Verhaeghe scores twice for Panthers in win against Flyers

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Carter Verhaeghe scored twice for the Florida Panthers in their home opener, a 4-3 win against the Philadelphia Flyers at FLA Live Arena on Wednesday.

Verhaeghe also scored two goals in Florida's home opener last season, including in overtime, against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Oct. 14, 2021.
"Hopefully I will keep this trend going," Verhaeghe said. "We're not playing as run-and-gun as in years past, we're playing better defensively and that takes from our offense, but I think that's worth it. Going into hard games going down the stretch, it's going to be worth it."

Rudolfs Balcers scored the go-ahead goal in the third period, and Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Bennett each had two assists for the Panthers (3-1-0). Sergei Bobrovsky made 31 saves.
Travis Konecny had a goal and an assist, and Kevin Hayes had two assists for the Flyers (3-1-0), who lost for the first time under new coach John Tortorella. Felix Sandstrom made 31 saves in his first start of the season.
Philadelphia won 3-2 at the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday.
"I thought we were slow coming out," Tortorella said. "I thought as the game went on, we played better, found a way to crawl back into it. To give up the third goal and just a simple 2-on-2, that's the one that hurts. I thought [Sandstrom] gave us a chance. But to give up a 2-on-2, that's a free one, even-strength, strange situation. That's the one that hurts to me."
Verhaeghe gave Florida a 1-0 lead at 6:06 of the first period with a high wrist shot from the right dot.

The Flyers had a goal by Konecny overturned at 7:01 after the Panthers successfully challenged for offside, and Verhaeghe made it 2-0 at 8:38 on a breakaway.
Nick Seeler cut it to 2-1 at 16:31 with a backhand for his first goal of the season.
"I thought we did a lot of good things," Seeler said. "We knew they were going to come out hard in the first. You know, it's their home opener. We knew that. They got a couple quick [goals] and we showed some resiliency again, which is positive. But there were a few breakdowns that led to a few untimely goals, which hurt us."
Sandstrom stopped Tkachuk on a short-handed breakaway in the first minute of the second period, and James van Riemsdyk tied it 2-2 with a power-play goal at 15:16 on a rebound.
Balcers scored at 3:51 of the third with a high backhand after taking a pass from Bennett, and Josh Mahura made it 4-2 at 9:08.
"Obviously it is exciting to get the win here in the home opener," Mahura said. "I did exactly what I wanted to do. It's exciting for our team. It was awesome, we had a lot of energy out there, and I thought we played a pretty good 60-minute game."

Konecny scored with two seconds left for the 4-3 final.
"We kept playing," Tortorella said. "I thought we beat up the puck a little bit. I just think we need to make more plays. We bang it around a little bit, it goes back to the other team, and that's where we end up kind of back on our heels.
"I think we have the ability to make more plays. We've just got to keep on working. I'm happy with the effort. We stayed in it."
NOTES:Matt Kiersted and Lucas Carlsson played 13:15 and 10:36, respectively, for the Panthers after being recalled from Charlotte of the American Hockey League to replace injured defensemen Aaron Ekblad (lower body) and Brandon Montour (upper body). Ekblad was placed on long-term injured reserve earlier Wednesday. … Barkov played his 600th NHL game. … Tkachuk became the fifth player in Panthers history with a point streak of at least four games at the start of his tenure with them, joining Ray Whitney (seven games in 1997-98), Pavel Bure (six in 1998-99), Kris Versteeg (four in 2011-12) and Verhaeghe (four in 2020-21). … The Flyers, who had the League's worst power play last season (12.6 percent), have scored with the man-advantage in each of their four games. … Hayes' assist on Seeler's goal was the 200th of his NHL career.