After what looked to be a gloomy evening for the Philadelphia Flyers (12-7-3), things became much brighter in a hurry in Sunrise as they stole a victory away from the Florida Panthers (12-10-1) on the road in 4-2 fashion.
The Panthers maintained a 2-0 lead early in the second period before Emil Andrae fired home a shot through traffic and Matvei Michkov tipped home another Andrae shot to tie the game in short order. Tyson Foerster scored the game-winning goal with just 44.5 seconds left in the third period and Sean Couturier added an insurance marker with 24 seconds to seal the deal.
“I liked our start and then they flipped the table on us,” said head coach Rick Tocchet. “Vladdy was unreal and of course, you know, he saved our bacon. So you know, getting out of there 1-0, kind of regrouped and we made a couple of adjustments and stuff like that. But I thought… resilience of the guys, give them a lot of credit.”
FIRST PERIOD
Score: 1-0 FLA
Shots: 15-7 FLA
After what seemed like a solid start for the Flyers, the Panthers put together a strong shift that saw three shots on net plus another that rang iron before Brad Marchand fired home the icebreaker just 5:21 into the contest.
Nick Seeler lost his stick and didn’t receive a replacement when he skated to the bench, so he tried to slide and break up Sam Bennett’s drive to the net after the Panthers forward received the puck from Carter Verhaeghe. The puck somehow slid under Seeler and landed right on Marchand’s blade for his 15th goal of the season.
The Panthers were easily the more dominant team in the first period. Dan Vladař stood on his head to keep the game within reach early and ended the period with 14 saves.
SECOND PERIOD
Score: 2-2
Shots: 20-12 FLA
The Panthers picked up right where they left off and peppered the Flyers cage to kick off the second period. The Flyers did have a great scoring chance from Owen Tippett that Sergei Bobrovsky fended off, but the Panthers immediately went the other way and Verhaeghe rammed home a feed from Bennett to make it 2-0 at the 5:16 mark.
It seemed like it would be a long night for the Flyers after that goal, but they were instilled with new life after Andrae blasted home a shot through a sea of bodies to cut the deficit in half for Philadelphia just 2:41 after Verhaeghe’s goal.
Andrae and the Flyers weren’t quite done after that and just 3:16 after his goal, he fired another shot that Michkov got a piece of and it fooled Bobrovsky enough to find the back of the net and tie the game.
It was another play where Jamie Drysdale’s footwork was also on display to help set up the goal as well.
“I think that’s something we [are] trying to emphasize in our offensive game as a team too,” said Andrae. “So yeah, I mean we’re both good at moving our legs and trying to create shooting lanes that way. So yeah, it was a great play and glad it went in.”
The Flyers were able to get back to their game defensively as well, limiting the Panthers to just 5 shots in the middle frame and only 3 after the Verhaeghe goal.
THIRD PERIOD
Score: 4-2 PHI
Shots: 27-18 FLA
The Flyers had a lot more juice in the third period and even though they only put up 6 more shots, they were clearly more energized and were at least making more attempts at the net and creating scoring chances.
Their efforts were rewarded after Foerster fired one home with just 44.5 seconds on the clock to put the Flyers ahead, 3-2.
“TK made a good play to chip it in, east-west, and then TK went high, D-to-D,” said Foerster. “You know, it’s unfortunate I hit the guy. He went down and then I was lucky enough they were out of position because of that and I scored.”
Couturier then proceeded to put home the insurance marker on a deflection to make it 4-2 and all but seal the deal for the Flyers.
The goal ended a 17-game scoring drought for the captain, who had not scored since October 13th in the Flyers’ last matchup against Florida.
3 STARS OF THE GAME: 1) Tyson Foerster – PHI, 2) Carter Verhaeghe – FLA, 3) Emil Andrae – PHI
UP NEXT
The Flyers head back north to take on the New York Islanders on Black Friday (3:00pm ET; NBCSP) as they continue their four-game road trip.
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