Flyers lose control late in second period, suffer bad loss to Sabres originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Flyers had a poor finish spoil a good start Thursday night as they lost to the Sabres, 5-3, at KeyBank Center.

Rick Tocchet’s club was outscored 4-1 in the final 23-plus minutes of the game.

Noah Cates, Cam York and Travis Konecny provided the Flyers’ goals. Konecny drew the Flyers to within 4-3 with 5:32 minutes left, but the team’s beleaguered power play couldn’t deliver the game-tying goal.

With 2:19 minutes to go, the Flyers had a two-man advantage when they emptied their net after a Buffalo penalty. They ended up having three shots blocked before the Sabres finished them off on a late empty-netter.

The Flyers (17-10-6) have lost four of their last six games, but have gone 2-1-3 in that stretch. They’re 1-1-1 on this four-game road trip.

The Flyers dropped to 1-1-0 in their regular-season series with the Sabres (15-14-4). The clubs meet once more Jan. 14 back at KeyBank Center.

• The Flyers’ power play went 0 for 3 and is just 5 for 48 (10.4 percent) over the last 20 games.

And now it won’t have Tyson Foerster for the rest of the season as the 23-year-old winger recovers from surgery on his arm.

The power play is still a major concern for this team.

• Samuel Ersson made 23 saves on 27 shots.

The Flyers were playing a strong game before they let things slip away in the final three-plus minutes of the second period. Tage Thompson tied it at 2-2 six seconds after a Travis Sanheim turnover. With better support, Sean Couturier could have given Sanheim an easier pass.

Then, with 30 seconds left in the middle stanza, Buffalo took the lead on a Noah Ostlund shot that Ersson struggled to track.

Midway through the third period, Josh Norris added important insurance on a Sabres power play.

The Flyers fell behind 1-0 for the 23rd time this season. But it took just 58 seconds for them to erase that first-period deficit when Bobby Brink found Cates around the slot area.

It felt like a promising start for the Flyers, who really outplayed Buffalo through the midway mark of the game.

Alex Lyon, who spent five seasons in the Flyers’ organization, mostly with AHL affiliate Lehigh Valley, stopped 24 of 27 shots for the Sabres.

The Flyers were outshot 24-15 over the second and third periods.

• The Flyers dropped to 15-4-5 when Trevor Zegras records a point.

The difference-making trade acquisition set up York’s go-ahead 2-1 goal in the second period.

But the Flyers failed to build on it.

• The Flyers wrap up their road trip Saturday when they visit the Rangers (12:30 p.m. ET/NBCSP).