The Chicago Blackhawks blew a two-goal lead in the third period and lost to the host Philadelphia Flyers 2-0 in overtime Saturday.
The loss wasted standout performances by goalie Petr Mrázek as well as fourth-liners Lukas Reichel, Pat Maroon and Craig Smith, who produced two goals and essentially dominated Flyers top threat Travis Konecny and his line.
The Hawks’ penchant for throttling down in the third period did them in and cost them a chance to win in regulation. The Flyers seized the momentum in the third, knotting it 2-2 on goals by Sean Couturier and Noah Cates.
Alex Vlasic committed a holding penalty in overtime, and rookie Matvei Michkov scored the winner at 1:06.
The Flyers became one of just 11 teams to win after staging a third-period, multigoal comeback. The Hawks, who beat the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers 3-1 on Thursday, lost for the fourth time in five games.
“We got the lead and just costly turnovers,” Maroon said. “They played a good game, they stuck with their structure. … “We’ve got to be better. (It’s) a 60-minute game, and unfortunately, we maybe played 20 of it.”
Entering the game, the Reichel line had a 52% shots-for advantage in five-on-five and outscored opponents 3-1, according to naturalstattrick.com. On Saturday, they outshot opponents 8-5.
On the opening goal, Maroon made a pass to Reichel, who flushed it with a sharp-angle shot for his first goal in 10 games at 11:29 of the first.
In the second period, Maroon took a low-to-high feed from Smith and backhanded it past Aleksei Kolosov for his first goal as a Hawk. Reichel also assisted.
But for the Hawks to even be in it, it took some stunning saves from Mrázek, who finished with 34 saves, particularly in the first period.
His 10 stops in the opening frame include his calm against a short-handed two-on-none rush between Konecny and Scott Laughton. Konecny tried to set up Laughton for a close-range tip-in, but Mrázek stretched to knock it away with his pad.
In the third, Konecny back-passed to Morgan Frost for a Grade A point-blank chance, but Mrázek swallowed it up. During a frenetic Flyers attack, Mrázek preserved the tie with a diving stop on a wraparound by Rasmus Ristolainen.
To put the Hawks goalie’s game in perspective, the Flyers held a 17-7 advantage in high-danger chances.
