Carolina cut the gap to 3-1 at the 11:00 mark. Receiving a pass from Tony DeAngelo, Stefan Noesen (4th of the season) fired a shot from the left wing off the bar and into the net. Jack Drury received the secondary assist.
Hart was outstanding in goal in his return from a five-game absence due to injury and illness. Pyotr Kochetkov stopped 20 of 23 shots in a losing cause.
The Flyers went 0-for-1 on the power play. The Hurricanes went 0-for-3.
FLYERS STARTING LINEUP
89 Cam Atkinson - 14 Sean Couturier - 71 Tyson Foerster
74 Owen Tippett - 48 Morgan Frost - 11 Travis Konecny
86 Joel Farabee - 25 Ryan Poehling - 21 Scott Laughton
44 Nick Deslauriers - 27 Noah Cates - 19 Garnet Hathaway
8 Cam York - 6 Travis Sanheim
24 Nick Seeler - 26 Sean Walker
5 Egor Zamula - 37 Louie Belpedio
79 Carter Hart
[33 Samuel Ersson]
TURNING POINT
Konecny's deflection goal in the final minute of the opening stanza proved to be the game-winner and gave the club some margin for error. The Hurricanes threw a ton of rubber at the net but Hart was flawless in stopping whatever the skaters in front of him did not block.
POSTGAME 5
1) The Hurricanes had three of the game's first four shots on goal, but the Flyers made theirs count with the Tippett goal. At 8:03, Couturier erased a dangerous Carolina scoring chance with a clutch blocked shot.
At 9:54, a promising Flyers rush was broken up by the defensive stick of Jaccob Slavin. About 15 seconds later, after a Flyers turnover, Hart made a one-on-one blocker save in close against Jesperi Kotkaniemi. Then, at 11:11, Stefan Noesen put the puck toward the net and Hart had to react quickly to a Jack Drury re-direct.
The Flyers did some line juggling as the first period moved along. Konecny was moved up to the line with Couturier and Foerster. Farabee moved to the line with Frost and Tippett. Atkinson went to the line with Poehling and Laughton.
At 18:20, Laughton fired off a shot that went off a defender and on net. Kochetkov made the save to even up the shots at 9-9. On the next shift, Konecny made it 2-0. Right before the buzzer, Farabee sprung Tippett one-on-one with Kochetkov. The goalie made the stop.
2) First period shots on goal were 12-9 Flyers. Shot attempts were 19-14 Hurricanes. Scoring chances were 10-5 Carolina. High-danger chances were 5-2 Hurricanes. Faceoffs were 14-9 Flyers, led by Poehling going 5-for-7 and Couturier 5-for-8. Sanheim, who got caught on a couple of extended shifts, played 9:26 across 10 shifts.
3) The quick second period goal by Poehling put the Hurricanes back on their heels for a few shifts. Then, at 3:32, Andrei Svechnikov landed a huge hit on Belpedio, starting a lengthy possession shift for Carolina.. Hart had to step up with a big save on Kotkaniemi.
At 4:42, Zamula took a delay of game penalty. The Hurricanes went on the game's first power play. On the kill, the Flyers got away with what appeared to be a second delay of game penalty that was ruled a deflected puck. Hart stopped a Martin Necas one-timer. The Flyers killed off the rest in good shape.
Couturier passed up an open lane to the net to attempt a pass to Konecny. The play went awry. Shortly thereafter, Noesen got the Hurricanes on the board.
The Canes generated a high-grade chance immediately after the Noesen goal. Nick Seeler was forced to take a hooking penalty. Hart stopped a Kotkaniemi one-timer. Teräväinen missed the net from the left circle before the penalty expired.
After play moved back to 5-on-5, Necas found Kotkaniemi for a higher-danger chance. Then Hart denied a deflected shot. Sanheim made a good defensive play one-on-one with Svechnikov. At the other end, a line of Atkinson with Tippett and Frost generated a strong shift. The Couturier line finished the period with a pair of shifts spent in the Carolina zone.
4) Second period shots on goal were 12-7 Hurricanes (21-19 Canes through two periods). Shot attempts were 26-12 Carolina (45-28 Carolina overall). Scoring chances were 11-3 Hurricanes (21-8 Carolina overall) with a 4-1 high-danger edge to the Hurricanes (9-3 overall in the Canes' favor). Faceoffs in the second period were 12-10 Flyers (26-19 overall in the Flyers favor, led by Poehling at 9-for-13). Through two periods, the Flyers blocked 15 Carolina shot attempts.
5) Hart made two saves in the first 1:19 of the third period including a bang-bang stop off a defensive right circle faceoff. At the other end, Foerster had a right circle chance in transition off a good defensive zone play by Couturier.
Bunting took a stretch pass from DeAngelo and went in one-on-one with Hart after getting past Belpedio. Hart got a piece of the puck before it hit the post and stayed out.
The Hurricanes went back to the power play at 4:16 as York was called for a hold on Svechnikov. The Flyers killed it off with authority.
The Flyers finally went to their first power play at the 9:00 mark. Svechnikov, doing battle all night with Sanheim, caught the Flyers defenseman with a high stick to the mouth. The Flyers generated no shots or chances.
The Flyers fourth line generated a scramble around the Carolina net. At the other end, Sanheim blocked a shot for the Flyers' 22nd block of the net (his fourth). On the next shift, Konecny blocked a shot off his skate. Carolina then had a scoring chance after a Seeler turnover.
The Canes hemmed the Flyers in on a couple of shifts. With 2:07 on the clock, the Hurricanes pulled Kochetkov for a 6-on-5. Poehling blocked another shot. With 27.1 seconds on the clock, Hart stopped a side-angle shot by Svechnikov with no rebound.
Carolina called timeout. With 15 seconds left, the Hurricanes iced the puck and had to put the goalie back in the net. Couturier won the draw and the rest of the clock expired.
Third period shots on goal were 12-4 Carolina (32-23 overall). Shot attempts were 22-6 Carolina (62-34 Canes overall). Scoring chances were 12-2 Carolina (32-10 overall in Carolina's favor). High-danger chances were 2-1 Canes as the Flyers did a good job of bottling the prime areas and Hart allowed almost no rebounds (11-4 edge to Carolina for the game). Final faceoffs were 37-31 Flyers led by Poehling winning 13 of 18. Sanheim played a game-high 28:16 across 32 shifts.
