Wings make it interesting late but come up short, 5-3, against Flyers

Detroit — The Detroit Red Wings finally woke up Saturday night but it was too late. The Wings almost made a startling comeback but came up short in a 5-3 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. Mason Appleton, Alex DeBrincat and Lucas Raymond scored goals 2 minutes, 33 seconds apart late in the third period, cutting Philadelphia's lead to 4-3 after the Wings were outplayed for most of the evening.

But the Flyers' Sean Couturier's empty-net goal gave the Flyers a 5-3 lead. Saturday's loss kept the Wings outside of the Eastern Conference playoff picture and the sleepiness for much of the evening was especially head-scratching coming off an impressive victory in Buffalo and the opportunity to move up into the playoff picture given the results around the East earlier in the day. But it was not to be, as Owen Tippett scored three goals (one a power play), Noah Cates added a power-play goal, and Flyers goaltender Dan Vladar stopped 24 shots.

With the victory, the Flyers (36-24-12) moved within two points of the Wings (39-26-8) and can tie Detroit with a victory Sunday against Dallas. BOX SCORE: Flyers 5, Red Wings 3 Tippett's three goals gave him 27 for the season. He scored his first getting behind the Wings' defense and breaking in alone on goaltender John Gibson at 4:07 of the first period.

Tippett made it 2-0 at 12:22 of the second period, driving through the slot and snapping a shot that dribbled through Gibson's pads and into the back of the net. The Flyers pushed the lead to 3-0 at 16:08, as Cates scored his 17th, on the power play, jamming a puck at the side of the net. Tippett completed his hat trick at 7:19 of the third period, on the power play, skating through the Wings and snapping his 27th goal past Gibson.