(My Sportsbook) - The Philadelphia Flyers have been waiting more than a year for Pavel Brendl to spark the team.

The perennial underachiever, who hasn't been given up on because he once scored 73 goals in Juniors, registered his second tally of the season Wednesday night against Florida, but it did anything but light a fuse under his suddenly slumping club.

Brendl backhanded a shot past an out-of-position Jani Hurme 2:29 into the second period, but instead of opening the Philly floodgates it simply was one bright moment in a rather dull evening.

The Panthers' Kristian Huselius answered Brendl late in the second when he tipped home a Sandis Ozolinsh slap shot, and what we had thereafter was a display of tight neutral zone defense and solid goaltending.

The end result was a 1-1 tie, and unfortunately, that doesn't do much for entertainment value.

"It really was a frustrating game," Flyers captain Keith Primeau said. "A lot of it was spent in the neutral zone. We could not generate anything or sustain anything. We were kind of in-between."

Philadelphia did have some promising scoring chances, but Hurme, who had been outstanding in place of injured Florida starter Roberto Luongo, was there to deny. In all he made 29 saves on the evening.

"We created a number of scoring chances," said coach Ken Hitchcock. "Both goalies were good. Too many bang-bang opportunities that don't go in, it becomes almost a little bit psychological. Getting a point tonight, scoring a goal, and we're not giving anybody anything five-on-five right now."

The Flyers have, to say the least, sputtered offensively in the past three games, in which they are 0-2-1. They've managed a mere two goals in those contests after averaging 3.66 per-game before the current skid.

Philadelphia's power play has been right in the middle of the problems, as the team hasn't converted its last 17 man-advantage chances.

On the bright side, backup goaltender Robert Esche continued his strong play on Wednesday, making 28 saves. Esche is now 3-0-1 with a stingy 1.52 goals- against average and .936 save-percentage in five appearances -- four of them starts.

UP NEXT

The Flyers are back in action Friday in Carolina, and will host Boston the following night.