Postgame 5: Hart-Stopper of a 4-3 Win vs. Florida

It took a career-high 48 saves from Carter Hart and 29 blocked shots in front of him including eight by Ivan Provorov as the Flyers found a way to defeat the Florida Panthers, 4-3 at the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday. The Flyers improved their early season record to 5-2-0.

Twice in the first period, the Flyers fell behind by a goal. Twice, they answered back to tie the game. After Gustav Forsling (2nd goal of the season) opened the scoring at 3:41, a tic-tac-toe hookup between Joel Farabee, Travis Konecny and goal-scorer Tony DeAngelo (2nd) made it a 1-1 game. Josh Mahura restored the Florida lead at 2-1 at the 7:58 mark before Scott Laughton (3rd) converted a power play goal at 15:28 off a nice pass from Konecny.
In the second period, the Flyers got unanswered goals on a deflection by Zack MacEwen (2nd goal of the season) and a Joel Farabee goal (2nd) right after a breakaway opportunity for Kevin Hayes. In the third period, Florida got back within 4-3 early in the period on a power play goal by Brandon Montour (2nd). However, Florida never found an equalizer.
For much of the game, the ice was tilted in Florida's favor. The Panthers are a team that normally throws a lot of rubber at the net but Thursday's game was almost ludicrous. The Panthers attempted 104 shots in this game, getting 51 on net (29 were blocked, and 26 missed the net). It took Hart awhile to get settled in but he was nothing short of spectacular over the final 40 minutes. Hart is now 5-0-0 on the season. Sergei Bobrovsky made 19 saves on 22 shots
The Flyers went 1-for-2 on the power play. The Panthers were 1-for-4.
Philadelphia started the game with 11 forwards and seven defensemen. However, for the second straight game, Philly ended up mostly using nine forwards. They also generally used six defensemen. Last game, Hayes and Konecny were benched for the third period. In this game, Morgan Frost (12 shifts, 7:41 TOI) and Wade Allison (eight shifts, 5:08 TOI) were used very sparingly after the first period. Defenseman Egor Zamula skated 6:41 over eight shifts.
Correspondingly, the likes of Laughton (23:10), Konecny (22:14), Hayes (19:41) and Noah Cates (18:47,, two blocked shots, one takeaway) absorbed heavy ice time among the forwards in the rotation. On defense, Provorov (24:56), DeAngelo (21:19) and Travis Sanheim (20:52, five blocked shots, four shots on goal).
The Flyers welcomed Owen Tippett (18:24 TOI, one assist, three shots on goal) and Rasmus Ristolainen (two hits, 14:06 TOI) back to the lineup on Thursday after they were activated from Injured Reserve.
FLYERS STARTING LINEUP
86 Joel Farabee - 13 Kevin Hayes - 11 Travis Konecny
49 Noah Cates - 21 Scott Laughton - 74 Owen Tippett
23 Lukas Sedlak - 48 Morgan Frost - 57 Wade Allison
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - xxxxxxx - 17 Zack MacEwen
9 Ivan Provorov - 77 Tony DeAngelo
6 Travis Sanheim - 61 Justin Braun
24 Nick Seeler - 54 Egor Zamula
55 Rasmus Ristolanen
79 Carter Hart
[32 Felix Sandström]
TURNING POINT
There wasn't really a particular play or shift that turned the tide in this game. The MacEwen goal -- with role players Lukas Sedlak, Nicolas Deslauriers, eventual goal-scorer MacEwen and the defense pairing of Nick Seeler and Rasmus Ristolainen on the ice -- gave the Flyers a huge lift. They never trailed again in the game, although the Farabee goal stood at the official game-winner.
However, if one single shift encapsulated the game, it was a second period sequence in which Provorov was in considerable discomfort after blocking a shot. He was still down on the ice, as the play swung the other way. However, he recovered sufficiently to get back to his feet and break up a Florida rush before the end of his shift.
MELTZER'S TAKE
1. The starting lineup above is based off Wednesday's practice combinations. However, from the outset of this game, John Tortorella juggled line combinations often; rarely sending out the same trio of forwards on consecutive shifts. This changed later when Tortorella shortened his bench.
The Flyers were massively outplayed early. Florida went ahead, 1-0, at 3:41. An initial clearing opportunity was lost, and the puck never left the Flyers zone. Finally, the puck made it out to Forsling in the deep center slot. His shot trickled past Hart into the net. The assists went to Aleksander Barkov and Carter Verhaeghe.
Philadelphia drew even at 6:31. After a good keep, a gorgeous passing sequence unfolded as Farabee passed to Konecny and TK made a behind-the-back pass to DeAngelo. From the left side, DeAngelo buried his shot in the back of the net.
Hart allowed a leaky goal to Mahura at 7:58.He moved over to seal off the left post but the puck found room under his pad to give Florida a 2-1 edge. Radko Gudas and Colin White received the assists.
The Flyers went on the power play at 15:08 when Eetu Luoustarinen tripped Tippett. Philly cashed in 20 seconds later. A shot attempt was blocked but Konecny came up with the puck and found Laughton near the right post, who buried the shot to re-tie the score at 2-2.
Late in the first period, Frost made a nice pass in tight space out to an open Ivan Provorov.
Defenseman Zamula, who had two glaring turnovers in the first period was benched for the final 6:57 of the frame.
2. The Flyers were out-shot, 7-0, to start the game and 19-9 overall in the period. Hart may have liked at least one of the goals back. The Flyers were outchanced, 15-4 (9-2 high danger chances) but nevertheless got the period to intermission even in on the scoreboard.
3.This was the most evenly played of the three periods and the only frame where Philly had stretches where they strung a couple consecutive solid shifts in a row. Where it really mattered -- the scoreboard -- Philadelphia had the only two goals.
At 10:17, the Flyers took a 3-2 lead. Sedlak won a faceoff in the left circle. Deslauriers got the puck back to Seeler at the left point. From the slot, McEwen tipped the puck to redirect it past Bobrovsky.
Very shortly thereafter, the Flyers' lead grew to two goals at 11:29. Tippett received a pass from DeAngelo and forwarded it ahead to Hayes, springing him on a breakaway. Bobrovsky made a pad save. Hayes stayed with it, recovering the puck behind the net and centering it out to an oncoming Farabee. From the low slot, Farabee bagged his second goal of the season.
Ristolainen landed a crunching hit on Patric Hörnqvist inside the Flyers' blueline at 12:44. Unfortunately for the Flyers, the puck was about 10 feet away at that point. Ristolainen was whistled off for interference. The Flyers killed the penalty successfully.
In the final 16 seconds of the middle frame, Sedlak was called for hooking. The Panthers took 1:44 of power play time into the third period.
4. Second period shots were 11-8 Panthers.Scoring chances overall were equal at 8-8 (high-danger chances were 4-2 Flyers),.The second period was the Flyers best of the night.
5. The Panthers came out with a heavy push to start the third period during their carryover power play time. Hart came up big on an early stop against Sam Bennett. However, the Panthers kept coming at Montour broke through at the 36-second mark. Sam Reinhart and Matthew Tkachuk received the assists.
Thereafter, the Flyers bent plenty but never broke. Frost took a slashing-the-stick penalty at 3:18 of the third period (his first shift in nearly a period) with the teams skating 4-on-4. The PK came through the kill to protect the one-goal edge. Philly was unable to extend the lead back to two goals on a mid-period power play.
Most of the final seven minutes of the game were spent with the Flyers hemmed in their own end. Florida made a very heavy push at 6-on-5 with Bobrovsky pulled for extra attacker. A Florida timeout actually helped the Flyers get a much-needed respite after being unable to clear the puck and finally taking an icing. Florida kept up the pressure, however, until time expired.
Third period shots on goal were 21-5 in Florida's favor. Scoring chances were 18-3 Florida with an 11-1 edge for the Panthers. The slew of blocked shots by Philly helped out for sure but, when all was said and done, it was the Carter Hart Show.