Flyers Rally to Force OT, Fall to Hurricanes

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

The Flyers were staring another loss in the face when Travis Sanheim made a great individual play to get the game tied with 4:11 to play. It helped the Flyers get something that has eluded them for the majority of the road trip: a standings point.

Sanheim was on the unfortunate end of the Flyers demise in overtime, however, losing his stick as the Hurricanes cycled the puck. He ended up in front of Brian Elliott as Dougie Hamilton fired through the five-hole to seal a 5-4 win for the Hurricanes over the Flyers, giving them their fourth straight loss and a 1-4-1 record on a six-game road trip on Tuesday night.

The Flyers came out with some good energy and channeled that into an early goal. Travis Konecny took control off a rush and fired from a sharp angle, beating a shaky James Reimer to make it 1-0 just 37 seconds into the game.

The Flyers capitalized off another Carolina turnover later in the period. At 8:57, Michael Raffl finished off a nice feed from Jake Voracek to give the Flyers a 2-0 lead.

Carolina took just 43 seconds to answer back as Lucas Wallmark scored on a rebound to cut the lead to one. With 4:33 remaining in the period, Warren Foegele finished with a high shot over Elliott off a great set-up from Jordan Staal to tie the game.

Through 20 minutes, the Hurricanes outshot the Flyers, 16-8. 

Carolina kept the scoring coming early in the second. At 3:12, Jake Gardiner fired a slap shot past Elliott off a defensive breakdown to give the Hurricanes the lead. Just 1:45 later, Joel Edmundson fired from a distance to make it 4-2.

The Flyers did manage to cut into the lead before the period ended, with Nicolas Aube-Kubel scoring off a turnover with 5:33 remaining in the period to make it 4-3.

For most of the third period, the Flyers saw many attempts to even enter the zone thwarted by Carolina's tight defense. Finally, with 4:11 remaining in the third, they were able to break through. Sanheim took the puck along the boards and skated behind the net, coming out the other side, cutting to the slot and firing a shot that beat Reimer to tie the game at four.

That forced overtime and the Flyers had some good scoring chances early. Voracek hit the crossbar and there were a couple of potential odd-man situations. Then Carolina gained control and had the Flyers pinned in the zone with Sanheim without a stick. That allowed the Hurricanes to cycle and Hamilton cut in and fired through the screen of Sanheim and beat Elliott through the five-hole to give the Hurricanes the win at 1:56 of overtime.

Elliott finished with 28 saves on 33 shots. Reimer made 17 saves on 21 shots. 

Foegele, Hamilton and Gardiner each finished with two points.

The Flyers will finally return home for the first time in over two weeks. Following a 1-4-1 road trip, they get to face the NHL's best team, the Washington Capitals. Game time is at 7:30 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• PHI Travis Konecny (13) (Robert Hagg, Claude Giroux) 0:37
• PHI Michael Raffl (4) (Jake Voracek) 8:57
• CAR Lucas Wallmark (9) (Brock McGinn, Jordan Martinook) 9:40
• CAR Warren Foegele (9) (Jordan Staal, Jake Gardiner) 15:27

2nd Period

• CAR Gardiner (3) (Sebastian Aho, Foegele) 3:12
• CAR Joel Edmundson (4) (Dougie Hamilton, Erik Haula) 4:57
• PHI Nicolas Aube-Kubel (2) (Kevin Hayes) 14:27

3rd Period

• PHI Travis Sanheim (5) (Phil Myers, Sean Couturier) 15:49

Overtime

• CAR Hamilton (14) (Aho, Martin Necas) 1:56

Game Statistics