The Philadelphia Flyers lost to the Dallas Stars, 5-1, at American Airlines Center on Saturday evening. Jason Robertson recorded a natural hat trick for Dallas.

Liam Bischel (1st goal of the season) gave Dallas a 1-0 lead early in the first period off a Stars-friendly bounce.

Robertson (7th) made it 2-0 in the middle stages of the second period. Robertson scored again (8th) to open a 3-0 lead before the second intermission. Robertson completed the hat trick (PPG, 9th) with a third period power play marker in the middle of the third period.

Dan Vladar stopped 23 of 28 shots in a losing cause. Jake Oettinger flirted with a shutout for two-plus periods. He finished with 20 saves on 21 shots.

First period synopsis

The Flyers caught a huge break on an early Dallas 2-on-1. Wyatt Johnston collected a loose rebound and had the left half of the net open but Travis Sanheim blocked the shot.

Philly survived two scrambles around the net. However, the Stars grabbed a 1-0 lead at 3:48. Bischel’s point shot went off Bobby Brink and redirected past Vladar. The assists went to Alexander Petrovic and Justin Hryckowian.

Dallas racked up seven shots to just one by the Flyers through 10 minutes. Vladar had to whirl and twirl a few times to keep the puck out of the net as the Stars successfully got to the inside. Shot attempts got up to 18 for Dallas to six for the Flyers. The one Flyers shot was a good scoring chance for Michkov.

Dallas went to the game’s first power play at 16:47. Brink was called for interference behind the Philly net. The Flyers got through the kill.

Shots: Flyers 3 – Stars 10
Faceoffs: Flyers 11 – Stars 5

Notable:

* The Flyers gave up 12 scoring chances at 5-on-5 that period. Vladar was the main reason the game went to intermission down by just a goal.

* Philly blocked seven shots, of which several potentially saved a lot of trouble. The Flyers were a step slow on a lot of plays and struggled to contain the Stars to the perimeter. Attack time was minimal for Philly after the first few minutes.

* Christian Dvorak won three of four faceoffs.

Second period synopsis

The Flyers came out playing more of the structured game Rick Tocchet wanted to see. There still wasn’t much by way of attack the other way. Michkov got off a routine shot from the left circle. Oettinger saw it all the way and gobbled up the shot.

Trevor Zegras had a scoring chance for the Flyers as they put together a push for a few minutes.

Dallas turned a 4-on-2 transition play into a goal for a 2-0 lead at 11:39. Robertson finished off a Tyler Seguin pass. The other assist went to Roope Hintz.

Roberston struck again for a 3-0 lead at 17:02. He worked a very similar move to cut halfway across the right circle and shoot to one that Mikael Renberg specialized in during the heyday of the Legion of Doom. Vladar was beaten high. The assists went to Hintz and Lindell.

Philly got their first power play at 17:20 on a Colin Blackwell high stick along the offensive half boards. A scrum developed after the whistle but no further penalties resulted. Michkov had a look at the net during the 5-on-4. He led all Flyers with four shots on goal through 40 minutes.

Shots: Flyers 11 (14 overall) – Stars 6 (16 overall)
Faceoffs: Flyers 6 (17 overall) – Stars 10 (15 overall)

Notable:

* The second period was a better one for the Flyers than the first but the Stars were more opportunistic. Philly also didn’t generate much by way of high-danger scoring chances.