Flyers defeat Hurricanes in Hart return

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Carter Hart made 31 saves in his return and helped the Philadelphia Flyers to their third straight win, 3-1 against the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena on Wednesday.

Hart missed five games because of a back injury and illness. He hadn't played since a 5-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Nov. 1, when he was injured in the first period.

“No expectations, just come in and play hockey,” Hart said. “I do all the work in preparation, two weeks away. I’ve got time to focus on some other parts of my game and my body. I used the time away effectively and just prepared for the next puck I had to stop.”

Owen Tippett, Travis Konecny and Ryan Poehling scored for the Flyers (8-7-1), who went 3-1-0 on a four-game road trip.

“We knew they wanted to play a fast game and create turnovers and get in behind us,” Konecny said. “As long as we just frustrated them by chipping pucks in, chipping pucks out and sticking to our game plan, when we got our chances we were going to bear down and hope for the best.”

Stefan Noesen scored, and Pyotr Kochetkov made 21 saves for the Hurricanes (9-7-0).

“It’s frustrating but it’s got to stop,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “And that’s going to be on me pretty soon to start shaking things up if we continue to do that because we are too good to be inconsistent.”

Philadelphia went up 1-0 at 1:50 of the first period when Tippett took a drop pass from Morgan Frost and scored on a one-timer from above the right face-off circle.

“You can’t sit back at all, otherwise it doesn’t end too well,” Tippett said. “Right from the start, we had a great game and we kept it going for 60 minutes.”

The Hurricanes responded with steady offensive pressure throughout the period, but Hart stopped all nine shots he faced. He made the save on Jordan Martinook’s shot from the top of the crease at 4:04 before turning away Jesperi Kotkaniemi with the blocker on a short breakaway at 10:04.

“That’s when I thought he was at best, the first period,” Philadelphia coach John Tortorella said. “He had some great saves. He’s played well all year long. To let us get going, I thought that was his best period.”

Konecny made it 2-0 at 19:02 by redirecting Nick Seeler's pass in the slot for his 10th goal of the season.

“I’m just trying to work hard and get my game back, and my linemates are a big part of everything,” Konecny said. “I’m just trying to get to good spots. On that one, I didn’t do anything. ‘Seels’ just made an unbelievable play and I just deflected it.”

Poehling pushed the lead to 3-0 at 29 seconds of the second period, chipping the puck over Kochetkov’s shoulder from the slot.

“As a group, it doesn’t look like we’ve consistently bought into how we want to do things,” Carolina captain Jordan Staal said. “And it’s going to look like that, it’s going to be a .500 club that wins some games, loses some games, just kind of ho-humming. It’s certainly a little frustrating, and we’re going to need to have everyone.”

Noesen cut it to 3-1 at 11:00. He took a cross-ice pass from Tony DeAngelo and one-timed a shot from the top of the left circle.

“I thought the most important part of the game was the second period when they scored a goal,” Tortorella said. “The building gets revved up, we take two penalties, have to kill the penalties, and we get out of the second period, 3-1. Not 3-2 or 3-3. I thought we held our composure, handled the momentum swing and ended up starting the third period 3-1.”

NOTES: Philadelphia lost its previous eight games to Carolina, dating to Nov. 26, 2021. … Tippett has five points (four goals, one assist) in a three-game point streak and has scored in three straight. … Frost has four points (two goals, two assists) in a three-game point streak. … Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin had three shots on goal and played 20:13 in his 600th NHL game. … Carolina defenseman Brent Burns played his 777th consecutive game, passing Craig Ramsey for the eighth-longest streak in NHL history.