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Flyers continue to struggle against Oilers

EDMONTON - This time, there were no late-game heroics.

Danny Briere gets checked into the boards by the Oilers' Shawn Horcoff. (John Ulan/The Canadian Press/AP)
Danny Briere gets checked into the boards by the Oilers' Shawn Horcoff. (John Ulan/The Canadian Press/AP)Read more

EDMONTON - This time, there were no late-game heroics.

There are only so many times you can go to that well. And the Flyers already did that in Winnipeg on Tuesday night, when they salvaged an overtime win after Wayne Simmonds' tally tied the game with 9.7 seconds left in the third period.

Last night, the Flyers pounded 15 shots toward the Edmonton net in the third period while allowing just five chances at the other end of the ice.

The effort was too little, too late.

For the second visit in a row, the Flyers were shutout in the Great White North - as Devan Dubnyk and the 29th place Edmonton Oilers dealt them a 2-0 loss at a Rexall Place.

Simon Gagne was the last Flyer to score a goal in Edmonton, way back on October 6, 2007. Overall, the Flyers have not won in Edmonton since March 19, 2001.

More importantly, the Flyers have not been able to string together consecutive wins since Jan. 10-12 - a span of 18 games, or 22 percent of the entire 82-game schedule.

This one, though, wasn't on Ilya Bryzgalov's chin - even though Jordan Eberle snuck a weak, dribbling shot through his five-hole in the second period. In fact, Bryzgalov stopped Shawn Horcoff's penalty shot with under 3 minutes to play to give the Flyers a fighting chance.

As the Flyers have learned, being shutout for the fourth time this season, you've got to score to win. Last night, the Flyers blasted 35 shots at Dubnyk, but didn't garner enough quality scoring chances.

Few lines were bigger culprits that the Flyers' second unit of Danny Briere, Matt Read and Jaromir Jagr. Briere and Read were two of just three Philadelphia forwards who failed to register a shot

"I think our line needs to get going to give [Claude] Giroux's line some support," Briere said before the game. "When you're losing or not playing well, you need a lot of guys to chip in. Lately it seems like, myself included, that we've been struggling a little bit more than we have in the first half of the season."

To add insult to injury, the Flyers failed to clean up their act on the penalty kill, though this one wasn't their fault. Taylor Hall was the recipient of an easy, slam-dunk bounce off the backboards that came from Ryan Whitney at the point that gave the Oilers a 1-0 lead in the second period. It was the Flyers' nine power-play goal against - and their fourth on this road trip - over their last seven games.

With the loss, the Flyers - the NHL's third best road team at fell to 1-1 on their season-long 10-day road trip.

Even so, it didn't hurt them in the standings, as both Pittsburgh and Ottawa - the two teams behind them in sixth and seventh place respectively in the Eastern Conference - were idle last night. They'll remain that way tonight, too, guaranteeing the Flyers to stay in fifth place before tomorrow night's matchup 180 miles to the south in Calgary at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

Slap shots

Edmonton forward Magnus Paajarvi did not return after a dangerous knee-to-knee hit by Scott Hartnell that could receive attention today for supplementary discipline . . . Injured forward Sean Couturier sat due to a lower-body injury. He was replace by Eric Wellwood . . . Jody Shelley skated in Zac Rinaldo's place. Shelley had a spirited first-period scrap with Darcy Hordichuk, his fifth fight of the season . . . Oilers coach Tom Renney (concussion) hasn't been on the bench since taking a puck to the head in practice on Feb. 6. He is reportedly still having concussion symptoms, with memory loss and lightheadedness. Associate coach Ralph Krueger ran the bench last night for Edmonton . . . Jakub Voracek and Wayne Simmonds each skated in the 300th game of their young careers last night.

For more news and analysis, read Frank Seravalli's blog, Frequent Flyers, at

www.philly.com/FrequentFlyers. Follow him on Twitter at

http://twitter.com/DNFlyers.