Trip begins by dealing Flyers 9th straight loss
PHILADELPHIA — In a city famous for boos, the Sharks made sure they weren’t on the receiving end.
Joe Thornton scored the go-ahead goal late in the first period, Chris Tierney and Marc-Edouard Vlasic also scored and Logan Couture had two assists for the Sharks, who won their second straight game, 3-1 over the Flyers, who lost their ninth game in a row.
“The toughest game is always the first one,” Thornton said after the Sharks won the opener of a four-game road trip. “Three-hour time change, you get here late, dinner late, everything is kind of off. So this first game is huge for us.”
Claude Giroux scored 48 seconds in before the Flyers were blanked the rest of the way by backup goalie Aaron Dell, who made 22 saves. Starter Martin Jones sustained an unspecified injury near the end of his shutout of Winnipeg on Saturday but traveled and is expected to play on the trip.
After Giroux’s 11th goal, Dell looked sharp. Tierney tied it from the right circle at 10:29, and then Thornton’s 5-on-3 goal with 1:18 left in the first period put the Sharks up 2-1.
Vlasic scored with 3:56 left in the second as the Sharks improved to 6-2-1 on the road.
When the loss was in the books, the Flyers held a closeddoor meeting, general manager Ron Hextall was insisting they’re still a playoff team and head coach Dave Hakstol was shaking off calls for his job.
The boos picked up steam in the second period. The “Fire Hakstol” chants became louder in the third.
Mired in a nine-game losing streak — its longest skid in nearly in 10 years — things are getting ugly in Philadelphia.
“Nobody said this was going to be easy,” Hakstol said. “If you don’t want to be in this spot, it’s a choice. That’s how I react to it. There are high expectations in this market.”
The Sharks earned a split in the season series after losing on opening night to the Flyers 5-3 behind Wayne Simmonds’ hat trick. Simmonds has just four goals in 24 games since then.
“We get booed every once in a while,” said Simmonds, who took two penalties. “But when we’re getting booed the whole game, it’s pretty embarrassing.”