Game 4 Preview: Flyers @ Panthers
John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (3-0-0) are in Sunrise, FL, on Wednesday to take on Paul Maurice's Florida Panthers (2-1-0). Game time at FLA Live Arena is 7:30 p.m. ET.
The Flyers are playing for the third time in four nights. On Tuesday, they overcame a 2-0 deficit against the Tampa Bay Lightning to earn a 3-2 win. The Panthers, who will be playing their home opener, are the more rested team. The Panthers had idle nights on the schedule on Sunday and Tuesday. Florida sustained its first loss of the season, 5-3, in Boston on Monday.
Philadelphia did a lot of forward line juggling in Tuesday's game. There is no morning skate in Sunrise on Wednesday, so the starting combinations against the Panthers have yet to be determined. Tortorella and goalie coach Kim Dillabaugh also have to make a decision on whether to keep rolling with Carter Hart or to rest him for this game and give Felix Sandström his first start of the 2022-23 season.
Due to an injury to veteran defenseman Brandon Montour and being capped out with only $83,875 of LTIR allowance available. The Panthers were forced to start five defensemen and 17 total skaters for the game in Boston. When No. 1 defenseman Aaron Ekblad was forced to exit the game in the second period due to a lower-body injury, the Panthers had to play the rest of the match with four defensemen and 16 skaters.
Ekblad did not practice on Tuesday. Maurice said only there is "no timetable" for his next availability. A number of the Flyers' injured players have traveled with the club on the current road trip, including Owen Tippett (IR, upper body), Rasmus Ristolainen (IR, lower body) and even Sean Couturier (LTIR, back). However, Cam Atkinson (who officially has been day-to-day with an upper-body injury since Day 4 of training camp but has not played or been a full participant at practice in a couple of weeks) is not on the road trip but remains on the active roster.
Lineups will be added to the blog when available. For an in-depth preview of Wednesday's game, see
"Five Things" on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com.
FLYERS
86 Joel Farabee - 13 Kevin Hayes - 11 Travis Konecny
25 James van Riemsdyk - 49 Noah Cates - 17 Zack MacEwen
21 Scott Laughton - 48 Morgan Frost - 57 Wade Allison
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 59 Jackson Cates - 58 Tanner Laczynski
9 Ivan Provorov - 77 Tony DeAngelo
6 Travis Sanheim - 61 Justin Braun
24 Nick Seeler - 54 Egor Zamula
32 Felix Sandström
[79 Carter Hart]
Panthers
23 Carter Verhaeghe - 16 Aleksander Barkov - Sam Reinhart
19 Matthew Tkachuk - 9 Sam Bennett - 38 Rudolfs Balcers
27 Eettu Luostarinen - 15 Anton Lundell - 6 Colin White
94 Ryan Lomberg - 21 Nick Cousins - 70 Patric Hörnqvist
18 Marc Staal - 42 Gustav Forsling
28 Josh Mahura - 7 Radko Gudas
32 Lucas Carlsson - 3 Matt Kiersted
72 Sergei Bobrovsky
[30 Spencer Knight]
*********
Wrap: Flyers Beat Bolts, 3-2
The Philadelphia Flyers overcame a two-goal deficit to defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 3-2, at Amalie Arena on Tuesday evening.
The first period was scoreless. In the second period, a pair of power play markers by the scorching Steven Stamkos (5th and 6th goals of the season) staked Tampa to a 2-0 lead. Scott Laughton (2nd) got one back for the Flyers in the middle stages of the frame. In the third period, James van Riemsdyk knotted the game at 2-2 on a power play deflection goal (1st). Noah Cates (1st) converted a Tampa turnover into the game-winning goal for Philadelphia.
Carter Hart earned his first career win against Tampa Bay. He was outstanding in turning back 37 of 39 shots including a dozen saves in the third period. Perennial Vezina Trophy candidate Andrei Vasilevskiy (21 saves on 24 shots) did not play a bad game but was ultimately outdueled by Hart.
On the Laughton goal, Morgan Frost made a slick stickhandling entry into the Tampa zone and passed to Zamula (who'd record his first NHL point on the sequence). Zamula's shot was stopped by Vasilevskiy but the goalie left a fat rebound out to the bottom of the left circle. Laughton pounced and fired it into the net to cut the deficit to 2-1 at 10:43 of the second period.
The Flyers drew even at 1:04 of the third period on JVR's tip-in of a Kevin Hayes shot from high in the zone. van Riemsdyk provided a heavy screen and, for good measure, got a piece of the puck to re-direct it. Vasilevskiy had no chance. The secondary assist went to Tony DeAngelo.
Philly went ahead -- and stayed there-- at 12:44 of the final stanza. Tampa's five-man unit got caught on the ice for a very lengthy shift. Hayes' line with Joel Farabee and Travis Konecny kept Tampa hemmed in its own zone and wore down the Bolts' players who got caught on the ice. Finally, Cates pressured Erik Cernak (1:09 shift) into a turnover, collected the puck and scored. In addition to Cernak, fellow defenseman Mikhail Sergachev (1:08) and forwards Brayden Point (1:26), Brandon Hagel (1:16) and Nikita Kucherov (1:08) were unable to get to the bench for a desperately needed line change.
Finally, Noah Cates pressured Cernak into a turnover directly into the slot. Cates got a piece of Cernak's attempted clear, then claimed the puck and fired a turnaround shot that beat Vasilevskiy for the winning goal. The tally was unassisted.
For a more in-depth recap, analysis and highlight clips from Tuesday's win, see the
"Postgame 5" on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com.
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