The Philadelphia Flyers fell to the Florida Panthers 6-3 tonight in what became their first 10-game road winless streak since 1992. The Panthers came out firing in the first period scoring 4 goals, two from Sam Reinhart and two from Carter Verhaeghe. The Flyers stormed back with 3 unanswered goals in the latter half of the second period but lost all momentum after an ill-advised penalty from Gerry Mayhew in the third period sealed the game. The Flyers penalty kill went 0 for 3, Jonathan Huberdeau and Aaron Ekblad recorded 4 assists, and Scott Laughton left the game in the second period with an apparent head injury.
FIRST PERIOD
Letting the dust settle from this morning’s news regarding the extension of Rasmus Ristolainen, the Philadelphia Flyers had a game to play in Florida but with how this season has gone, the Ristolainen extension was far more newsworthy and attention grabbing. This was never going to be an easy game, let alone a fun game with how the Flyers have fared this season and the Panthers didn’t help the cause by opening the scoring only 3:25 into the game.
The Panthers forced a neutral zone turnover as the Flyers were playing rather sloppily. After Ristolainen made a good play along the boards in the defensive zone, the Flyers were able to get the puck out but Kevin Hayes fumbled with the outlet before sending a pass ahead to Patrick Brown that was taken away by Aaron Ekblad. Ekblad quickly transitioned from defense to offense as he sent the puck ahead to Aleksander Barkov who tipped it up to Carter Verhaeghe. As he entered the zone he made a spin-around move from the face-off circle that beat Carter Hart blocker-side.
With the Panthers taking full control of the game, the Flyers were able to draw a penalty in an attempt to tie the game. It wasn’t the greatest power play but it also wasn’t the worst, which is saying something for the 30th-ranked power play. They had their chances to fire the puck towards Sergei Bobrovsky but their indecisiveness and constant need to make a pass got in their way as they barely troubled the Russian goaltender.
The Panthers were coming in waves and even though they only had one shot within a 7 minute span, they were well in control with a lot of zone time. Carter Hart was tasked to come up big and keep the deficit to 1 after a 2 on 1 orchestrated by Barkov. Hart had to make a blocker save on the trailer and then had to scoop up the loose puck to keep Verhaeghe from scoring his second of the period. Hart had to come up big on the ensuing power play for the Panthers as Anthony Duclair was robbed on a one-time blast that was set up by Jonathan Huberdeau.
The Panthers power play was deadly as they were buzzing from the face-off. After having to make several stops in the early stages of the power play, Sam Reinhart deflected a Huberdeau shot past the screened Hart to give the Panthers a 2-0 lead. It was the third shot of the power play that only lasted 69 seconds.
With 2:11 remaining in the period, Ristolainen was called for his second penalty of the period after interfering with Huberdeau. This power play only lasted 22 seconds as the same culprits from the previous man advantage struck yet again. After forcing a turnover on Ivan Provorov behind the net, Reinhart set up Barkov who found Huberdeau in the slot. His shot was stopped but the rebound landed right next to Reinhart who made no mistake for his second goal in 3:59 minutes.
To add insult to injury, Verhaeghe added his second goal of the period only 79 seconds later. Coming out of the defensive zone with relative ease, Verhaeghe had all the time in the world to make a play as he entered the zone, made a move on Keith Yandle and Cam York and unsuspectingly fired a snap shot from the same circle he scored from earlier in the period. This time he went high on Hart’s glove and the Panthers had an unassailable 4-0 lead heading into the second period, but not before Flyers were given a power play with one second remaining after Sam Bennett was called for a 2 minute minor.
The Panthers outshot the Flyers 19-14 and were nearly unstoppable from the moment the puck dropped. The Flyers might have had 14 shots but not a lot of them were quality scoring chances and truth be told were “lucky” that they weren’t down 6 or 7-0 after 20 minutes. On a night where the Philadelphia 76ers were facing off against the Brooklyn Nets after their blockbuster trade a few weeks ago, this was not what the Flyers needed; already at the bottom of the Philadelphia sports totem pole.
SECOND PERIOD
After finishing off Claude Giroux with a hard check along the boards, Petteri Lindbohm finished off Scott Laughton with a hip-check, where the Flyer pivot-landed awkwardly against the boards. Travis Konecny answered the bell with Lindbohm in a spirited bout that might have been the only positive from the first 30 minutes for the Orange and Black.
After forcing a turnover from Sam Bennett behind the net, Kevin Hayes centered a pass to James van Riemsdyk in the blue paint to get the Flyers on the board. van Riemsdyk won the initial board battle to get the puck to Joel Farabee in the offensive zone. Farabee was sealed off by Radko Gudas at the end of a very lengthy shift as he was slow to get back into position. van Riemsdyk was left unmarked and all alone in front of Bobrovsky as he scored his 12th of the season.
Seemingly being boosted by the Konecny bout, the Flyers cut the deficit to 2 after Cam Atkinson batted the puck out of mid-air for his 21st of the season. Radko Gudas over-skated the puck coming out of the defensive zone and Claude Giroux and the Flyers quickly pounced on the opportunity. Derick Brassard received the pass from Giroux and walked into the slot before firing a shot glove-side with the rebound being batted in by Atkinson, who beat Bennett to the net. 2 goals were not only coming after the fight, but also coming against Gudas and Bennett mistakes.
After the Laughton hit and Konecny fight, things got very chippy as Patric Hornqvist intentionally bumped into Carter Hart after the whistle. Following that, Maxim Mamin and James van Riemsdyk dropped the gloves after the latter didn’t like the unnecessary shoves he received from the former. With momentum on their side, even for a little bit, the Flyers went to the power play after Giroux drew a tripping call. 40 seconds into the man advantage, Farabee and Atkinson came inches away from making it 4-3 but Ekblad came up with a huge block after a Bobrovsky save.
After coming close on the previous shift, the second unit came out, remained in the offensive zone, created several scoring chances, all before Cam York’s shot from the point got deflected by Konecny. It was his 10th of the season as he, alongside van Riemsdyk, were an assist away from a Gordie Howe hat-trick.
The triangle of Hayes, Ristolainen and York all had a hand on the goal after passing it back and forth between each other before York decided to shoot into the traffic. In the centre of the umbrella, Konecny was able to deflect what looked like an intentional attempt by York, past a screened Bobrovsky.
A couple interesting stats to focus on before the start of the third period: 1) The Florida Panthers were 29-0-0 when leading after two periods, and 2) The Flyers have been within one goal in the third period in 13 of their last 14 games and 19 of their last 21. With how well they regained momentum in the second period, there was seemingly a light at the end of the tunnel for the Flyers to be the Panthers’ first loss after 2 periods.
THIRD PERIOD
In saying that, the Flyers had to mount a comeback against one of the best teams in hockey and the third period started off a little tentatively as the Panthers were slowly gaining back their first period momentum, forcing Hart to make some huge stops along the way. At the first commercial break of the period, Gerry Mayhew was called for a tripping penalty after sticking his leg out on Petteri Lindbohm. Not the ideal scenario to put yourself in when trying to mount a comeback against a vaunted power play that has already struck twice.
This power play only lasted 36 seconds after Anthony Duclair’s intended pass to Sam Reinhart was deflected into the net by the stick of Patrick Brown. Jonathan Huberdeau, with his third assist of the night and 63rd of the season, sent a rocket of a pass to Duclair who tried sending a cross-crease feed to Reinhart at the other side of the net. Unfortunately for Hart, he was sliding one way and the puck was going the other as Brown was caught trying to make a defensive play.
With the game seemingly out of hand, Zack MacEwen angrily checked Mason Marchment into the boards at the end of his shift. Marchment slashed the legs of MacEwen as he was about the shut the door. As MacEwen turned around to go after Marchment, Aaron Ekblad dropped the gloves instead. Oddly enough Ekblad didn’t get called for anything, Marchment and MacEwen each got 2 for roughing but MacEwen got the extra 10 minute misconduct, which preemptively ended his night with only 5:55 remaining in the period.
With 2:30 remaining in the game, the Flyers pulled Carter Hart down by 2, but it didn’t last long as Sam Reinhart scored 24 seconds later after Jonathan Huberdeau created the play out of nothing. It was Reinhart’s hat-trick and Huberdeau’s 4th assist of the night as he is only 5 away from tying the NHL single-season record for assists by a left winger. The Flyers seemingly stalled during the play because they thought Huberdeau had high-sticked the puck but the referees didn’t catch it and the Panthers took this game 6-3.
UP NEXT
The Flyers will finish up their mini-Southern road trip on Saturday afternoon against the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh before heading back to Philadelphia.
