The Philadelphia Flyers looked to have had their first win on the season when Bobby Brink buried a shot into an open cage with 53 seconds left before it was ruled off for goaltender interference.
Less than 4o seconds later, the Carolina Hurricanes turned around and ended up winning the contest after a one-time blast from Seth Jarvis that was set up by Sebastian Aho sent the home fans into a frenzy, finishing the game at 4-3.
Brink and the Flyers’ third line were spectacular again, connecting for two of the three goals, including Brink who had a goal and an assist apiece. Nikita Grebenkin and Trevor Zegras recorded their first points as Flyers, and for the former it was his first career NHL point.
Samuel Ersson was terrific in goal, stopping 35 shots en route to the loss but allowed just 3 goals on 38 shots before entering overtime.
Coming off the heels of a 2-1 loss in their season opener against the Florida Panthers, the Flyers visited the Hurricanes in search of their first win.
As expected, there were several changes made to the lineup, starting with Samuel Ersson being between the pipes. Dan Vladař was given the season opener and sparkled with a 32-save effort in the low-scoring loss, however Rick Tocchet decided to go with Ersson against Carolina.
Both Jett Luchanko and Nikita Grebenkin made their debuts at the behest of Rodrigo Ābols and Nicolas Deslauriers with Garnet Hathaway being the lone survivor of Thursday night’s fourth line.
As for the Hurricanes, they were coming off the heels of a 6-3 win over the New Jersey Devils. Seth Jarvis led the way with 2 goals and Sebastian Aho chipped in with 2 assists as the top-line had a big night. Frederik Andersen, who earned the start against New Jersey, made his second consecutive start with Pyotr Kochetkov still sidelined due to a lower-body injury.
FIRST PERIOD
A fairly quiet start to the first period worked in the Flyers’ favour as they were able to keep the Hurricanes somewhat quiet, despite not having a shot in the first 8 minutes. Unfortunately, Travis Konecny was nailed for an interference minor against Jordan Staal with 11:50 remaining in the period.
The Flyers were able to kill the penalty as they were able to keep the top unit without a shot, however they did face some issues with the second unit as they fired 5 shots towards the net with 2 having been stopped by Samuel Ersson.
With the Hurricanes dictating pace of play, they went back to the power play after Egor Zamula was nailed for a tripping minor with 8:50 remaining in the period. The Flyers survived and were credited with 2 shots, one coming from a full-length clearance from Nick Seeler that went right to the goaltender and then Noah Cates got one after the penalty but was robbed in the slot on his one-time attempt.
The indisciplined play continued though, with Cates called for the third minor penalty of the period with 3:37 remaining. It was a much better showing from the Flyers penalty kill and for their efforts, they were able to tilt momentum a bit on their side and received their first power play of the night with 31 seconds left.
With the help of a fortuitous bounce, Owen Tippett scored the game’s first goal just 10 seconds into the power play. Konecny’s shot went high and wide, but it went off the stanchion and bounced right to Tippett in the slot, before he was able to wire it past Frederik Andersen for his first of the season. Trevor Zegras also earned his first point as a Flyer as he recorded the secondary assist.
Despite a 16-6 edge in shots, the Hurricanes trailed 1-0 heading into the intermission.
SECOND PERIOD
On a quick counter-attack, the Hurricanes were able to tie things up, courtesy of Logan Stankoven. Alexander Nikishin slammed it out of the zone along the wall to Jackson Blake, who then made a move into the slot where his shot was stopped but the rebound went to Stankoven, who finished it into the open net at the 3:46 mark.
However, the Flyers responded back at the 6:18 mark after Bobby Brink wired a shot high-glove over Andersen from the slot after a great forechecking shift from the Jett Luchanko line to set up the play. Cates earned the primary assist and Grebenkin was awarded the secondary assist for his first NHL point.
The Hurricanes struck again as they were able to tie the game at 2 with 10:53 remaining in the frame. It came off another counter-attack, and despite keeping Eric Robinson to the outside, he was able to avoid Seeler’s stick to set up Taylor Hall with a perfect cross-seam pass as the latter just got his stick on the pass to tap it past Ersson.
The Flyers earned their second power play of the night after K’Andre Miller was nailed for a interference minor with 6:35 remaining. While they weren’t able to score, they finally had real pressure going against the Hurricanes defense, and pressured Andersen with grade-A chances, even after the power play expired.
Unfortunately that pressure didn’t last all that long after Jordan Staal was able to get the Hurricanes their first lead of the game with 1:30 left. Staal found Jordan Martinook behind the net before the latter wrapped around a pass that found the former as he wired his 299th career goal past Ersson low-glove.
The period came to a close with the Canes up 3-2 on the scoreboard and 28-16 on the shot clock.
THIRD PERIOD
To start out the final frame, William Carrier finished Konecny against the boards with his back turned, but it was Philadelphia who got the only penalty out of the play after Matvei Michkov was given the gate for a roughing penalty, as he came to his teammate’s aid.
The rest of the period was generally played out in the neutral zone with the Hurricanes protecting the fort. However, the Flyers were given a third power play with 8:18 remaining after Jalen Chatfield was called for a tripping minor against Cates.
The Hurricanes did a great job at aggressively killing the penalty and keeping the Flyers to just one real offensive opportunity. On the flip side, Carolina had a few chances, including a an abbreviated breakaway for Martinook, but his shot went high and wide.
After a big save made by Ersson on Sebastian Aho, the Flyers’ third line struck again, as Travis Sanheim wired a bulleted one-timer set up by Brink from behind the goal-line. Tyson Foerster started the play before finding Brink behind the net and the fourth-year forward did the rest as he found a pinching Sanheim for his 1st goal of the season with 4 minutes left.
Carolina found another gear in the third but Ersson stood his ground, stopping all 12 shots fired his way in the period. For his efforts, he was able to push the game to overtime as the Flyers received their first point of the season.
OVERTIME
Brink had initially looked to have given the Flyers a victory with 53 seconds left but it was reviewed for goaltender interference and taken back after they ruled that Sanheim made contact with Andersen.
After the lengthy review, the Canes ended up scoring the winner with just 16.7 seconds left after Aho and Shayne Gostisbehere passed it around before feeding Seth Jarvis for a one-timer from the faceoff dot to claim the victory.
When Brink was asked postgame about the disallowed goal, he said, “I mean, I’m guessing it’s because Sanheim ran into the goalie. But in my humble opinion, it’s the wrong call, but they made the rules. So what do I know?”
UP NEXT
The Flyers will come home for their home opener at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Monday night against the Florida Panthers (7:00pm ET; NBCSP).
