Flyers fall to Red Wings, 5-2

DETROIT - The Flyers' road woes continued Wednesday night as they fell, 5-2, to the Detroit Red Wings at Joe Louis Arena and held a players-only meeting after the game.

For the Flyers, losers of six straight road games, the wheels are coming off.

Four games ago, general manager Ron Hextall tore into them for their listless effort in a 2-0 loss to the Rangers. After Monday's 1-0 shootout loss to the Islanders and again after their latest defeat Wednesday, coach Craig Berube criticized some of his players' effort.

Berube said some players are "not competing hard enough, and it results in goals against. It can't happen. You need everybody on your team competing at the highest level, otherwise you will not win."

In addition, the players took turns speaking out in a closed-door meeting Wednesday that delayed the media from entering the locker room.

"You never want it to have to come to that, but at the same time... when you look at the standings, it's pretty easy to see things slipping away," goalie Steve Mason said. "You see points up for grabs, and other teams are grabbing them and you're not. You're slowly falling behind."

"What was said everybody had known," he added, "but it's always good to have some guys vocal in the locker room."

"We'll be fine. We just have to play harder," said winger Wayne Simmonds, adding that the players aired "everything out" at the meeting.

"I think we need to look ourselves in the mirror here….Show a little attitude here," captain Claude Giroux said. "We played a good first and third period, and the second period we got a little bit away from our game and it showed on the scoreboard.

A 3-1 second-period domination, which included a 13-6 shots advantage, gave the Red Wings a 4-1 lead.

Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk, who had missed the previous four games with a groin injury, scored a pair of goals as the Flyers road record slipped to 2-7-1; they haven't won on the road since Oct. 22 in Pittsburgh.

"When you're at home, you have that extra sense of passion, and on the road we've been kind of lackluster," Mason said. "We had a pretty solid first period, but in the second period, we gave up a couple goals and the air comes out of the tires. With this group, we can't let that happen. It happens too much on a consistent basis when we're on the road. With where we are in the standings, you can't have that kind of effort. It's unacceptable."

Mason was benched after allowing a screened power-play goal with 8 minutes, 13 seconds left in the second period. Mason, who was brilliant ion his previous three games, had injured his left hand when he banged it off the goalpost about three minutes earlier, but afterward he said he was fine.

Mason's removal had nothing to do with the injury and the goalie being replaced by Ray Emery, Berube said.

"I'm sure Mase wants a couple back," Berube said, adding he was trying to give the team a spark when he changed goalies.

Jake Voracek scored with 7 minutes, 35 seconds left - on the Flyers' first shot in their four power plays - o cut the Red Wings' lead to 4-2.

The Flyers, who have scored a total of two goals in their last three road games, would not get any closer, and Henrik Zetterberg iced it with an empty-net goal with 1:22 remaining.

Earlier, Giroux snapped the Flyers' 161:53 road goal-less streak to knot the score at 1 with 17:29 to play in the second period. After intercepting a pass at center ice, Giroux streaked into the zone and scored on a wrister from the left circle that appeared to deflect off defenseman Kyle Quincey. It was Giroux's seventh goal, but his first at even-strength this season.

The Flyers have played 10 road games, and, inexplicably, they have not scored first in any of them. This time, Stephen Weiss gave Detroit a 1-0 lead by tipping in a shot by Darren Helm with 9:48 left in the opening period. It was the start of another miserable night on the road.

"I was pleased with a lot of guys, and there were guys I'm still not pleased with," said Berube, who played R.J. Umberger (point-less in 14 straight) just 10:07 and Vinny Lecavalier just 11:10.

Asked if he was close to benching some players, Berube said, "Certain guys are going to have to play better or that's going to happen."

Berube thought the Flyers sagged after Tomas Jurco blasted a rebound through a maze of players to give Detroit a 2-1 lead midway through the second period.

"We need to play through adversity better and stick with the game plan a little bit more," he said. "I thought in the second, we didn't come out with that shoot-the-puck mentality we're looking for."

Raffl returns. Michael Raffl made a surprising return from a right foot injury suffered on Nov. 4, and he hit the post with a second-period shot; he missed eight games, and was not expected back until the weekend. The left winger was on a hardworking line with Scott Laughton and Simmonds. Lecavalier dropped down to the fourth line.

Breakaways. The Flyers have just two wins in Detroit in their last 21 games since 1989-90... For the first time this season, defenseman Luke Schenn was a healthy scratch as the Flyers went back to a 12-forward, six-defensemen lineup... Sean Couturier held his own in a second-period fight with Kyle Quincey... The Flyers host the New York Rangers in a Friday matinee, then play the Blueshirts in Madison Square Garden on Saturday afternoon to start a five-game road trip. 

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