Flyers’ Bizarre Night Begins With Mason Illness, Ends With OT Loss

Report From Philadelphia Flyers

* With his three assists tonight, Jake Voracek pulled back within a point of the league scoring lead, currently held by Sidney Crosby (24-50-74). Voracek now has 21 goals and 52 assists for 73 points and is tied with Alex Ovechkin and John Tavares.

* The Flyers have dropped nine consecutive road games (0-5-4), matching their season high set from Oct. 30 – Dec. 3 (0-7-2).

* Tonight’s game was the Flyers’ 24th of the season that went past regulation, which ties a franchise record set in 1998-99.

* Claude Giroux’s two goals came on four shots, and he went 14-for-21 (67 pct) on faceoffs.

* The Flyers are off until Wednesday night when they host Chicago (8 PM, NBCSN, 93.3 WMMR).

GAME RECAP

EDMONTON — Edmonton Oilers center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins extended his scoring streak to five games with a three-point night against the Philadelphia Flyers at Rexall Place on Saturday. His second goal of the game, 2:46 into overtime, gave the Oilers a 5-4 victory.

Nugent-Hopkins picked up a rebound in front of the net and beat Flyers goaltender Ray Emery for his 22nd goal of the season. He also had an assist in the game for Edmonton (20-39-13).

“It was definitely nice to get the overtime winner,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “We haven’t been too successful in extra time this season, so anytime you get a chance to bury one you have to capitalize and luckily enough, we did tonight. I saw [Nikita Nikitin] coming down the pipe and I didn’t think I would be able to tip it, but I wanted to get there just in case the rebound did pop out and it came to me, and I just wanted to get it past him on my backhand.”

Jordan Eberle, Teddy Purcell and Matt Hendricks also scored for Edmonton, who fell behind 3-1 in the first period. Goaltender Ben Scrivens made 27 saves.

Claude Giroux had two goals for Philadelphia (29-29-16). Ryan White and Michael Raffl also scored, and Jakub Voracekhad three assists. Emery got the start for the Flyers after Steve Mason fell ill following the warm-up and made 29 saves.

“They are a fast team that is good on the rush and have a lot of guys who can make plays,” Giroux said. “They made some nice plays to get back into it. It’s frustrating and disappointing not being able to find a way to win this game. We did a lot of good things. We just have to be better.”

Nugent-Hopkins opened the scoring 51 seconds into the game, getting to a loose puck in front of Emery and scoring on the Oilers’ first shot of the night. Eberle stripped the puck from Flyers defenseman Nicklas Grossmann behind the net and sent a pass out in front; the puck bounced off Flyers center Sean Couturier and towards the net, where Nugent-Hopkins was able to reach it.

Giroux tied the game at 4:25, taking a pass in the slot and snapping a shot through Scrivens. He scored again on the power play at 12:00, taking a cross ice-feed from Voracek and picking the corner on Scrivens.

White increased Philadelphia’s lead to 3-1 at 14:17, capitalizing on an Edmonton turnover at the Flyers’ blue line and breaking out on a 2-on-1 rush with Zac Rinaldo. White gave the puck up to Rinaldo, then got it back and beat Scrivens.

Purcell cut the lead to 3-2 at 16:15 with his 10th goal of the season. He took a pass from Derek Roy in the slot and snapped a shot over Emery’s shoulder. Hendricks tied the game with 31 seconds left in the period, knocking in a rebound of a Boyd Gordon shot that hit Emery in the chest then bounced up and landed in front of Hendricks.

“It was definitely an exciting game for the fans,” Eberle said. “I don’t know if it was our best first period, we gave up a lot of chances. But we found ways to score and we got one in overtime to win it, that’s the most important thing.”

Eberle put Edmonton up 4-3 at 1:11 of the second period, taking a pass from Benoit Pouliot while streaking to the net and lifting a backhand over Emery.

Raffl tied the game 46 seconds into the third period when he took a pass from Voracek in the slot and beat Scrivens to the blocker side.

“I think we got too comfortable there after we got the lead,” Rinaldo said. “That’s what happens when you get too comfortable. You can’t do that in this League.”

Each team had good opportunities to take the lead in the third period.

Philadelphia rookie Nick Cousins had a breakaway with six minutes left in the period, but was unable to slide the puck between Scrivens’ pads. A minute later, Taylor Hall had an opportunity on a wraparound but was stopped by Flyers forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, who was able to get a stick on the puck and keep it out of the net.

Hall was playing his first game since sustaining a leg injury on Jan. 26 and missing 20 games. He earned an assist on Nugent-Hopkins’ OT winner.

“I felt pretty brutal at the start and improved as the game went on,” Hall said. “My conditioning is fine; it’s just when you get into a game, it’s hard to take deep breaths and when your mind is racing, it’s hard to recover. By the end, I felt pretty good. I got better as the game wore on. It was nice to be able to contribute to a win.”

Edmonton hosts the Winnipeg Jets on Monday in the fourth of a six-game homestand. The Flyers, who went 0-2-2 on a four-game Canadian road trip, are off until the Chicago Blackhawks come to Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday.