Flyers fall short narrowing 6-goal deficit

The Flyers fought to the very end.

It was the beginning and middle that were the problems.

Faced with a 6-0 deficit after two periods, the Flyers made an all-out charge in the final 20 minutes before falling, 6-4, to the New Jersey Devils in Saturday's matinee at the Wells Fargo Center.

The Flyers outshot the Devils, 24-1, in that 4-0 third period and truly believed they could come back all the way.

"It would have been Tebow time," said Jaromir Jagr, who scored the Flyers' second goal and his first since Dec. 29.

Despite the late effort, the Flyers will take no moral victory into Sunday's key 1 p.m. matchup at Madison Square Garden with the Eastern Conference-leading New York Rangers.

"I asked the guys and to their credit they went out and played really hard in the third period, trying to set it back straight," Flyers coach Peter Laviolette said. "The ship went off course there for a couple of periods and I do think it's important to get it back, it's hard to get it back."

But . . .

"You can't walk out of here and say you feel good," Laviolette said.

Just 3 minutes, 5 seconds into the game, New Jersey took a 1-0 lead, scoring on a two-man advantage. Patrik Elias found Kurtis Foster, whose one-timer from close range beat Sergei Bobrovsky.

The game turned when the Flyers surrendered four goals in less than three minutes from late in the first period to the early part of the second.

New Jersey scored twice in the final minute of the first period. The first came after a controversial no-call.

Center Claude Giroux appeared to be tripped and/or slashed by former Flyer Dainius Zubrus, but there was no call. Zubrus retrieved the puck and passed to Ilya Kovalchuk, who scored on a shorthanded wrist shot with 57 seconds left.

That was the Devils' 12th shorthanded goal, increasing their NHL lead.

"I didn't see a replay yet, but I'm pretty sure it was a penalty," Giroux said.

Zubrus then beat Bobrovsky and the clock, scoring on a backhander, officially with one second left in the period. The goal was reviewed to make sure it came before time expired.

The Devils carried that momentum by scoring twice in the first two minutes of the second period. Zach Parise earned a power-play goal 38 seconds into the period, tapping in a rebound after initially being stopped by Bobrovsky.

The Devils made it 5-0 on Alexei Ponikarovsky's goal from close range just 1:37 into the period.

New Jersey went up 6-0 by scoring on a two-man advantage. Foster got the goal on a slap shot for his second score of the game. It doubled his season's output to four.

The goal came with 11:38 left, and at that point Bobrovsky was pulled for Ilya Bryzgalov, much to the delight of the crowd of 19,862.

In that frantic third period the Flyers set a franchise record for single-period shot differential (23), according to Elias.

Wayne Simmonds got the Flyers on the board, scoring on a backhander in front of goalie Johan Hedberg for his 16th goal of the year with 16:01 left.

Jagr's 13th goal made it 6-2 with 10:37 left.

The goal-scoring spree was interrupted by a fight when Kovalchuk decked the Flyers' Brayden Schenn.

"I just asked him, 'What are you going to do?' and he said, 'Fight you.' So I said, 'OK,' " Kovalchuk said.

Giroux made it 6-3, scoring on a power-play one-timer off a Jagr feed with 7:20 remaining. It was his 20th goal of the season and first non-empty- net goal since Jan. 2.

Jakub Voracek made it 6-4 by depositing a rebound with 6:29 left.

The Flyers continued to mount pressure, but on this day they fell one miracle and two goals short.