Voracek, Gostisbehere Lead Flyers Past Hurricanes

(Kate Frese/Sports Talk Philly)

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

Saturday night's game at Wells Fargo Center was starting to go down the same road as the previous three. When the Hurricanes jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second period, there was the sense that the Flyers were continuing toward an October to forget again.

But the Flyers got two timely goals to even things up, and struck two more times in the second. They would add two goals in the third as well to come away with a 6-3 win over the Hurricanes on Saturday night at Wells Fargo Center.

The first period was a tight-checking affair with limited chances for both teams. The Flyers and Hurricanes each had power plays and failed to convert. 

The Hurricanes got a late power play with 40 seconds left in the period, but the first came to a close without any scoring. Shots were even in the first 20 minutes, 6-6.

But in the early stages of the second, the Hurricanes converted on the power play. 50 seconds into the period, a shot from the point by Justin Faulk beat a heavily-screened Steve Mason with a shot that hit Ivan Provorov's right skate to give Carolina the lead.

Carolina struck again just over two minutes later. At 3:07, a neutral-zone turnover set up a scoring chance and the Hurricanes capitalized with a pretty tic-tac-toe play from Sebastian Aho to Joakim Nordstrom to Jordan Staal for the goal to make it 2-0.

The Flyers, though, had a quick answer. Just 1:43 later, Jake Voracek put a perfect cross-ice pass on the stick of Brandon Manning. With room in front of him, Manning cut in, dangled and tucked it in behind Eddie Lack to cut the lead to one.

Just 2:29 later, the game was tied. Travis Konecny put a pass into a shooting position for Provorov and his blast was deflected in by Voracek to even things up at two at 7:19.

The Flyers took the lead at 15:51. As a power play expired, Konecny set up Provorov again for a shot that was deflected by Matt Read for his fifth goal of the season.

Less than two minutes later at 17:17, Shayne Gostisbehere was left with time and space and beat Lack with a sharp wrist shot to the low blocker side to make it 4-2 Flyers. 

The Hurricanes cut the lead back to one with 1:06 to play in the period. A turnover by Gostisbehere came back to haunt the Flyers, as a late back check by the forwards left Andrew MacDonald out of position and Lee Stempniak wide open for his fourth goal of the season.

The Flyers padded the lead with a power play midway through the third. A one-timer by Gostisbehere was stopped by Lack, by Wayne Simmonds was there to put home the rebound to make it a two-goal game again.

With less than three minutes to go, the Flyers iced the game as Voracek knuckled a shot past Lack on a delayed penalty call to make it 6-3. 

The Flyers were outshot by the Hurricanes, 30-27. 

Voracek finished with three points, two goals and one assist, as did Gostisbehere, one goal and two assists. Provorov and Simmonds each had two points.

The Flyers return to the ice on Monday as they face the Montreal Canadiens. The opening face-off is set for 7:30 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• No Scoring

2nd Period

• CAR Justin Faulk (2) PP (Sebastian Aho, Teuvo Teravainen) 0:50
• CAR Jordan Staal (2) (Joakin Nordstrom, Aho) 3:07
• PHI Brandon Manning (1) (Jake Voracek) 4:50
• PHI Voracek (1) (Ivan Provorov, Travis Konecny) 7:19
• PHI Matt Read (5) (Provorov, Sean Couturier) 15:51
• PHI Shayne Gostisbehere (1) (Andrew MacDonald, Wayne Simmonds) 17:17
• CAR Lee Stempniak (4) (Victor Rask, Jeff Skinner) 18:54

3rd Period

• PHI Wayne Simmonds (4) PP (Gostisbehere, Claude Giroux) 11:50
• PHI Voracek (2) (Gostisbehere, Chris VandeVelde) 17:33

Game Statistics