PHILADELPHIA CREAM — Carter Hart made 48 saves for the Philadelphia Flyers in a 4-3 win over the Florida Panthers at Wells Fargo Center on Thursday.
Joel Farabee had a goal and an assist, and Travis Konecny and Kevin Hayes each had two assists for Philadelphia (5-2-0), which was outshot 21-5 in the third period.
“It’s a huge win against a good hockey team,” Hart said. “Just take things one shot at a time, whether I get 20 or 50 shots.”
Gustav Forsling, Josh Mahura and Brandon Montour scored for Florida (4-3-1). Sergei Bobrovsky made 18 saves.
The Panthers had a season-high 51 shots on goal.
“We had 104 pitching chances,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “I don’t think I’ve seen that before. History is their goalkeeper. We missed a few, but when you have so many on the net, I don’t think you can criticize too much.”
Video: FLA@PHI: DeAngelo buries Konecny’s pretty flow in 1st place
Forsling gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead at 3:41 with a shot from the high slot.
Tony DeAngelo tied it 1-1 at 6:41 when he completed a no-look backhand pass from Konecny.
After Mahura put Florida ahead 2-1 at 7:58, Konecny made a nice pass through the crease to Scott Laughton for a power play goal to tie the game 2-2 at 15:28.
Konecny went 22:14, the second time he has played in a game this season, and it came after being benched in the third period of a 3-0 loss to the San Jose Sharks sunday.
“I wanted to respond in the right way,” Konecny said. “It wasn’t a good effort for me the game before; the last two games actually. So I wanted to make sure I was doing everything I could to help the team tonight and just wanted to do good things .”
Video: FLA@PHI: Farabee finishes Hayes’ flat to extend lead
Zack McEwen redirected Nick Seeler‘s shot at 10:17 of the second period to give Philadelphia a 3-2 lead.
Moments later, Hayes skated into a breakaway but lost the puck. He scooped him up off the end boards and sent him to the front of the net, where Farabee hit him to make it 4-2 at 11:29.
“We started slowly, [but I] I thought we salvaged some parts of the second period and then we hung on,” Flyers coach John Tortorella said.
Montour scored a power play goal 36 seconds into the third for the 4-3 final. It was the Panthers’ first goal with the man advantage in six games, ending a 0-for-26 skid.
“We have great looks, clean looks,” Montour said. “I would like us to be a bit faster. I think we try to make games that are a little too perfect. We have good shooters. a lot to work there.”
Video: FLA@PHI: Montour puts the puck home on the power play
It was the only goal Hart allowed in the third. He set an NHL career high for saves in a game, and his .947 save percentage this season is second in the NHL among goaltenders to have played in at least four games.
“He was great,” the Philadelphia defender Ivan Provorov said. “There are so many games this year where we were able to win because sometimes we lost our momentum and the way we are supposed to play, but he managed to close the door.
REMARKS: Eric Staal, who agreed to a one-year contract with the Panthers on October 21, went 10:37 in his season debut. It was the forward’s first NHL game since the 2021 Stanley Cup Final with the Montreal Canadiens. Staal played five games in the American Hockey League last season and also represented Canada at the Beijing Olympics in 2022. … Flyers defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen had two hits in 14:06 of ice time in his season debut. He missed the first six games of the season with a hip injury. …Philadelphia striker Owen Tippet had one assist in 18:24 of ice time after missing five games with an upper-body injury. … Hart’s previous career high for saves was 47 against the Vegas Golden Knights last season on March 8. … Provorov led the Flyers with eight blocked shots. …Philadelphia claimed forward Kieffer Bellows on waivers from the New York Islanders before the game.
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