Postgame 5: Point Taken in 4-3 Shootout Loss to Panthers

The Philadelphia Flyers earned one point against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers in Sunrise on Saturday evening. Ultimately, the Panthers prevailed via a five-round shootout 4-3 (2-1).

Evan Rodrigues generated a pair of primary assists in regulation for Florida before scoring the winner in the shootout. Nate Schmidt, Dmitry Kulikov and Sam Bennet tallied regulation goals for Florida. Aleksander Barkov had a regulation assist and a shootout goal.

For the Flyers, Joel Farabee, Anthony Richard and Garnet Hathaway tallied in regulation. Scott Laughton had a pair of helpers. Owen Tippett had the lone Philly goal in the shootout.

Building off the process the team followed in Thursday's 2-1 shootout win in Tampa Bay, the Flyers played a strong forechecking game with well-structured defense. The Flyers (5-8-2) finished their three-game road trip with three of six possible points.

A Laughton shot missed the net but the puck came out and Joel Farabee (3rd of the season) found it first to score for a 1-0 lead at 4:57 of the first period. The assists went to Laughton and Bobby Brink.

Florida knotted the score, 1-1, at 5:32 of the second period. On a low-to-high play defenseman Schmidt (2nd) came off the bench to rip a partially screened shot into the net. The assists went to Rodrigues and Barkov.

In the middle stanza, the teams scored four goals. Despite good overall play, however, the Flyers went to the second intermission with a 3-2 deficit.

Florida struck again at 8:40 on another goal set up by Rodgiues to a defenseman. This time Kulikov (2nd) bagged the goal to the blocker side. The secondary assist went to Sam Reinhart. After calling a timeout, the Flyers challenged the goal, claiming that an initial shot block by Nick Seeler went out of play into the netting.

After a very lengthy replay delay, the goal was upheld and the Flyers were charged with a delay of game penalty. The Flyers killed the penalty.

On a delayed Florida penalty, Philly made it a 2-2 game at the 13:00 mark, courtesy of Richard (1st goal of the season and first as a Flyer) firing a seeing-eye shot through traffic. The assists went to Travis Konecny and Rasmus Ristolainen.

Florida quickly regained a 3-2 lead at the 14:56 mark as a Flyers turnover in the neutral zone went the other way. After a pass across from Carter Verhaeghe, Bennett (9th of the season) scored from the right side. The second assist went to Niko Mikkola.

The Flyers generated the lone goal of the third period. Through regulation, shots on net were 31 to 28 in Philly's favor.

Garnet Hathaway (2nd of the season) forged a 3-3 deadlock at 9:47 as he put the puck out toward the net on an attempted pass. Fortunately, it went in off defenseman Uvis Balinskis. The assists went to Laughton (second helper of the game) and Nick Seeler.

Samuel Ersson stopped 28 of 31 shots through 65 minutes including three overtime saves. He was 3-for-5 in the shootout. Sergei Bobrovsky denied 34 of 37 shots including six Flyers shots in a frenetic overtime. "Bob" was 4-for-5 in stopping shootout attempts.

The Flyers went 0-for-2 on the power play. They were 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.

FLYERS STARTING LINEUP

74 Owen Tippett - 14 Sean Couturier - 11 Travis Konecny

86 Joel Farabee - 21 Scott Laughton - 10 Bobby Brink

90 Anthony Richard - 48 Morgan Frost - 71 Tyson Foerster

44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 27 Noah Cates - 19 Garnet Hathaway

6 Travis Sanheim - 9 Jamie Drysdale
24 Nick Seeler - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
36 Emil Andrae - 5 Egor Zamula

33 Samuel Ersson

[82 Ivan Fedotov]

PP1: Drysdale, Tippett, Couturier, Konecny, Richard
PP2: Andrae, Foerster, Frost, Farabee, Brink

Scratches: 39 Matvei Michkov (DND), 77 Erik Johnson (DND), 35 Aleksei Kolosov (lower body), 8 Cam York (IR), 25 Ryan Poehling (IR).

TURNING POINT

Farabee had two chances to win the game in overtime. At the other end, Ersson kept the game going. A couple shifts later, Jesper Boqvist hit the post. In the shootout, Florida elected to shoot first.

1st round: Barkov scored on a one-handed backhand shot. Konecny was unable to elevate a shot attempt.

2nd round: Reinhart was denied by Ersson's glove. Tippett tucked a backhander around Bobrovsky for a 1-1 tie.

3rd round: Anton Lundell ran out of space going wide on Ersson. Bobby Brink moved in from the right side and was stopped.

4th round: Matthew Tkachuk was stopped on a backhander. Sean Couturier was pokechecked by Bobrovsky.

5th round: Rodrigues scored on a backhander over Ersson's pad. Frost was stopped by Bobrovsky to end the skills competition.

POSTGAME 5

1) The Flyers had the lone shot on goal (Laughton) through the first three minutes. Eklblad appeared to score the first goal but it was waved off for hitting the post. As play continued, Farabee put the puck in the net to open the scoring. The Flyers then went to the game's first power play at 6:38 on a Rodrigues tripping minor on Couturier. With PP2 on the ice, Foerster hit the post late on the PP off a feed from Frost. After the penalty ended, Bobrovsky robbed Tippett off a Couturier feed (Flyers 9th shot of the period).

2) Florida went to their first power play at 13:09 of the first period on a Nick Seeler interference minor. Ristolainen made a good defensive play on the PK to deflect a dangerous-looking pass out of play. Ersson increasingly stepped up as the first period progressed, with the Panthers generating six of seven shots. Overall, the Flyers had an 11-10 shot on goal lead.

3) Laughton and Farabee attacked the net on an early second period shift. A Frost shot attempt was blocked on the next shift by Gustav Forsling. After Florida tied the game, the Farabee-Laughton-Brink line had a strong shift but then Kulikov scored to take a 2-1 lead.

4) Brink was denied by Bobrobsky's glove on a rising shot that seemed ticketed. Two shifts later, Richard briefly knotted the score at 2-2. Late in the period, Farabee was moved up to the Couturier line, along with Konecny, Second period shots were 13-7 in Philly's favor but Florida won the period where it counted: the scoreboard.

5) The Flyers reverted to the lines that started the game for the first shift rotation of the third period. Tippett worked a nice give-and-go sequence with Couturier. At the other end, Verhaeghe narrowly missed scoring on a deflection. Philly, in a 1-for-17 funk, went to a crucial power play at 7:31 on a Barkov interference minor. Couturier had a near miss on a deflection chance. After 5-on-5 play resumed, however, the Flyers got some self-made puck luck on Hathaway's goal. Late in regulation, Ersson made vital back-to-back saves to keep the game tied. Tippett (6th of seven shots on goal for the game) tipped a Sanheim shot pass on goal to force a tough save by Bobrovsky.