Sabres fall to Flyers 7-4

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Sabres' three-game winning streak came to a thud in Philadelphia.

After briefly holding a 3-2 lead in the second period, the Sabres unraveled and fell to the Flyers in a 7-4 road defeat.

Matvei Michkov had his second straight two-goal game and Samuel Ersson made 17 saves for the Flyers. Noah Cates, Owen Tippett, Tyson Foerster, Ryan Poehling and Jakob Pelletier also scored for the Flyers, who won their second straight game after coach John Tortorella was fired on Thursday.

Jack Quinn scored twice, and Alex Tuch and John-Jason Peterkaas added goals as the Sabres lost in the opener of a three-game trip. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen had 25 stops.

Michkov opened the score about six minutes in, scoring on a wrist shot off assists from Travis Konecny and Yegor Zamula. He scored his second — again off an assist from Konecny — on a backhand shot with 9:24 remaining in the second. With another two-goal performance, the 20-year-old increased his point totals to 24 goals and 32 assists in 73 games.

Takeaways

Flyers: Philadelphia is playing wide open hockey in its last two games, matching Montreal with 30 shots in a 6-4 win Thursday and outshooting Buffalo 32-21.

Sabres: Last in the standings in the 16-team Eastern Conference, Buffalo slipped to 6-4-0 in their last 10 games.

Key moment

The Sabres closed within two goals at 6-4 on Tuch's short-handed goal at 15:05 of the third period. The Flyers restored a three-goal advantage 29 seconds later when Poehling scored his ninth of the season.

Key stat

The Flyers had lost six straight games leading up to Tortorella's firing on Thursday. In the two games since, Philadelphia outscored Montreal and Buffalo by a total of 13-8.

Up next

Buffalo plays a back-to-back at Washington on Sunday. Philadelphia hosts the Nashville Predators on Monday.

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