PHILADELPHIA — The Flyers had been in that hole before, down 2-0 early in their Saturday night matchup against the Carolina Hurricanes at the Wells Fargo Center.
Earlier this season, the Flyers erased the same deficit against the Vancouver Canucks and the Tampa Bay Lightning to rally to victory. But while the Flyers scored three straight in the second and third periods to pull ahead, the Hurricanes answered for a 4-3 overtime win. Defenseman Brent Burns scored the overtime winner.
While their games haven’t all been pretty, with the Flyers spending most of their time defending, they showcased a more balanced offensive effort against the Hurricanes. Through 60 minutes, the Hurricanes narrowly led the Flyers in shots, 32-27.
The Flyers finished the month 5-2-1, marking a strong start to the John Tortorella era.
Fourth line chips in
Since the season started, Tortorella has insisted that the Flyers will only find success when they begin scoring by committee. While the usual suspects, winger Travis Konecny and center Scott Laughton, have the most and second-most goals on the team with four and three, respectively, the Flyers have received contributions over the last two games from a few unlikely characters, including defenseman Nick Seeler and winger Zack MacEwen.
Known tough guy and fourth-line winger Nick Deslauriers joined in on the fun on Saturday, scoring the Flyers’ first goal of the game to cut the Hurricanes’ lead to one. The goal came as a result of strong work below the goal line by winger Wade Allison and a perfect centering pass off the wall from center Lukáš Sedlák to Deslauriers. Allison later scored the go-ahead goal off of another impressive feed from Sedlák, putting the Flyers up, 3-2.
Tippett gets a tally
In just his second game back from injury, winger Owen Tippett took a step toward solidifying an identity as a big, strong finisher. As a fixture on the Flyers’ first power-play unit, Tippett and Konecny ran a give-and-go. Konecny sent a return pass from the top of the left circle to Tippett at the bottom, then Tippett shot the puck between Hurricanes goalie Antti Raanta’s legs to tie the game, 2-2.
Earlier in the night on another Flyers power play, Tippett showed off his skating and work ethic with Hurricanes winger Teuvo Teravainen on a shorthanded breakaway. Tippett reloaded quickly, preventing Teravainen from getting a shot off on goalie Carter Hart. Tippett finished the night with three shots on goal.
Hart lends a helping hand
Going into Saturday night’s game, Hart had been on a red-hot, undefeated start, posting a .947 save percentage and a 2.00 goals against average through five games. However, he started off slow in the first period on the Hurricanes’ first goal. Roughly five and a half minutes into the opening frame, Hurricanes defenseman Brett Pesce’s shot from the point took a bounce off the end boards. In his 1,100th game, Jordan Staal gained possession of the puck and snuck a backhander between Hart and the post to pull his team ahead, 1-0.
But Hart rebounded after allowing the first two goals to help the Flyers even the score. After the Flyers went down, 2-0, late in the first period, Hart used his skate and the left post to keep center Sebastian Aho’s deflection out of the net. Roughly seven and a half minutes into the second period after the Flyers tied the game, Hart came up with a save on defenseman Jalen Chatfield, who attempted to poke the puck past him. Through 60 minutes and overtime, Hart denied 34 of 38 shots.
What’s next
The Flyers kick off November with a three-game road trip, starting with a tilt against the New York Rangers on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Philadelphia).
