Samuel Ersson Struggles in Flyers’ 6-3 Loss to Flames

The Flyers tried to add to their impressive run of form they’ve had as of late in their battle against Calgary tonight. In a very close Eastern Conference top to bottom, if the Flyers stay hot there’s a serious chance they sneak into the playoffs, sitting just 4 points outside the final spot.

Despite this, the Flyers were not able to get the win on home ice tonight, unable to recover from a tumultuous first period.

Samuel Ersson‘s batting .400

He’d be fighting Trea Turner to lead off the lineup if he played baseball, but in hockey, a save percentage of .400 is about as bad as it gets. His night ended very early in the first period after giving up 3 goals on the Flames first 5 shots on goal.

Connor Zary scored first for Calgary 7:40 into the period and would do it again less than 2 minutes later 9:32 into the period, with Nazem Kadri scoring in between them at the 8:13 mark. Ivan Fedotov took over matters for Ersson after Zary’s second goal.

Noah Cates would respond just 22 seconds after the Flames went up 3-0 assisted by Tyson Foerster and Bobby Brink. 8 minutes later former Flame Andrei Kuzmenko continued to produce since becoming a Flyer by cutting Calgary’s lead to just 1 17:11 into the period. Following the pattern in this period, however, Calgary’s Yegor Sharangovich countered with one of his own.

Missed opportunities in the 2nd

The Flyers went into the second period down just 2 with plenty of time to flip the script. They would go on to have 2 opportunities on the power play and spoil both of them.

The first chance came after Calgary shot themselves in the foot with a too-many-men penalty giving the Flyers a man advantage. The struggles the Flyers have faced with a man-up all year long however continued. The Flyers got plenty of chances but couldn’t put any of them in the net. Travis Konecny came oh so close with a shot that would ring off the iron.

In between power play chances for the Flyers, the Flames upped their lead to 3 with a goal from MacKenzie Weegar, who was assisted by former Flyer Morgan Frost at the 16:33 point in the period. Unlike the Flyers, Calgary was able to take advantage of their own power play which they were given off of a roughing call on Nick Seeler.

With just over a minute left in the 2nd period, the Flyers would be given another man advantage thanks to a tripping penalty on the Flames and again would do nothing with it. This particular power play was a disaster with the Flyers not even getting a shot on goal until there were less than 20 seconds left to go with a man up.

Too little too late

The Flyers would open up the final period with a power play, but like I said would do nothing with it. The first 10 minutes of the third were pretty flat for the Flyers when you would’ve liked to see a sense of urgency with time not being on the team’s side.

Despite this, ol’reliable Matvei Michkov buried one for his 20th goal of the season 10:43 into the period to make it 5-3. Travis Sanheim would pick up the assist, and all of a sudden if the Flyers moved quickly they could possibly force overtime.

MM39 gets No. 20 on the season to draw us closer. #CGYvsPHI | #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/Efj62iJAdr

— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) March 5, 2025

That didn’t happen. While the Flyers would have yet another power play and would pull Fedotov to give themselves a 2-man advantage they still could not break past the Calgary defense and goalkeeping. Matt Coronato would score an empty netter with a minute to go to all but end it.

Key details

Fortunately for us, it is a very tight playoff race in the East. The Flyers have looked pretty good since the 4 Nations break and all it takes is another 4-5 game point streak and we could see ourselves with the final playoff spot. With how good Michkov has looked since the return to action I wouldn’t rule out the possibility.

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