Two games with Boston, then two with Washington. For the Flyers, it’s a chance to show they can play with the East Division heavyweights.
A chance, in fact, to show they are one of the heavyweights.
Well, after Wednesday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Bruins at the Wells Fargo Center, the Flyers look like they belong with the big boys, but they will not be happy with a late-game collapse that cost them a point.
They blew a late 3-1 lead, and lost it 31 seconds into overtime on a power-play rebound by Patrice Bergeron.
David Pastrnak had a hat trick, including a power-play goal with 14.9 seconds left in regulation, sending the game into OT.
The Flyers’ four-game winning streak was snapped.
Travis Sanheim (two assists) fired wide, but the puck went to Jake Voracek — stationed to the right, behind the goal line — and he knocked it into an open net with 18:57 left in the third period, giving the Flyers their first lead of the night, 2-1.
It gave Voracek points in seven of his last eight games.
With 11:19 remaining in regulation, Joel Farabee, coming off a hat trick against the Islanders, finished off a two-on-one with Scott Laughton, increasing the lead to 3-1. Farabee is now tied with Kevin Hayes for the team lead with six goals.
Boston cut it to 3-2 on Pasternak’s second goal of the night, a power-play tally with 7:55 to go.
Late in the second, Hayes, whose miscue a few minutes earlier nearly led to a Boston goal, knotted the score at 1-1 when he took a cross-ice feed from Sanheim and beat Tuukka Rask with 4:31 left in the period. Hayes, a Boston native, one-timed the pass from deep inside the right circle.
About 3 1/2 minutes earlier, Nick Ritchie took the puck away from Hayes and went in on a shorthanded breakaway but was denied by Carter Hart, who stopped 20 of 21 shots in the first two periods. The only shot he didn’t turn aside was a fluke goal that caromed off teammate Ivan Provorov.
After an inartistic, turnover-plagued first period, the Flyers were more aggressive, better with the puck, and had a better forecheck working in the second period.
“They came out and scored on their first shift and you never want that to happen,” Hayes said. “But I thought we handled it pretty well. I mean, they kind of handed it to us in the first five, six minutes, but we got back to basics.”
Boston scored 12 seconds after the opening faceoff and controlled most of the first period as it took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission.
Pastrnak raced down left side, put the puck through his legs and went around defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere and, as he went skated the left circle and angled toward the net, he went backhand-forehand and threw the puck off Provorov and past Hart, who had no chance.
Pastrnak has four goals in three games since returning from offseason hip surgery; he did not face the Flyers in their two games with the Bruins last month.
On Tuesday, Fletcher said his team, despite its record, had too many “one and dones” in the first 10 games.
The first period was a good example.
The Flyers couldn’t get into much of a rhythm because of seven turnovers, and the Bruins spent most of the first period in Philadelphia’s defensive end. The hosts didn’t get their first shot until 10:33 remained in the stanza.
In the latter stages of the first, the Flyers started to steady the game, but Rask denied Oskar Lindblom on a rebound with 54.6 seconds to go in the period. It was the Flyers’ best chance in the opening 20 minutes.
“Obviously we’re getting some good results right now, which is the most important thing,” left winger James van Riemsdyk said before the game. “We know there’s another level we can get to. We’ll keep pushing for that and continue to chip away at that.”
Hart was the goalie when the Flyers dropped 5-4 (shootout) and 6-1 decisions to the Bruins last month. After the latter loss, Hart slammed his stick against his net several times, splintered it, and heaved it across the ice.
The Flyers — and Hart — responded after the goalie’s meltdown, winning four straight before Wednesday’s late meltdown.
