Postgame 5: Flyers Fight Past Panthers, 2-1

The Philadelphia Flyers rallied past the Florida Panthers, 2-1, at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise on Tuesday evening. The victory snapped a five-game losing streak for the Flyers and ended a four-game winning streak for Florida.

The Flyers received one goal apiece from Travis Konecny and Noah Cates. Carter Verhaeghe had the lone tally for Florida.

The Flyers were outplayed in the first period, and got to the first intermission trailing 1-0. Nine saves from Samuel Ersson and 11 blocked shots in front of him (three by Egor Zamula and two apiece from Nick Seeler and Ryan Poehlling) enabled the Flyers to minimize the early damage.

Florida opened the scoring with a power play goal at 9:22 of the first period. Skating downhill into a wrist shot from the top of the left circle, Verhaeghe (PPG, 25th of the season) wristed home a shot as he used defenseman Travis Sanheim as a screen. A Konecny giveaway started the sequence, and the goal was unassisted.

The tide turned in the second period. The Flyers spent much more time attacking in this period, and they eventually got rewarded.

Taking a backhand saucer pass from Joel Farabee, Travis Konecny (23rd goal of the season) moved and snapped a 13-foot wrist shot upstairs over Anthony Stolarz at 13:33 of the second period to tie the score at 1-1. A nice lead pass by Sean Walker sent Philly off attacking on the rush. The assists went to Farabee and Walker.

In the third period, the Flyers came out strong and forged ahead early. Philly then staged a solid closeout. As needed, they continued to sacrifice their bodies to block shots.

Cates (2nd goal of the season) pounced on a Gustav Forsling turnover and cut in toward the net before firing home a shot to give Philly a 2-1 lead at 2:36 of the third period. The goal was unassisted.

Ersson earned the win in net. He stopped 20 of 21 shots. Stolarz, in a losing cause, denied 23 of 25 Flyers shots.

The Flyers went 0-for-1 on the power play. The Panthers were 1-for-2.

FLYERS STARTING LINEUP

74 Owen Tippett - 14 Sean Couturier - 89 Cam Atkinson
86 Joel Farabee - 48 Morgan Frost - 11 Travis Konecny
74 Tyson Foerster - 25 Ryan Poehling - 27 Noah Cates
(rotation) - 21 Scott Laughton - 19 Garnet Hathaway

6 Travis Sanheim - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
8 Cam York - 9 Jamie Drysdale
24 Nick Seeler - 26 Sean Walker
5 Egor Zamula

33 Samuel Ersson
[40 Cal Petersen]

TURNING POINT

The Flyers bent but didn't break, minus the Verhaeghe power play in the first period. Ersson looked sharp and got some help in front of him in the form of nearly a dozen blocked shots. Simply avoiding a multi-goal deficit in the lopsided period was a hopeful sign for the Flyers.

Cates' hustling individual effort for his second goal of the season proved to be the game-winner. As major of a turning point as it was, don't overlook Philly's emphatic penalty kill with Tippett in the box.

POSTGAME 5

1)  The Flyers got dominated over the first five minutes of the game. Ersson was tested by Niko Mikkola off the rush on the second shift of the game. Seeler painfully blocked a shot two shifts later. Florida had each of the game's first five shots on net, two of which were testers. At the four minute mark, Aleksander Barov hit the post. Philly generated their first shot on goal at 5:32.

Lundell was denied at the doorstep by Anton Lundell at 8:46..Shots were 6-3 at this point. At 9:08, the Panthers went to the game's first power play after Seeler was called for tripping Jonah Gadjovich. Florida cashed in on the Verhaeghe goal at 9:22. Leading 1-0, Florida pressured again on the next shift, and Ersson had to stop a Matthew Tkachuk deflection from the low slot. 

The Flyers iced the puck at 14:16. Shots were 9-4 Florida. Florida won the ensuing faceoff and hemmed the Flyers in the defensive zone. At 16:23, after a neutral zone giveaway by Frost, Ersson stopped a Dmitry Kulikov point shot with traffic in front.

Travis Konecny had the Flyers' first genuine scoring chance as he collected a stretch pass and moved in on Stolarz. The goaltender stopped TK's wrister from the slot at 18:10. Philly spent most of the remainder of the period hemmed in their own zone. Philly blocked three shot attempts to escape the period down 1-0.

2) First period shots on goal were 10-5 Florida. Shot attempts were 26-9 Panthers.  Scoring chances were 15-4 Florida. High-danger scoring chances were 5-2 Panthers. Faceoffs were 6-5 Flyers. The Flyers were guilty of eight first period charged turnovers: six giveaways by Philly players plus two takeaways credited to Florida's Nick Cousins and Gustav Forsling. 

3) The Couturier line spent the first shift of the middle frame in the Florida zone. Foerster snapped the period's first shot on net. The Couturier kept the puck in Florida territory. The Frost line did the same on the next shift. 

At 3:18,  Kevin Stenlund tripped Hathaway and Philly went to the power play. Hathaway appeared to  be a little shaken up on the play. Neither Philadelphia PP unit generated any pressure or even got set up.

At 8:39, Ersson stopped Ryan Lomborg from the left slot. Shots on goal were 6-3 Flyers. Couturier made a cross-seam pass to Tippett on the next shift, who tried to shoot high to the glove side. At 11:20, Sanheim moved around the net and fired off a shot from the right circle. Shots on goal were 9-3 Flyes.

The Konecny goal off the rush at 13:33  seemed to wake up the Panthers a bit. They generated each of the five shots on goal, including three scoring chances.

As the period ended, jostling between Konecny and Forsling became a multi-player scrum. Both players received slashing minors. The teams started the third period skating at 4-on-4.

4) Second period shots on goal were 12-8 Flyers (18-17 Flyers overall) Shot attempts were 28-14 Flyers (42-40 Panthers overall). Scoring chances were 17-5 Flyers (23-21 Flyers overall). High-danger scoring chances were 7-2 Flyers (9-7 Flyers overall). Faceoffs were 10-5 Flyers (16-10 Flyers overall).

5)  During the 4-on-4, Frost sprang Atkinson for a prime scoring chance. Florida's Sam Bennett countered at the other end. As play moved back to 5-on-5, Farabee generated a good opportunity. Cates scored at 2:36 to give the Flyer a lead.

Couturier fired a side-angle shot on goal, which Stolarz froze for a stoppage at 6:35. Shots on goal were 4-3 Flyers. Couturier won the next draw and deflected a puck on net for a tougher save. At the other end, Evan Rodrigues narrowly missed the net on a bang-bang chance from the slot.

At 11:16, Tippett hit a vulnerable Mikkola near the boards in the neutral zone and was called for a boarding minor. Laughton lost the first faceoff and Florida pressured. Midway through the penalty, Poehling and Sanheim came up with clears. As the penalty expired, Aaron Ekblad threaded a shot on net.

Frost looked for a potential Foerster deflection at 14:26 but the puck was out of the winger's reach, and Stolarz made a routine save. The Flyers got an offensive zone faceoff, however, following an ensuing TV timeout. Couturier lost the ensuing draw against Barkov but the puck went out of play off the glass. Again, Barkov beat Couturier. They faced off again, This time Couturier won the faceoff but the Flyers were unable to keep possession.

The Panthers pulled Stolarz with just under three minutes left in regulation. Seeler blocked Verhaeghe near the net. The Flyers iced the puck at 17:56 and Florida called timeout.

Couturier won the next draw against Barkov. The Flyers cleared the zone. On the next dump-in, Florida got possession. Three failed Flyers clears on the next shift and an icing gave Florida one final crack with 10.9 seconds on the clock. Poehling came up with one final clear.

Third period shots on goal were 8-3 Flyers (25-21 Flyers overall) Shot attempts were 25-15 Florida (66-55 Panthers overall). Scoring chances were 17-7 Florida (38-31 Panthers overall). High-danger scoring chances were 7-4 Panthers (14-14 overall). Faceoffs were 10-9 Flyers (26-19 Flyers overall, led by Couturier's 15-for-18 and Frost at 6-for-10).