Philadelphia, Pa. (WGR Sports Radio 550/WBEN) - The Buffalo Sabres cannot get out of their own way.
As winners of two-straight games coming in, a six-game road trip kicked off Wednesday night in Philadelphia with another porous display of defense and passive shooting moments in a 5-2 loss to the Flyers at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Jason Zucker opened the scoring for the Sabres, on a power play, for a second-consecutive game. Zucker's eighth goal of the season was set up by a nice centering pass from Josh Doan.
Unlike last game, the opposition struck back, and retaliated in a big way with three first-period goals.
First, it was forward Travis Konecny's point shot through traffic that tied the game at 1-1. Buffalo challenged the goal for goaltender interference, but extra video evidence wasn't enough to support the claim.
This, of course, led to a Philadelphia power play.
On that man advantage, the Flyers benefitted from a wild deflection. Forward Trevor Zegras' cross-ice pass found its way behind Sabres goalie Colten Ellis after caroming off the leg of Ryan McLeod.
That gave Philadelphia its first lead of the night, at 2-1.
Just 21 seconds later, a failed clearing attempt ended up in the back of the Sabres' net. Doing the damage was Flyers forward Bobby Brink, who crashed the net hard and cashed in on a rebound from linemate Noah Cates' shot.
Philadelphia then fortified its 3-1 lead just 1:45 into the second period.
Cates and Brink traded places on the scoresheet, as this time Cates finished a scoring play from Brink to make it 4-1, Flyers.
The Sabres were, temporarily, able to stop the barrage at the 11:48 mark of the second period. Bowen Byram connected for his fifth goal in the last 11 games to cut the deficit in half, 4-2.
The two-goal deficit lasted all of 55 seconds, before Philadelphia extended its lead to three again.
Forward Owen Tippett was left alone long enough to bat a rebound from his initial shot into the net himself.
The Sabres also lost the services of captain Rasmus Dahlin with 3:10 to play in the middle stanza. Dahlin was handed a five-minute boarding major and a game misconduct for a hit on Zegras.
It was all over but the shouting in the third.
Sabres winger Zach Benson looked to have finally scored his first goal of the season, but it was taken off the board by an offside challenge by Philadelphia.
With the loss, Buffalo still only has two wins away from KeyBank Center this season. Neither of which were settled in regulation.
----------
SCORING RECAP
First Period:
BUF: 4:08 - Jason Zucker (8) PPG (Josh Doan, Josh Norris)
PHI: 8:26 - Travis Konecny (6) PPG (Matvei Michkov, Travis Sanheim); 9:04 - Trevor Zegras (10) PPG (Travis Sanheim, Travis Konecny); 9:25 - Bobby Brink (7) (Noah Cates, Nikita Grebenkin)
Second Period:
BUF: 11:48 - Bowen Byram (6) (Alex Tuch, Jack Quinn)
PHI: 1:45 - Noah Cates (6) (Bobby Brink, Jamie Drysdale); 12:43 - Owen Tippett (9) (Matvei Michkov, Sean Couturier)
Third Period:
BUF: NONE
PHI: NONE
----------
----------
Blue Star Home Services Three Stars of the Game:
1.) Noah Cates - PHI
2.) Trevor Zegras - PHI
3.) Sean Couturier - PHI
----------
What's next:
It's off to Winnipeg, Manitoba, as the Sabres meet the Jets to close out the season-series on Friday. Puck drop at Canada Life Centre is set for 7 p.m. on with Dan Dunleavy and Rob Ray on the radio call on WGR Sports Radio 550.