December 11, 2019
DENVER – It was a rough start to a three-game road trip for the Philadelphia Flyers (17-9-5) as they fell, 3-1, to the Colorado Avalanche (20-8-3) at Pepsi Center on Wednesday night. Mikko Rantanen scored twice to helping the Avalanche earn their 20th win of the season.
The Flyers were without leading scorer Travis Konecny, forward Oskar Lindblom, and defenseman Phil Myers. Forward Michael Raffl was also unavailable due to a broken finger. He is on long-term injured reserved.
Matt Calvert opened the scoring at 5:21 of the first period netting a fortuitous rebound making it 1-0 in favor of the Avalanche. Despite more pressure from Colorado, the score remained the same through the end of the period.
At 16:05 of the second period, Mikko Rantanen would make his presence known. His seventh goal of the year made it 2-0 in favor of the home team. Again, the Avalanche continued to control play throughout.
Rantanen would strike again at 2:31 of the third period. The star forward’s second goal of the game made it 3-0 in favor of Colorado.
Philadelphia finally got on the board at 14:48 of the final period with a goal from Claude Giroux making it 3-1 still favoring the Avalanche.
Despite last-ditch efforts by the Flyers, the score would not change. The Avalanche emerged victorious earning a 3-1 win; their 20th of the season.
Carter Hart made 24 saves on 27 shots faced in net for the Flyers. In the second period, he made a potential “Save of the Year” going post-to-post to rob Rantanen with a beautiful glove save.
Following the final buzzer, Sean Couturier and newly called-up forward David Kase, who made his NHL debut last night, gave their thoughts on the game:
Philadelphia’s next game is Saturday, Dec. 14, when they take on the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center. Puck drop between the Flyers and Wild is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
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