Jonathan Bailey Sat, October 24, 2026 at 9:06 PM UTC · 5 min read About Our Ads Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Philadelphia Flyers jumped out to 2-0 and 3-2 leads thanks to Matvei Michkov, Porter Martone, and Tyson Foerster, but the team collectively fell asleep for the last half of the second period and first half of the third period, dooming them to a 5-4 loss at home ice and snapping a three-game win streak.
Michkov opened the scoring for the Flyers on a 5-on-3 power play, rifling a shot from the high slot through screens from Foerster and Martone, beating Ducks goalie Lukas Dostal cleanly from range.
To set up the 5-on-3, rookie defenseman Hunter McDonald drilled Ducks forward Sam Colangelo with an open-ice hit, which prompted tough guy A.J. Greer to chase the Flyers defenseman down and initiate a fight.
McDonald escaped the fracas with only a five-minute penalty for fighting, while Colangelo was tagged for roughing and Greer was whistled for instigating and instigating, earning a 10-minute misconduct in the process.
After Michkov's goal on the 5-on-3, Martone joined in on the fun on the ensuing 5-on-4 chance, streaking back door and tapping in a pass from Travis Sanheim.
The Flyers went into the first intermission with a 2-0 lead and a commanding 11-6 shots on goal advantage, but the Ducks quickly came to life in the middle stanza.
Punishing a Nick Seeler turnover behind the net, Flyers archnemesis Cutter Gauthier set up Leo Carlsson for a goal from below the goal line, and Greer, back from his misconduct, tied the game at 2-2 with a fluky goal that bounced off the post and off Joseph Woll's skate, with the puck settling just enough past the goal line to count.
Foerster bought one back with a fluke goal of his own, racing down the ice on the penalty kill and flinging the puck at Dostal, who was beaten between the legs to allow the Flyers to take a 3-2 lead.
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Ducks forward Judd Caulfield tied the game at 3-3 only 1:15 later, cashing in on a wacky bounce in Woll's crease.
At the start of the third period, the Flyers still looked out of it, and Tristan Luneau's goal, which went through Woll, felt like a back-breaker. Trailing for the first time, the Flyers didn't begin to push back until Beckett Sennecke's redirect gave the Ducks a 5-3 lead, which was ultimately insurmountable.
Michkov, staying scoring hot , crashed the net 1:07 after Sennecke's tally to pull the Flyers within one, and despite a last hurrah that carried them through the end of the game, the Flyers came away empty-handed.
Although the Flyers were out-scored 4-1 at 5-on-5, special teams were the difference one way or another; the Flyers went 2-for-7 on the power play after starting 2-for-2, and the Ducks finished 1-for-4.
"Today good power play, a couple goals, and I think we need to stay hot on power play and five on five we have chance. We need score. We have today lots of chance. Five chances, one score. This is no good. We need hard work for chances. Chances we need score, score, score. Hard concentration, just one moment," Michkov assessed in the locker room after the game.
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In the end, the Flyers spent far too much time on special teams, and while their opponents contributed, the Flyers did themselves no favors in that regard, either.
Noel Acciari, who drew three penalties in Saturday afternoon's loss, took a retaliatory penalty by tackling Tim Washe, coming to the defense of Trevor Zegras, while Sean Couturier made the mistake of inadvertently pulling Jeff Malott's helmet off in a scrum, earning himself an unnecessary roughing penalty.
The Ducks didn't score on either penalty, though Luneau's goal came very shortly after Acciari left the penalty box.
"I think there's some undisciplined penalties that we got to stop doing. I mean, guys get hit, so what? Back in the day, we used to do all that stuff. I don't think you can do that nowadays," Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet said postgame.
"It's a clean hit. Take the guy's number, do it a different way. Everybody's got to be alert. I'd like us to be a little more disciplined."
Tocchet shared the assessment of Martone, who felt the sheer number of penalties affected the flow of the game.
Martone played 18:25 against the Ducks, but 6:29 of that came on the power play . For Michkov, it was 18:15 in total, and 5:59 on the power play.
The Flyers' two young stars combined with Noah Cates to provide the Flyers' only 5-on-5 goal of the afternoon.
"Lots of penalties. It kind of ruins the flow of the game," Martone said. "But I know this group, we want to win, everyone in this room. The way we fought back, the way we got one there in the third, we just couldn't buy another one."
In the loss, the Flyers eclipsed three goals for the first time this season. They're now 3-7-3 with a home game against the 3-5-0 Columbus Blue Jackets coming up on Tuesday night at 7 p.m.
Source: Sports
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