, see the
Postgame 5 on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com.
The Flyers have a complete off day on Sunday. They will practice on Monday at 11 a.m. EDT.
FLYERS STARTING LINEUP
74 Owen Tippett - 48 Morgan Frost - 39 Matvei Michkov
86 Joel Farabee - 21 Scott Laughton - 11 Travis Konecny
71 Tyson Foerster - 17 Jett Luchanko - 10 Bobby Brink
14 Sean Couturier- 25 Ryan Poehling - 19 Garnet Hathaway
8 Cam York - 6 Travis Sanheim
77 Erik Johnson - 9 Jamie Drysdale
5 Egor Zamula - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
82 Ivan Fedotov
[33 Samuel Ersson]
PP1: Drysdale, Tippett, Frost, Konecny, Michkov
PP2: Zamula, Foerster, Luchanko, Farabee, Brink
Scratches: 27 Noah Cates (healthy), 44 Nicolas Deslauriers (healthy), 36 Emil Andrae (healthy), 24 Nick Seeler (IR, knee).
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Phantoms Lose, 3-0, to Baby Pens
The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins swept their home-and-home set against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. After the Phantoms fell behind 4-0 on the road on Friday and went on to lose, 4-3, Ian Laperriere's club was shut out at the PPL Center on Saturday by a 3-0 score.
Starting both ends of the home-and-home, Aleksei Kolosov (14 saves on 16 shots) took the loss on Saturday. A first period goal by Emil Bemstrom was supplemented by a Joona Koppanen tally early in the third period and a Boris Katchouk emtpy netter. Filip Larsson was the big story of the game with a 41-save shutout for W-B/S.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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