Back in Philadelphia and carrying momentum, the Flyers opened a season-long seven-game homestand with a dud.
They gave up four first-period goals and lost to the Flames, 6-3, Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center.
Samuel Ersson was yanked just 9:32 minutes into the action after giving up three goals on five shots.
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"It's tough in any game going down, the building's quiet," Noah Cates said. "Just not finding our game in any area of our game — D-zone, neutral zone, offensive zone. We couldn't seem to find traction.
"You've just got to be simple and I think that wasn't really where our minds went after stumbling out of the gates. Kind of just a learning lesson that when we're simple, no matter who we're playing, that's where we get some success. Just find our game and then things open up."
Cates stopped the Flyers' bleeding with a goal. Andrei Kuzmenko and Sean Couturier scored the other markers.
Calgary iced the game with an empty-netter.
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"Got down early," Travis Konecny said. "It's hard to claw back against a good team."
The Flyers (27-27-8) had a five-game point streak snapped (4-0-1). Three days ago, they took down the NHL-leading Jets on the road, 2-1, in a shootout.
"When you're at home, as a coach, you're always worried about the concentration level, just with families and other stuff going on when you're at home," John Tortorella said Tuesday at morning skate. "I just want them concentrated on each and every game."
Tortorella admitted the Flyers looked lethargic and sloppy after traveling home from Winnipeg, Manitoba.
"I'm going to flush it down the toilet," the head coach said.
The Flyers have one game left before Friday's 3 p.m. ET trade deadline and 20 to go on the season. They entered Tuesday four points back of the Eastern Conference's second wild-card spot, but with five teams ahead of them.
The Flames (29-23-9) are in the Western Conference's second wild-card position.
• After contemplating his decision for a moment, Tortorella called Ivan Fedotov's number when Calgary's lead ballooned to 3-0 on Connor Zary's second goal of the first period.
Zary's side-angled shot deflected into the net off the area of Ersson's shoulder and back. Cam York and Travis Sanheim had a chance to break up the Flames' rush into the offensive zone but didn't. York had a minus-2 mark on the night.
"Obviously Ers was off," Tortorella said. "But I'm not going to pin it on any one person. That's pretty much a group that struggled tonight."
Ersson just wasn't himself and has now given up eight goals over his last two outings. Prior to that, the 25-year-old had gone 11-4-1 with a 2.23 goals-against average and .919 save percentage since the holiday break.
"Very confident in him," Cates said. "With Ers, I think that's one of his biggest strengths, is resiliency. After maybe a game where he'd want some back, he's usually on it."
Fedotov converted 25 saves on 27 shots in relief.
Dustin Wolf, one of Matvei Michkov's top competitors for the Calder Trophy, stopped 26 of 29 shots in Calgary's net.
Couturier's goal, which was assisted by Michkov, drew the Flyers within two during the third period.
• Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost were back in Philadelphia for the first time as visiting players.
The two forwards were traded to the Flames at the end of January. At a first-period stoppage, both were acknowledged in a video tribute and a nice applause from the fans.
Frost finished with two assists and Farabee went scoreless.
Kuzmenko, who came to the Flyers in the trade, trimmed his team's first-period deficit to 3-2 with a goal.
But Calgary got it back only 18 seconds later when Yegor Sharangovich scored and Frost tallied his first helper.
• Konecny has no goals and two assists in five games since the 4 Nations Face-Off.
At morning skate, Tortorella said he felt his leading scorer had been overthinking a bit.
No doubt the Flyers would love to get him going again from a goal-scoring perspective. But offense really wasn't a huge issue Tuesday night for the Flyers. They couldn't keep the puck out of their net from the onset.
• Garnet Hathaway missed a second straight game after taking a blindsided hit last Thursday night.
• The Flyers see the Jets on Thursday for the second time in six days (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP).
"We have to get back to our structure," Tortorella said. "We just weren't there tonight."
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