Well, it happened again. The Philadelphia Flyers (16-9-6) took the Carolina Hurricanes (21-9-2) to a shootout for a second consecutive game and were defeated, this time by a score of 3-2.
The Hurricanes have now won all three meetings against the Flyers this season so far and have not lost to the Flyers since November 15th, 2023, a span of 9 matchups.
After a sleepy first two periods, the Flyers made a strong third period push and tied the game with 1:52 remaining on the clock.
“We pushed. Scrappy. I liked our third obviously. We hung in,” said head coach Rick Tocchet postgame. “I mean, [we] had some moments early on. Bunch of kills, I think we had six penalties. That’s tough, but I thought the guys hung in there.”
The Flyers have now dropped three consecutive games – all in extra time – for the first time in 2025-26 but remain in the first Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference at 38 points.
FIRST PERIOD
The Hurricanes jumped out to a 7-0 shots on goal advantage, a stark contrast from their showing at the beginning of Saturday’s game in Philadelphia.
Their dominant start was rewarded as right after a successful Flyers penalty kill, William Carrier fired a wrister by Dan Vladař for the game’s opening goal just 5:44 into the contest.
The Flyers had multiple opportunities on two consecutive power plays to respond shortly after, but they couldn’t even register a shot on net.
Carolina immediately put their foot back on the gas and after drawing a penalty, they made it a 2-0 game on the power play thanks to a Taylor Hall tip-in off an Alexander Nikishin point shot.
Jamie Drysdale luckily got the Flyers on the board with less than a minute remaining in the opening frame after the delayed penalty call gave the Flyers a 6-on-5 opportunity. The tally marked the end of a 16-game goalless streak for Drysdale.
Philadelphia immediately went to work again after the faceoff and came so close to tying the game, but a big stop from Brandon Bussi and an even bigger block from Jaccob Slavin kept Owen Tippett off the scoreboard in dramatic fashion.
SECOND PERIOD
The Flyers tried to keep the momentum going and they had another opportunity to the tie the game just about 1:20 into the second period after a shot from Travis Konecny and the rebound from Christian Dvorak were both fended off by Bussi.
The Hurricanes didn’t let up many shots after that and they had a chance to extend the lead but were stopped by Vladař. Hall and Jackson Blake were sprung on a 2-on-1 by Mark Jankowski and Blake’s scoring attempt was denied by the Flyers netminder.
K’Andre Miller received another glorious opportunity for Carolina to make it a two-goal game again as he stripped Trevor Zegras inside his blueline and raced up ice with the puck on a breakaway. Vladař once again kicked out the right pad and thwarted Miller’s attempt, something easier said than done.
“He’s amazing. He saved my butt a couple times,” said Zegras about Vladař postgame. “But I mean it’s every night, right? I mean, you guys see it. It’s big saves, it’s timely saves. Saves that he shouldn’t even be making, and Erss [Sam Ersson] for that matter too. They give us a chance every night.”
The Flyers later on had a power play and tried their hardest to solve Bussi, but the Hurricanes rookie stood tall in goal again and fought off a barrage of shots.
THIRD PERIOD
Philadelphia was much more relentless in the third, outshooting Carolina 15-7 after having just 11 shots in the prior two periods combined. Bussi was a very busy goaltender but once the Flyers pulled Vladař for the extra attacker, it was Zegras who played the hero and tied the game for the Flyers with just 1:52 remaining in regulation.
OVERTIME
The Hurricanes were gifted a power play after Seth Jarvis was allegedly tripped by Bobby Brink, much to the chagrin of the Flyers.
Philadelphia was able to kill off the phantom penalty thanks to Vladař and some sturdy defensive play, but weren’t able to capitalize at the other end once things settled down.
SHOOTOUT
After Jarvis was stopped and Zegras rang iron, Andrei Svechnikov went upstairs on Vladař with a slick backhander for the shootout lead in round two.
Dvorak and Blake couldn’t score after, setting up Matvei Michkov in the bottom of the third to try and keep the shootout going, but Bussi got a piece of his shot and the Hurricanes held on for the victory.
3 STARS OF THE GAME: 1) Brandon Bussi – CAR, 2) Taylor Hall – CAR, 3) William Carrier – CAR
UP NEXT
The Flyers continue their road trip on Tuesday night when they visit the Montréal Canadiens at Bell Centre (7:00pm ET; NBCSP).
