Flyers Hot Start Earns 2nd Win of Week Over Florida

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

The Flyers may have lost Tuesday's game in the final minute of the third, but it was another slow start in the first that did them in against the Islanders. On Thursday night, it was role reversal.

It was the Flyers jumping out to a 3-0 first-period lead and extending it to 4-0 by the end of the second. Two quick Florida goals threatened the Flyers lead, but they added two late insurance goals to seal a 6-2 win over the Panthers.

The Flyers jumped out to the lead early. After failing to score on a power play, James van Riemsdyk picked up a rebound in front off a Matt Niskanen shot to make it 1-0 at 4:24.

For most of the period, that was the lone goal until the Flyers struck twice in the final three minutes. First, Tyler Pitlick sped up the wing and beat Sergei Bobrovsky with a short-side shot to make it 2-0 at 17:37. Just 55 seconds later, Nicolas Aube-Kubel put home a rebound to make it 3-0.

Even with the three-goal margin, the Flyers were outshot by the Panthers, 11-9, in the first period. 

The three-goal margin held throughout the second period, as the Flyers shut down the Panthers and killed off the only power play Florida would have in the game. 

With just over one minute left in the period, Scott Laughton scored off a nice feed from van Riemsdyk to make it 4-0. Shots through two periods were 23-19 Flyers.

Early in the third, the Panthers took control and their top line tallied two quick goals. Just 35 seconds into the period, Jonathan Huberdeau buried a cross-ice feed from MacKenzie Weegar to get the Panthers on the board. At 4:56, Aleksander Barkov finished off a strong shift by picking his spot with a shot high past Carter Hart to make it 4-2.

The Flyers managed to calm things down after a great save by Hart on Evgenii Dadonov nearly made it a one-goal game. Eventually grabbed some much-needed insurance as Sean Couturier took a lead pass from Claude Giroux, fought off the coverage and fired one home to make it 5-2 Flyers. 

In the final minute of the third, with the Flyers on the power play, Robert Hagg scored to cap off the scoring.

Hart made 26 saves in the win, his second against the Panthers this week. Bobrovsky allowed three goals on nine shots in the first period before being pulled for Samuel Montembeault, who allowed three goals on 19 shots.

van Riemsdyk and Justin Braun each finished with three-point games. Michael Raffl and Niskanen each had two assists. 

There was one blemish to the win. Travis Sanheim finished with just 11:51 of ice time after missing a shift in the second period. He remained on the bench for the third, but did not take a regular shift.

The Flyers return to the ice on Saturday afternoon as they take on the Tampa Bay Lightning at 4 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• PHI James van Riemsdyk (17) (Matt Niskanen, Travis Sanheim) 4:24
• PHI Tyler Pitlick (6) (van Riemsdyk, Niskanen) 17:37
• PHI Nicolas Aube-Kubel (4) (Michael Raffl, Justin Braun) 18:32

2nd Period

• PHI Scott Laughton (10) (van Riemsdyk, Braun) 18:58

3rd Period

• FLA Jonathan Huberdeau (20) (MacKenzie Weegar, Aaron Ekblad) 0:33
• FLA Aleksander Barkov (17) (Keith Yandle, Anton Stralman) 4:56
• PHI Sean Couturier (17) (Claude Giroux) 14:52
• PHI Robert Hagg (3) PP (Raffl, Braun) 19:32

Game Statistics