Flyers' promising road trip sinking into mediocrity

RALEIGH, N.C. - For the Flyers, what had the makings of an excellent eight-game road trip has quickly turned mediocre.

The Flyers, again let down by their penalty-killing unit and a poor second period, wasted a third-period comeback and dropped a 4-3 overtime decision to Colorado on Wednesday for their third straight loss on the trip, one that started with three wins.

"I thought we played a pretty good game, but we're finding ways to lose games," said coach Craig Berube, whose team will play lowly Carolina on Friday and will finish the grueling trip in New Jersey on Saturday. "I thought we battled hard and had the better of the play."

The Flyers are eight points out of a playoff spot - just as they were when the road trip began.

In Wednesday's loss, the Flyers wasted third-period goals by Vinny Lecavalier and Claude Giroux, the latter a showstopper that would have been the winner if the team's penalty-killing unit did not stumble.

It was the Flyers' seventh straight loss in Denver since 2002, and it left them 3-2-1 on their trip.

Jarome Iginla scored from deep inside the left circle, drilling a one-timer to the short side while the Avalanche were on a power play, tying the score at 3 with 7 minutes, 12 seconds left in regulation.

"A goaltender is a big part of the penalty kill, and I have to find a way to make a save on Iginla there," goalie Steve Mason said.

A tripping penalty by Braydon Coburn gave the Avs the late power play, and the Flyers' league-worst penalty-killing unit could not get a clutch stop.

"It's not a good penalty," Berube said. "What do you want me to say?"

Less than three minutes earlier, Giroux weaved around three defenders and scored a power-play goal with 10 minutes remaining to snap a 2-2 tie.

For the second straight game, the opponent scored two goals that deflected off a Flyers player. This time, goals deflected off Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Brayden Schenn.

"We've just had some bad breaks in the last two games," Mason said. "Those will turn around and even out the last half of the year. It's frustrating to give those goals up, but the guys are sacrificing themselves to try to get in front of it . . . and, unfortunately, they're just going the wrong way now."

"That doesn't happen very often," general manager Ron Hextall said of the four opponent goals that deflected into the net off Flyers. "You get the odd goal here and there, but that's a high percentage. That's what I'm saying right now. We're not getting a lot of breaks. Sometimes getting breaks is making your own breaks as well, but we're not making a ton of breaks right now."

Hextall said the Flyers were "playing pretty good hockey" but were not "pinpoint accurate" in their execution.

"We just have to keep plugging away here," he said.

Breakaways. The Flyers went two for five on the power play; they entered the night scoreless in their last 17 chances with an extra skater or skaters. . . . Michael Del Zotto played well after getting stitched up and returning to action early in the second period. Del Zotto was accidentally cut on his neck by Danny Briere's skate early in the first period. "Unfortunately, I've taken a few skates before, so I saw the blood and started skating off," he said. "I was pretty fortunate it wasn't worse than it was." Del Zotto didn't know how many stitches he got.