Flyer Carlo Colaicovo takes a leap of faith.
By Sam Bush
After choking out a must-win game in Boston on Saturday, the Flyers kept playing as if they had a lot of time to make up the seven points they need to qualify for the playoffs.
In Fact, now they have just 15 games remaining.
Adam Henrique scored two goals to lead the Jersey Devils (28-28-10) to a 5-2 victory over the Flyers. Jacob Josefson, Eric Gelinas and Stephen Gionta each scored a goal, Steve Bernier tied a career-high with three assists, and goaltender Keith Kinkaid, in his first start since Feb. 21, made 25 saves.
Jersey, which is 9-3-1 in its past 13 games at Prudential Center, including 2-1-0 on its three-game homestand, won three of four in the season series against Philly
The Devils will go on the road for three games beginning Tuesday against the Minnesota Wild. They trail the Boston Bruins by 10 points for the second wild-card spot into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference with 16 games remaining.
Ryan White and Michael Raffl scored for the Flyers (28-26-13). Steve Mason, who was making his fifth straight start, had 16 saves.
The Flyers, who have lost three of their past four games (1-1-2), will host the Dallas Stars at Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday. Philly trails Boston by seven points with 15 games remaining.
After Raffl scored the first shorthanded goal of his career 11:44 into the third to pull the Flyers within 4-2, Sean Couturier made a move past Devils defenseman Damon Severson and had goalie Kinkaid out of position, but he pushed a backhand attempt wide at 13:20.
Gionta then collected a stretch pass from Patrik Elias, broke in 1-on-1 against Mason and scored his fourth goal at 13:31 to make it 5-2.
Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds said Philly’s problem has been its lacked consistency.
“Our compete level; we don’t come to play every night,” Simmonds said. “You can have a couple off shifts a game but that’s the extent of it. You can’t be going 20 minutes without playing the right way. Today was awful. No one really played a good game, and we left [Mason] out there to dry, and it killed us.”
The Flyers pulled into a 1-1 tie at 7:45 of the first period when White won an offensive-zone draw against Gomez to Luke Schenn at the point. Schenn sent a strong wrist shot on goal that White redirected past Kinkaid for his third goal.
Henrique opened the scoring at 4:49 with his first goal in seven games. Bernier canceled an icing call before Gomez forced Flyers defenseman Mark Streit to turn over the puck in front of Mason. Henrique then picked up the loose puck on his backhand down the slot.
Mason has one road win in 16 games this season. In seven career games against the Devils, he is 0-6-0.
