The Philadelphia Flyers lost to the Buffalo Sabres 6-5 in the closing seconds of the game yesterday. With less than 5 seconds remaining in the game Buffalo’s Mike Grier scored giving the Sabres the win.

The Flyers scored two shorthanded goals, one by Sami Kapanen and one by Brian Savage. The rest were scored at even strength by Mike Knuble, Simon Gagne and Mike Richards.

Antero Niittymaki got the start in goal and stopped 33 of 39 shots. The early goals he gave up were of a result of odd man rushes, defensive breakdowns and rebounds not cleared. The last couple goals he should have stopped. For Buffalo, Ryan Miller got the start in goal. After giving up 5 goals last game against Tampa Bay, Miller gave up 5 more yesterday against the Flyers. He was pulled after the second intermission with Martin Biron taking his place.

Niko Dimitrakos made his debut as a Flyer. He was minus 1, played 11 shifts with 9 minutes of ice time and had one minor hooking penalty. Denis Gauthier also made his debute. He was also minus 1, played 26 shifts with 19:37 minutes of ice time, 1 shot on goal, 2 blocked shots and 1 hit. Gauthier was on the ice for 4 of Buffalo’s goals.

So why did the Flyers lose this one?
The first period play was solid. Even though the Flyers were out shot, they were up 2-0 after Miller let in a couple of soft goals. 15 seconds into the second period Buffalo scores on an odd man rush and its all down hill from there. Although the Flyers did score 3 goals in the second, they gave up 4. There are not too many games that you can give up 4 goals in a period and win. Again out shot in the period. The third period the Flyers just stopped playing, registering only one shot for the entire third period. Martin Biron gets the win by stopping just one shot.
Out-shot, outplayed, lack of defensive play, lack of discipline and lack of heart is why the Flyers lost the game like so many others recently.

Peter Forsberg – “We’re not skating, we’re not hitting, we’re not doing anything. When we had the lead, we never really went after them. We sat back and waited for the other team to score. It’s been like that most of the year.”

I agree with that.

Three stars for the game were Mike Grier, Sami Kapanen and Daniel Briere.

Turner Stevenson was a healthy scratch.
The Flyers how now lost 8 games this season when leading after two periods.