Slow-starting Flyers lose to Coyotes

Memo to Flyers: Games start in the first period, not the second.

The Flyers continued a maddening trend Thursday night, allowing the first goal and falling into a big early hole.

They almost recovered. Almost.

They erased a 2-0 deficit, tied the score, then watched Arizona score two bizarre goals in a 1-minute, 39-second span in the third period en route to a 5-4 win at the Wells Fargo Center.

Andrew MacDonald's first goal of the season, a point drive past a screened Louis Domingue, got the Flyers within 4-3 with 11:26 left.

But former Flyer Ryan White secured the win by scoring from a bad angle with 4:19 remaining, enabling Arizona to salvage one win on its six-game road trip.

"It's a save I have to make," goalie Steve Mason said.

Wayne Simmonds scored a power-play goal with 14.3 seconds to go to make it 5-4, but it didn't matter.

The Coyotes, the NHL's youngest team, are 2-5. Both wins are against the Flyers, who have received subpar goaltending in the first two weeks.

"That's a game that was right there for the taking," Mason said. "It wasn't a matter of anything else but us losing the game. It was our own doing, and those are two points we should have."

Twenty-four seconds before MacDonald (minus-2) scored, Brad Richardson deposited a controversial shorthanded goal, scored while sliding into Mason, to give the Coyotes a 4-2 advantage with 13:29 to go.

Dave Hakstol used his coach's challenge, claiming goaltender interference. But it was ruled that defenseman Ivan Provorov tripped Richardson, causing him to slide into Mason and dislodge the net, so the goal stood.

Arizona had taken a 3-2 lead on another odd goal as Martin Hanzal scored while Brayden Schenn and Jakob Chychrun were fighting at center ice. The goal counted because the play had not been blown dead.

"Honestly, I didn't even know they had scored" at the time, Schenn said.

Hakstol said there were "a lot of close calls they had to evaluate tonight, and I'm sure they got them right. We have to look at ourselves . . . and wake up in the morning and look at yourself in the mirror, and that starts with me."

Nick Cousins and Schenn (power play) scored 5:26 apart in the second period to erase a 2-0 Arizona lead. Schenn scored as he was falling, belly-first, and poked in a rebound of a drive taken by Shayne Gostisbehere.

The Flyers were on a power play because of a goalie-interference penalty on Laurent Dauphin, whose infraction negated a goal that would have given the Coyotes a 3-1 lead.

Fourteen members of the Flyers Hall of Fame participated in a pregame ceremony as part of the franchise's 50th anniversary season. They then watched the Flyers allow the first goal for the seventh straight game.

"We just have to have a little more focus," said Gostisbehere, who was minus-3 on the night.

Arizona, on goals by Jamie McGinn and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, built a 2-0 first-period lead. That meant the Flyers had been outscored, 8-1, in the opening period this year.

"Our starts," said Schenn, who had three points and was matched against his brother, Luke, "have to be better."

"The first period was kind of ugly," captain Claude Giroux said.

In their first four home games, the Flyers have trailed 1-0, 2-0, 3-0, and 2-0.

Cousins, who was moved back to his customary position, center, scored on a rebound to cut the deficit to 2-1 midway through the second period.

Schenn scored the equalizer on the power play as he nudged the puck past Domingue. The Flyers have scored 15 second-period goals - 14 more than in the opening period.

"We battled back to make it 2-2, and then just sloppy play and poor reads [doomed the Flyers]," said MacDonald, who, along with defensive partner Gostisbehere, struggled throughout the game.

Domingue, playing for the injured Mike Smith, took an unsightly 5.04 goals-against average (second-worst in the NHL) and an .851 save percentage into the game.

Smith and Arizona scored a 4-3 overtime win over the visiting Flyers on Oct. 15. The Coyotes then lost the next five games, all on the road, before completing their trip Thursday.

They went home happy.

scarchidi@phillynews.com

@BroadStBull