Flyers in nose-dive, lose sixth in a row
Rookie Jack Quinn scored twice and the Buffalo Sabres beat the freefalling Philadelphia Flyers 42 on Friday night, handing the Flyers their sixth consecutive defeat.
Philadelphia dropped to 04-2 in a season-worst skid that has the Flyers in jeopardy of slipping out of playoff contention. The loss dropped them from third place in the Metropolitan Division to the second wild-card slot in the Eastern Conference. They are tied at 83 points with the New York Islanders, who have a game in hand.
Buffalo, which remained in the hunt with 79 points, got Rasmus Dahlin’s 19th goal of the season, making him the second Sabres defenseman to reach that mark, joining Phil Housley. Tage Thompson had a goal and an assist and UkkoPekka Luukkonen stopped 32 shots to improve to 2012-1 since taking over starting duties for Buffalo in late December.
The Flyers are a team in crisis, which even coach John Tortorella acknowledged earlier Friday by saying his team was “taking on water here a little bit.” Philadelphia makes it second stop on a four-game road trip Saturday evening at Columbus.
Other games
Hurricanes 4, Capitals 2: Alex Ovechkin scored his 850th and 801st career goal but Washington still lost its fifth consecutive game. Up 2-0 after one period on Ovechkin’s goals, Washington saw its lead cut in half by Jake Guentzel 14:30 into the second. Martin Necas and Sebastian Aho scored in the third to put Carolina up 3-1 and Guentzel clinched it with an empty-net goal.
Rangers 4, Red Wings 3:
Barclay Goodrow’s goal in the second period and Chris Kreider’s power-play score midway in the third for New York erased Detroit’s 3- 2 advantage. Goodrow had given New York a 2-1 lead with his goal in the final minutes of the first period, but the Red Wings went back in front in the second period on goals by J.T. Compher and Dylan Larkin.