Hart makes 48 saves, Flyers hold off Panthers

PHILADELPHIA --Carter Hart made 48 saves for the Philadelphia Flyers in a 4-3 win against the Florida Panthers at Wells Fargo Center on Thursday.

Joel Farabee had a goal and an assist, and Travis Konecny and Kevin Hayes each had two assists for Philadelphia (5-2-0), which was outshot 21-5 in the third period.
"That's a huge win against a good hockey team," Hart said. "Just take things one shot at a time, whether I get 20 shots or 50 shots."
Gustav Forsling, Josh Mahura and Brandon Montour scored for Florida (4-3-1). Sergei Bobrovsky made 18 saves.
The Panthers had a season-high 51 shots on goal.
"We had 104 shot opportunities," Florida coach Paul Maurice said. "I don't think I've ever seen that. The story is their goalie. We missed some, but when you get that many on the net, I don't think you can critique too much."

Forsling put the Panthers ahead 1-0 at 3:41 with a shot from the high slot.
Tony DeAngelo tied it 1-1 at 6:41 when he finished a no-look, backhand pass from Konecny.
After Mahura put Florida ahead 2-1 at 7:58, Konecny made a nice pass through the crease to Scott Laughton for a power-play goal to tie it 2-2 at 15:28.
Konecny played 22:14, the second-most he's played in a game this season, and it came after he was benched in the third period of a 3-0 loss to the San Jose Sharks on Sunday.
"I wanted to respond the right way," Konecny said. "It wasn't a good effort for me the previous game; the last two games actually. So, I wanted to make sure that I was doing as much as I could to help the team tonight and just buying into the doing the right things."

Zack MacEwen redirected Nick Seeler's shot at 10:17 of the second period to give Philadelphia a 3-2 lead.
Moments later, Hayes skated in on a breakaway but lost the puck. He retrieved it off the end boards and sent it toward the front of the net, where Farabee knocked it in to make it 4-2 at 11:29.
"We started slow, [but I] thought we picked it up parts of the second period and then we just hung in there," Flyers coach John Tortorella said.
Montour scored a power-play goal 36 seconds into the third for the 4-3 final. It was the Panthers' first goal with the man-advantage in six games, ending an 0-for-26 skid.
"We got some good looks, some clean looks," Montour said. "I'd like us to be a little quicker still. I think we're trying to make a little too perfect plays. We've got some good shooters. It was nice to get one there early in the third, but still a lot to work on there."

That was the only goal Hart allowed in the third. He set an NHL career-high for saves in a game, and his .947 save percentage this season is second in the NHL among goalies to play at least four games.
"He's been awesome," Philadelphia defenseman Ivan Provorov said. "There's so many games this year where we were able to win because at times, we would lose our momentum and the way we're supposed to play, but he was able to shut the door."
NOTES: Eric Staal, who agreed to a one-year contract with the Panthers on Oct. 21, played 10:37 in his season debut. It was the forward's first NHL game since the 2021 Stanley Cup Final with the Montreal Canadiens. Staal played five games in the American Hockey League last season and also represented Canada at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. ... Flyers defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen had two hits in 14:06 of ice time in his season debut. He missed the first six games of the season because of a hip injury. ... Philadelphia forward Owen Tippett had one assist in 18:24 of ice time after missing five games with an upper-body injury. ... Hart's previous career high for saves was 47 against the Vegas Golden Knights last season on March 8. ... Provorov led the Flyers with eight blocked shots. ... Philadelphia claimed forward Kieffer Bellows on waivers from the New York Islanders before the game.