Faltering Flyers fall to Sabres

The Flyers are learning what it's like to live in a penthouse while their neighbors look up at them in envy.

It can be a bit uncomfortable.

For the third consecutive game Saturday, the Flyers, perched atop the Eastern Conference, played a team that is sweating and straining for every point just to make it into the postseason. And for the third straight game, the Flyers failed to match the emotional level of the desperate skaters. The result was a 5-3 loss to Buffalo at the Wells Fargo Center.

The defeat marked the first time the Flyers have lost three games in succession in regulation since mid-October. It's possible they've become victims of human nature and have let down their guard, or perhaps they simply are up against the realities of a long season and hitting an inevitable dead spot.

Whatever, coach Peter Laviolette made it clear he doesn't plan to let this modest slide develop into something more problematic.

"We have had a good season for 55, 57 games," Laviolette said through clenched teeth. "Wins have come our way. The bounces, the breaks, everything's come our way. We've hit a patch here where things have not come as easily for us.

"There's a belief in there that we're going to be successful every night, and we will continue down that road and work and push to win hockey games. Some nights it's not going to be as easy, and some nights you won't get the breaks and the bounces. There are definitely things we could have done better. But this team got to this point with a certain recipe, a certain identity on how they played the game. We've got to continue to work at that and get back to that, and wins will start to come our way.

"I promise you this: Wins will start to come our way."

It appeared a win was going the Flyers' way when they took a 2-0 lead into the second period on a power-play goal by Kris Versteeg and a nifty move by James van Riemsdyk, who beat goalie Ryan Miller with a backhander from in close after powering through a defender.

The power play goal ended an 0-for-14 drought with the man advantage. The Flyers turned the first period their way after killing off the Sabres' two-man advantage.

But the wheels quickly fell off in the second period. The Sabres scored three goals in 3 minutes, 40 seconds before Kimmo Timonen tied it with a shorthanded goal, putting the outcome up for grabs in the third period.