Hart, Flyers Survive Late Flurry from Predators

(Photo: Kate Frese)

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

This one was, literally, a heart stopper. In the final seconds, clinging to a one-goal lead, the Flyers preserved a lead in front of Carter Hart, getting into shooting lanes and disrupting shots.

With one second left, Ryan Johansen put a shot off the post, securing the second straight win for the Flyers by a score of 2-1 over the Nashville Predators on Thursday night at Wells Fargo Center.

The Flyers got on the board early on a nice setup. A point shot by Radko Gudas left a rebound. Sean Couturier made a quick touch pass to Jake Voracek at the side of the net and he scored to make it 1-0 at 5:10.

The Flyers held the lead for the rest of the period, leading in shots, 9-8, after 20 minutes.

Shortly after killing off a penalty, the Predators got the game tied up at 4:04 of the second period. A shot by Ryan Ellis hit off of Calle Jarnkrok in front of the net. The carom went right to Nick Bonino in the slot and with the net empty, and he scored to tie the game.

Just over four minutes later, Travis Konecny broke up a play at center ice to start a two-on-one the other way. Claude Giroux led the charge and opted for the shot, beating Pekka Rinne to the stick side to give the Flyers the lead again. 

The end of the second period was marred with penalties and the Flyers got into big trouble in that department. Ivan Provorov took a high-sticking penalty following a stoppage and added a 10-minute misconduct for shoving an official. With Provorov unavailable, the Flyers took two more penalties in short order, one of Gudas for delay of game and another on Andrew MacDonald for high-sticking. The three penalties were separated by 1:04. 

The Flyers managed to survive the 5-on-3 through the end of the period, leaving 45 seconds of PK time left as the third period began. Shots after two periods were 23-19 Flyers.

The Flyers killed off the rest of the penalty time in the third and got Provorov back as well. The Flyers had to kill off another penalty five minutes into the period and did. After failing to score on a power play of their own 11 minutes into the period, the Flyers were back on the penalty kill again with 2:45 remaining and the net empty for Nashville. The Flyers killed off the penalty and withstood the final push from the Predators, which included Johansen's shot off the post with one seconds remaining.

Hart made 31 saves on 32 shots in his second win. Rinne stopped 29 shots in the defeat.

The Flyers get back on the ice on Saturday afternoon as they face the Columbus Blue Jackets at 1 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• PHI Jake Voracek (9) (Sean Couturier, Radko Gudas) 5:10

2nd Period

• NSH Nick Bonino (6) (Calle Jarnkrok, Ryan Ellis) 4:04
• PHI Claude Giroux (12) (Travis Konecny) 8:33

3rd Period

• No Scoring

Game Statistics