POSTGAME: Flyers Defeat Predators, 3-1

The Philadelphia Flyers concluded a three-game road trip with a 3-1 victory over the Nashville Predators on Saturday at Bridgestone Arena. Stellar goaltending by Carter Hart, 22 blocked shots by his teammates, and a three-point game from Joel Farabee led the way.

The Flyers (4-1-0) took four of six possible points on the road trip. They return home on Sunday to host San Jose. Nashville dropped to 2-4-1 on the young season.
Kevin Hayes (1st goal of the season) gave the Flyers an early 1-0 lead at 3:13 of the first period. Zack MacEwen made it 2-0 on a rebound goal at 18:36. Farabee assisted on both goals. There was no scoring in a second period controlled by Nashville except for a five-minute stretch in the early portion of the stanza.
In the third period, Farabee (1st) gave the Flyers a little more breathing room as Hayes extended his season-opening point streak to five games. Matt Duchene (2nd, power play goal) broke up the shutout bid late in regulation but the Predators drew no closer.
Hart flirted with a shutout for 57:42. He finished with 31 saves on 32 shots. Juuse Saros stopped 22 of 25 Flyers shots.
The Flyers went 0-for-2 on the power play. The Predators were 1-for-3.
Claimed off waivers from the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday, Lukas Sedlak made his Flyers' debut in this game. He skated 9:45 of ice time across 14 shifts (including 40 seconds of PK time). Sedlak had a golden scoring chance in the second period, hitting the post. He put three shots on net.
FLYERS STARTING LINEUP
86 Joel Farabee - 13 Kevin Hayes - 11 Travis Konecny
21 Scott Laughton - 49 Noah Cates - 57 Wade Allison
25 James van Riemsdyk - 48 Morgan Frost - 17 Zack MacEwen
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 23 Lukas Sedlak - 58 Tanner Laczynski
9 Ivan Provorov - 77 Tony DeAngelo
6 Travis Sanheim - 61 Justin Braun
24 Nick Seeler - 54 Egor Zamula
79 Carter Hart
[32 Felix Sandström]
TURNING POINT
Scoring first was huge for the Flyers. Farabee made a strong forechecking play to force a turnover and then fed Hayes to put the Flyers ahead early in the first period. Philly never trailed despite spending much of the first two periods in the defensive zone. The Flyers bent but didn't break.
MELTZER'S TAKE
1.Nino Niederreiter took the puck to the net on the game's first shift, testing Hart right off the bat. The Flyers were guilty of several early unforced turnovers but got through the rough patch.
Nicolas Deslauriers dropped the gloves and fought Mark Borowiecki at the 2:15 mark of the game.It was a very brief tussle as Deslauriers lost his balance and fell down.
Fifty-eight seconds later, at 3:13, the Flyers scored the game's first goal for the first time in 2022-23. Farabee forced a Ryan McDonagh turnover in the left corber behind the Nashville net and centered to Hayes in the left slot. Hayes fired off a quick shot and scored. Farabee drew the lone assist.

The Predators nearly got the goal right back but a strong backchecking play by Morgan Frost saved a potential goal. Shortly thereafter, Farabee tipped the puck on net off a Tanner Laczynski pass. The puck lid across the goal line but not over it.
Nashville got the game's first power play at 9:24 of the opening period. Provorov cross-checked McCarron in front of Hart. The Predators applied heavy pressure but the Flyers got through the kill.
The Flyers grabbed a 2-0 lead at 18:36 to cap off what had been a strong shift throughout by Farabee. Just off the bench on a line change, MacEwen skated to the slot to claim an Egor Zamula rebound and stash it home. Zamula got the primary assist and Farabee got the secondary helper for his second point of the period.

2. The Flyers lost 13 of the game's first 15 faceoffs, which contributed directly to why they spent much of the first 15 minutes in their own zone. Ultimately, Nashville won 16 of 19 faceoffs (Noah Cates was 0-for-6, Frost was 1-for-5, Hayes was 0-for-3). First period shots on goal were 12-6 in Nashville's favor. However, Philly had the 2-0 lead in the cash register.
   3. The Flyers were hemmed in for the first two-plus minutes of the second period. The line of JVR, Frost and MacEwen (the tone-setter) responded with an extended possession shift deep in Nashville territory, which was followed up directly by the Flyers' fourth line following it up. Lukas Sedlac hit the post on the closest chance. Nashville spent more than two minutes in their own end.
   Borowiecki needed medical assistance and left the ice on a stretcher after receiving what initially seemed to be a routine bump from Frost along the boards behind the Flyers' net. The Nashville defenseman's head hit the boards as he crouched down and was wedged by Frost. No penalty was called.
   Ryan Johansen was called for holding DeAngelo deep in the Flyers' zone at 7:42 ; a needless penalty.With 1:15 left, Provorov chipped the puck in the defensive zone. Frost was called for closing his hand on the puck. Four-on-four play ensued.
   Nashville pressured again on their abbreviated power play, tiring out the Flyers' penalty killers. Philly got the puck out of the defensive zone as the Frost penalty expired but were unable to get a line change. It took a spectacular glove save by Hart on Matt Duchene to preserve the two-goal lead. Shortly before that, Hart denied a Niederreiter deflection.
   Yakov Trenin was stoned point-blank by Hart with about eight minutes left in the middle frame. The Predators won the next faceoff,giving them 24 wins on the game's first 30 draws.
   With 58 seconds left in the middle frame, Hart stopped a puck that appeared to double deflect. The Hayes line had a 3-on-2 opportunity in the final half minute of the period.
   4. Hart made 15 saves in the second period (27 through the opening 40 minutes). The turning point of the frame, after a wave of Flyers' pressure, was the Predators' response after teammate Borowiecki was injured. The Predators won the vast majority of the puck battles, from the faceoff circles (28 for 35, 80 percent) to the corners and the side boards. Hart was Philly's great equalizer. The Flyers generated 11 shots in the period.
   5. Dante Fabbro had a chance in the opening 45 seconds of the third period. The Predators took themselves offside as the shift continued. Travis Sanheim made a good stick-on-puck play on Duchene to break up a play. However, the Predators went right back on the next shift to hemming the Flyers in their own end.
   The Flyers tightened up their defensive structure, holding Nashville to two shots through seven-plus minutes. Hayes also won an important defensive zone faceoff after a Philadelphia icing.
   At 7:44, the Flyers built a three-goal lead. Ivan Provorov started the play. In the offensive zone, Hayes slid the pick to Farabee. From the left dot, Farabee snapped his first goal of the season -- and third point of the night -- past Saros to make it 3-0. The assists went to Hayes and Provorov.

At the 11:17 mark, Forsberg had a bang-bang chance. Hart made the save. With 8:12 remaining, MacEwen pounced on a loose puck in the neutral zone off a Frost clear and forced Saros at the other end to freeze a routine shot for a stoppage and an offensive zone faceoff for Philadelphia.
Farabee was cross-checked in the back at the defensive blueline by Josi, giving the Flyers a power play at 13:36. The PP2 unit won some puck battles but couldn't generate any scoring chances on the front end of the man advantage. The top unit finished it up with possession deep in the offensive zone.
James van Riemsdyk took a tripping penalty with 3:47 left as the Preds were exiting their defensive zone. Nashville pulled Saros for a 6-on-4 attack. Hart stopped a Josi point shot. Provorov blocked a Duchene shot from the right circle. Laughton cleared a puck from long-distance, narrowly missing the empty net. Finally, with 2:18 remaining, Duchene fired a rising wrist shot from the right circle that beat Hart over the glove to cut the gap to 3-1. Forsberg assisted.
Provorov blocked a Granlund shot with Nashville attacking 6-on-5. Cates got a stick in the lane and blocked a Colton Sissons shot. There was a stoppage at the net with 8.1 seconds remaining. DeAngelo made one final defensive stop before the final buzzer.
Third period shots were 8-5 in the Flyers' favor; 32-25 Nashville overall. Final faceoffs were 40-16 in Nashville's favor (Laughton led the Flyers at 5-for-11). Laughton's five credited hits topped the Flyers, while Sanheim had four and Frost three. Among the Flyers' 22 blocked shots, Provorov and DeAngelo had four apiece, Seeler had three and Noah Cates and Farabee had two apiece.