Flyers Conclude Season with Shootout Loss to Hurricanes

(Kate Frese/Sports Talk Philly)

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

In the final game of the season, 60 minutes just wasn't enough.

The Flyers feverishly looked for the winning goal in the final minutes of regulation and overtime, but ultimately could not find it as they fell to the Carolina Hurricanes in the final game of the 2016-17 season, 4-3, in a shootout on Sunday night at Wells Fargo Center.

The Flyers came out with some jump, but a turnover gave the Hurricanes the first goal of the game.

Robert Hagg, playing in his first NHL game, attempted to chip the puck up the boards for a clearing attempt. It got to Travis Konecny, who tried to play it on his backhand and turned it over to Derek Ryan. As Ryan and Brock McGinn cut in on goal, Shayne Gostisbehere lost an edge and fell, effectively making the chance a 2-on-0 for Carolina. McGinn took the pass from Ryan and didn't miss, beating Anthony Stolarz at 5:42.

The Hurricanes had the stronger of the play for the rest of the first, but it was the Flyers holding the 11-10 shots advantage after 20 minutes.

In the second, the Flyers were able to capitalize on a chance to even the score. Andrew MacDonald created a turnover at the Carolina blue line and got the puck to Sean Couturier. Couturier centered to Dale Weise in the slot and he scored his seventh of the season to tie the game at 8:46.

Both teams failed to score on power play attempts, Carolina's coming late in the first and carrying over to the second and the Flyers coming late in the second period, and the play generally evened out as the game headed to the third period tied.

The Hurricanes grabbed the lead at 8:39 of the third with another goal by McGinn. Noah Hanifin's shot from the blue line was deflected by McGinn in front of Stolarz.

The Flyers answered back as Weise scored his second of the game with a shot from the high slot to beat Lack at 10:58. Just over a minute later, the Flyers took the lead as Wayne Simmonds scored on a nice move for his team-leading 31st goal of the season.

Carolina tied it up just under three minutes later, as Sebastian Aho scored on a one-timer on the power play to even things up with 5:10 to play.

From there, it was a free-for-all to the finish. The Flyers and Hurricanes each had chances to score in the final minutes of regulation. The game went to overtime, where the Flyers dominated with a 5-1 shot advantage, but could not score, forcing Game 82 to go to a shootout.

Claude Giroux scored for the Flyers in the shootout, but goals by Bryan Bickell — who was playing in his final NHL game and received a nice tribute — and McGinn sealed a win for Carolina.

Lack made 41 saves on 44 shots in the game plus two more in the shootout. Stolarz stopped 32 of 35 shots in the game.

It was a solid NHL debut for Hagg, who played 21:19 with five shots, four hits and three blocked shots.

The Flyers finish the 2016-17 season with a 39-33-10 record. The staff at Flyerdelphia would like to thank all of you for following along with us this season, as we celebrated 50 years of Flyers hockey. We'll be back with more throughout the offseason and get back to providing you with the best coverage of Flyers hockey again in September.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• CAR Brock McGinn (6) (Derek Ryan) 5:42

2nd Period

• PHI Dale Weise (7) (Sean Couturier, Andrew MacDonald) 8:46

3rd Period

• CAR McGinn (7) (Noah Hanifin, Jordan Staal) 8:39
• PHI Weise (8) (Couturier, Ivan Provorov) 10:58
• PHI Wayne Simmonds (31) (Shayne Gostisbehere, Jordan Weal) 12:05
• CAR Sebastian Aho (24) PP (Justin Faulk, Teuvo Teravainen) 14:50

Overtime

• No Scoring

Shootout

• PHI Jordan Weal – Save
• CAR Bryan Bickell – Goal
• PHI Claude Giroux – Goal
• CAR Sergey Tolchinsky – Miss
• PHI Jake Voracek – Save
• CAR Brock McGinn – Goal

Game Statistics