Thankfully the Flyers seemed to have a bit more success avoiding the onslaught of pressure in the second period. They weren’t necessarily trading chances for firewagon hockey but they appeared to keep things far tidier in the neutral zone and playing as a five-man unit. But he was ready during a Colorado power play, stoning the Avs with some key saves. Unfortunately he couldn’t keep the potent opposition off the board forever as Cale Makar simply beat him with a great shot roughly halfway through the game. A second Makar goal was challenged for goalie interference and the Flyers were successful, keeping them just a shot away.
While Ivan Fedotov made a case for himself the previous three games, Kolosov looked steady throughout the game and particularly keeping the Flyers in it early in the third. It’s a good situation for the Flyers and the front office to be in if both backups are playing solid.
Sanheim’s workload
Following the morning skate, coach John Tortorella said he was going to play the crap out of Travis Sanheim. Maybe Sanheim took it to heart as roughly five minutes into the game Sanheim was on the ice for just over three minutes, stuck in his own zone before finally getting off the ice. The blueliner saved a goal as Nathan MacKinnon fed Jonatthan Drouin who would’ve had an empty net but Sanheim was able to block it for Kolosov who was out of position. He ended up playing 10:34 in all situations, including some power play time he had as if five-on-five wasn’t enough. When it was all said and done Sanheim had a mammoth 31:07 time on ice.
If Egor Zamula is injured for any length of time, look for Sanheim playing half the game to be the norm and not the exception the next few weeks given how banged up the blueline is.
Avoiding waves of Avalanche
The first period, outside of a few consecutive shifts for the Flyers in Colorado’s zone, was primarily the Flyers not getting the puck out and then having the Avs either miss the net, have Kolosov make a save or the Flyers block the shot. The Flyers were on a ridiculous pace late in the first having blocked 11 shots in about 17 minutes of play. When one of your defenseman could conceivably make more saves than your goaltender (who was solid early on) it’s pretty damning. No surprise that the Avs were up 17-7 in the chances category after 20 minutes.
More injuries leads to more goals
The Flyers might have avoided bad injuries. Three of them in the third and two in fact over roughly two minutes of play. Egor Zamula left the bench and didn’t return after getting hit early in the third. Then Foerster smacked his face or side of his head off the dasherboard and had to leave the bench. Fortunately he returned. While he was being attended to by the trainers Joel Farabee blocked a shot and dropped in a heap, resulting in play being stopped. But he too seemed to shake it off.
Maybe it was a night where only three injuries in a row would result in a goal. Owen Tippett finally broke the ice for Philadelphia with eight minutes left to make it a game again.
The Flyers made a game of it late (and Helge Grans got his first NHL point) but it wasn’t enough as the Colorado Avalanche held on to defeat Philadelphia by a score of 3-2 on Monday night at Wells Fargo Center. The winning streak is snapped but the injury streak might have continued.
The basics
First period: No scoring
Second period: 8:30- Cale Makar (Nathan MacKinnon, Devon Toews), 15:08- Cale Makar (Casey Mittelstadt, Mikko Rantanen) (PPG)
Third period: 8:34- Casey Mittelstadt (Mikko Rantanen, Jonathan Drouin), 11:48- Owen Tippett (Travis Konecny, Travis Sanheim), 13:32- Tyson Foerster (Bobby Brink, Helge Grans)
SOG: 29 (COL) – 26 (PHI)
Some takeaways
Grans Entrance
With Sam Ersson placed on Injured Reserve and both Cam York and Emil Andrae nursing what are hopefully just bruises, the Flyers called up defenseman Helge Grans to make his NHL debut. His firstfew minutes were fine, making a decent pinch to try to keep the puck in the Avalanche zone before making a line change. Grans also got a solid feed by Matvei Michkov with six minutes left in the second and nearly made the most of it before being thrawted by Colorado keeper Justus Annunen. He was also robbed point blank by Annunen in the second on possibly Philadelphia’s best chance of the game.
Grans didn’t look out of place which is a good sign especially considering the opponent’s lethal offensive capabilities. He also made a great pass to Travis Sanheim early in the third during some four-on-four play but Sanheim couldn’t cut the lead in half. He did get his first NHL point with a secondary assist on Tyson Foerster’s third period goal.
Official scare
One of the referees for the evening, Mitch Dunning, was injured when he collided with Colorado’s Josh Manson who didn’t see Dunning skating backwards towards him. Dunning was down for some time and appeared to be holding his neck. A stretcher was brought out as both training staffs stablized his neck and the game was delayed several minutes as Dunning was wheeled off the ice as Manson, looking very concerned, sent his good wishes to the referee. The game carried on old-school with one referee and two linesmen.
NBC Sports Philadelphia reporter Ashlyn Sullivan unfortunately reported later in the first period during a stoppage it was a “major back injury.” One hopes in the bigger scheme of things the injury isn’t life-altering for Dunning.
Foerster starting to fire up
Tyson Foerster is looking more like his 2023-24 self. But it would be nice if he could finish. On a penalty kill in the second Foerster and Scott Laughton were on a two-on-one with the Avs defender having no stick. Laughton fed the puck to Foerster who missed the net, then was unable to put the wraparound in.
After looking like he was injured in the third, Foerster put in a loose puck the lone referee was still able to see, cutting what looked like a shutout loss to a one-goal game.
Koolosov
Aleksei Kolosov got the start against Colorado. The Avs didn’t pepper him the first few minutes with many chances and his first touch of the puck was a gaffe as he flubbed a pass behind the net. A shot by Cale Makar was stopped by him and more importantly stopped play from what was a shooting gallery for the Avs. Logan O’Connor had him beat seven minutes in but he couldn’t beat the iron. Had the Avs hit the net Kolosov could’ve probably had 20 shots or more against him in the first period.
Flyers' rookie Helge Grans made his NHL debut in the team's loss to the Avalanche.
Heather Cattai/Heather Barry Images, LLC
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