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Flyers look for answers on road trip

The Flyers left Sunday afternoon for their last extended road trip of the season, and on the flight to sunny South Florida they had a lot to think about.

The Flyers have struggled to put teams away and hold onto leads during their recent slump. (AP Photo)
The Flyers have struggled to put teams away and hold onto leads during their recent slump. (AP Photo)Read more

The Flyers left Sunday afternoon for their last extended road trip of the season, and on the flight to sunny South Florida they had a lot to think about.

At the top of the list: Finding a way to close out tight games.

If they don't find an answer - quickly - they will limp into the Stanley Cup playoffs next month. They have lost five of their last seven games, and in four of those losses they were ahead or tied in the third period.

"The scary part is, it's happening way too often," said center Danny Briere after the Flyers' worst late-game collapse in 24 years, a 5-4 overtime loss to Atlanta on Saturday night. It was the first time since 1987 that the Flyers had lost after taking at least a three-goal lead into the third period.

"Every time they got an opportunity, it was in the net," coach Peter Laviolette said.

The line of Mike Richards, Kris Versteeg, and Dan Carcillo was a combined minus-5. Versteeg's penalty and his turnover led to two Atlanta goals in the final 2 minutes, 59 seconds of regulation, sending the game into overtime.

In their last 12 games, the Flyers have been outscored, 20-4, in the third period, excluding empty-net goals.

Laviolette, who gave his players their third day off in the last week on Sunday, was surprisingly calm after the latest defeat.

Maybe he was in a state of shock.

"If you look back on it, there was only one scrambling part of the third period that I didn't like, where [goalie Sergei Bobrovsky] had to make three or four saves in a row," said Laviolette, whose team squandered Ville Leino's first career hat trick. "The rest of it was in control. We had coverage and then something funny happened. . . . There were a couple of funny bounces at the end and a chain of events that were not right, but they kept on coming. They are a desperate hockey team that needs to win games in order to make the playoffs."

In their final 14 games, the Flyers, who are trying to hold off Washington, which is one point behind in the Eastern Conference, need to play with the desperation that most of their recent opponents have displayed. If not, their four months of excellence won't mean much.

Breakaways. The Flyers start a three-game road trip Tuesday against the Florida Panthers, followed by games in Atlanta on Thursday and in Dallas on Saturday. . . . Defenseman Chris Pronger is expected to test his sore right hand at practice on Monday in Florida. . . . The Flyers are 2-1 against the Panthers, including a 4-2 win in Florida last month. . . . With Saturday's loss, the Flyers are 5-7 in overtime games this season. . . . Leino's hat trick was the first by a Flyer on home ice since Mike Richards on Oct. 6, 2008 vs. Washington. Jeff Carter is the only other Flyer with a hat trick this season. . . . Since the all-star break, the Flyers are 9-7-2.