Throwing some fuel into the fiery cheers of the home crowd, Verhaeghe netted his first goal of the season and opened the scoring for the Panthers when he let loose a laser of a shot from the right circle that buzzed past Felix Sandstrom to make it 1-0 at 6:06 of the first period.
Soon after, Travis Konecny appeared to tie the game up for Philadelphia, but the goal was taken off the board after it was ruled that the Flyers had entered the offensive zone offside.
Keeping the good times rolling after that successful challenge, the Panthers doubled their lead when Verhaeghe collected a stretch pass from Gustav Forsling, flew into the offensive zone and, with a defender on his left, sniped a shot into the cage in transition to make it 2-0 at 8:38.
Prior to Verhaeghe's early outburst, the last skater in the NHL to score two faster goals to start their team's Home Opener was Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals back on Oct. 7, 2017.
"We got a couple early ones," Verhaeghe said. "It was nice to get on top at home."
After killing off a power play for the Panthers, Nick Seeler crashed the net and backhanded a pass from Kevin Hayes past Sergei Bobrovsky to slice Philadelphia's deficit to 2-1 at 16:31. Tying the game on the power play in the second period, James van Riemsdyk pounced on a precariously loose puck in the blue paint and slid it under Bobrovsky's pads to make it 2-2 at 15:16.
Teaming up for a highlight-reel goal to send the Panthers ahead, Sam Bennett set Rudolfs Balcers loose after threading a pass through two defenders. Pulling the puck to his backhand, Balcers then lifted the biscuit into the top of the net to make it 3-2 at 3:51 of the third period.
"It feels nice," Balcers said of scoring his first goal with Florida. "A sweet pass by Benny there. I wasn't sure that it went in right away, but it was nice to see it cross the line. It was very nice."
A little over a week after being claimed off waivers from the Anaheim Ducks, Josh Mahura scored his first goal with the Panthers when he took a pass from Bennett and slipped a shot past Sandstrom from just below the left circle in transition to extend the lead to 4-2 at 9:08.
"It's obviously exciting to get the win here in the Home Opener," said Mahura, who formed a formidable pair with Radko Gudas against the Flyers. "We did exactly what we wanted to do."
With less than three seconds left and the extra attacker on the ice, Konecny scored to get the Flyers, who fired 19 shots during the final 20 minutes of action, to within a goal at 4-3. But with no time left, the Panthers ended up holding on to win their fourth consecutive Home Opener.
Despite missing two of their top defensemen in Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour, the Panthers, with several players stepping up and another big night from Bobrovsky, got the job done.
Bobrovsky and Sandstrom both finished with 31 saves.
"Everyone did a fantastic job stepping in," Verhaeghe said. "Everyone was making fantastic plays, and it was nice to get the win right off the hop here. … I can't say enough good things about Bob. Every game it seems like he makes a huge save. He was dialed in. He's our backbone back there. It's so much confidence for us as players to have him in net back there."
