Lifeless offense helps deepen Flyers’ skid

Whatever it is, turnovers, chemistry, or an anemic offense the Flyers struggle to beat teams with winning records.

They have to play an almost perfect game to prevail unless it’s Buffalo or the New York Rangers.

After their 5-3 loss Thursday to the Washington Capitals, who led from start to finish, the Flyers have won just two of their last seven games against teams above them in the East.

The Flyers have scored more than three goals in just one of those games, which all too often leaves little margin for error from goalies Brian Elliott, who played Thursday, or Carter Hart.

The Scott Laughton-Travis Konecny-Kevin Hayes line scored two of the Flyers goals Thursday. Defenseman Ivan Provorov got the other goal.

“It’s tough coming back in this league,” said Laughton, whose goal with 10:45 left got the Flyers within 4-3. “When you’re down 4-2 or whatever it was it’s tough to come back, especially in the third when you’re pushing the game and trying to make things happen.”

Overall, the Flyers (13-8-3, 29 points) have lost four of their last six games to fall eight points out of a playoff berth.

The lack of offense has been atrocious. Joel Farabee, tied for the Flyers’ lead with 11 goals, has just two in the last eight games. James van Riemsdyk, who also has 11 goals, has just one in the last six games. Sean Couturier? One goal in the last six games.

“I think recently we’ve come back a couple times, so I don’t think it’s a problem with our offense,” Konecny said. “It’s just a matter of us giving them those chances going the other way. I think when our team plays that simple game and gets it in deep, that creates more offense for us instead of chasing the puck around.”

For much of the game, the Capitals (17-6-4-38), who are second in the East, looked fresher although they are a team of old guys. A dozen of them are over 30, including 35-year-old Alex Ovechkin, who scored the first goal Thursday.

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Laughton still is steamed that Curtis Lazar of the Sabres got away with a dangerous trip after a faceoff at center ice Tuesday.

“I know him,” Laughton said. “I played world juniors with him. I know he plays hard. He plays a strong two-way game. I mean, it was just a weird play, and I thought it was dirty. I put my foot in on the faceoff and then he lifts my leg and I’m defenseless in that situation where I don’t have any footing around me and obviously, I landed pretty awkwardly there but was able to come back and feel good.”

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Konecny went to a knee slapping the puck into the net to knot the game at 1-1 in the first period.

The shot burst into the net like a hard slider in baseball.

“We’ve been working on popping the puck to the right areas for guys and get on those loose pucks and (Kevin) Hayes made a great play there,” Konecny said. “I just had to hit the net.”

It was the seventh goal of the season for Konecny, who also celebrated his 24th birthday.

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Michael Raffl sat out his second straight game with a hand injury.

“I talked to Michael yesterday after practice,” coach Alain Vigneault said. “His hand is not there yet so I don’t know. It could be day to day. It could be week to week. We’ll have to just keep a close eye on that.”

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NOTES » Erik Gustafsson registered his 100th career assist on Ivan Provorov’s third-period goal. … Ovechkin’s goal was the 715th of his career, leaving him three short of passing Phil Esposito (717) for sixth-most in NHL history.

Claire Jacobs scored four of her game-high 27 points in overtime, and La Salle went 10-for-10 at the free throw line in the extra session to outlast Duquesne,

72-68, in the Atlantic 10 tournament Thursday.

After going just 8-for-15 in regulation, the eighth-seeded Explorers

(12-13) hit free throws when they counted to advance to Friday’s quarterfinals against top-seeded Dayton. It’s the first postseason win for coach Mount MacGillivray and the program’s first since 2017.

Kayla Spruill tallied a double-double of 16 points and 10 rebounds. Jacobs was near one with nine boards, while Haleigh Hill added 14 points and nine boards, hitting four OT free throws. Molly Masciantonio (Archbishop Carroll All-Delco) had four points, including two big overtime free throws, five rebounds and three assists.

Also in the Atlantic 10 tourney: UMASS 79, SAINT JOSEPH’S 69 » Kelly Jekot’s 3-pointer at the buzzer forced overtime, but the Hawks (7-10) never got their offense going in the extra session, the No. 10 seed bowing out.

Kaliah Henderson led St. Joe’s with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Jekot added 12 points, Alayna Gribble provided 12 off the bench and Alexis Santarelli scored 11 for the Hawks.

In other games:

ARCADIA 56, WIDENER 52 » Kyra Schenk scored 20 points and grabbed 15 rebounds, but the Pride

(6-2) were outscored 17-4 in the final quarter to let one slip away.

Nicole Barnes (Garnet Valley) scored seven points to go with five rebounds and four assists for Widener.

MESSIAH 75, EASTERN 44 » Jaelyn Harris scored 14 points and Brynn Schmidt added 13 but the Eagles (07, 0-7 MAC Commonwealth) scored just 14 points in the first half.

Men’s Basketball

Arcadia’s Justin Money lived up to his name, hitting a 3-pointer with 22 seconds left to send the Knights to a 70-67 win over Widener.

Money led all scorers with 21 points. Pat Holden and Kevin Schenk scored 17 points each for Widener (4-5). Steven Matlack and Matt Daulerio each supplied eight points and seven rebounds. MESSIAH 72, EASTERN 59 » William Blet was one of four Eagles in double-figures with 12 points and 12 rebounds, but winless Eastern (0-7,

0-5 MAC Commonwealth) couldn’t keep pace away from home.

Sam Gallardo led Eastern with

13 points. Keashawn Ward added

12 points and Jaron Fairweather had a dozen.

Brenden Barry nearly pulled off a little late magic, but a big South Florida lead and a controversial foul call spoiled Temple’s comeback.

Barry hit three 3-pointers in the final two minutes to narrow an 11-point deficit to two, but the Owls couldn’t complete the rally, falling to USF, 73-71, in the first round of the American Athletic Conference Tournament on Thursday.

Ninth-seeded Temple (511) sees its season end. The Owls didn’t go down without a fight, though.

The Bulls led 67-56 with two minutes to play. But Barry came up with a steal and hit a triple, then canned another one off a feed from Jeremiah Williams and added a third long ball from J.P. Moorman with 1:07 to play to cut the lead to two. They were his first three shots of the game.

But Barry was called for an iffy foul with 12 seconds left and Temple still down two. Justin Brown hit two free throws for USF, and though Williams would hit a jumper in the paint with seven seconds left, it was too little, too late for the Owls.

Khalif Battle led the way with 18 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. Barry and Damian Dunn scored 11 points each off the bench. Jake Forrester paired seven points with 11 rebounds for Temple.