UPDATE
The Flyers have made two deadline day trades:
* The Flyers acquired veteran defenseman Erik Johnson from the Buffalo Sabres for Philadelphia's 2024 fourth-round Draft pick.
* The Flyers acquired winger Denis Gurianov from the Nashville Predators in exchange for power forward Wade Allison. Gurianov has split the 2023-24 season between the NHL and AHL. Allison, an NHLer last season, has spent the 2023-24 campaign in the AHL with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
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The Philadelphia Flyers earned a hard-fought 2-1 win over the Florida Panthers at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise on Thursday evening. Garnet Hathaway scored the deciding goal with 21.3 seconds remaining in regulation.
The game progressed in very similar fashion to the Flyers' 2-1 road win over the Panthers in the first match after the All-Star break. Florida dominated the first period, and Samuel Ersson almost singlehandedly kept Philly afloat. Last time around, the Flyers held the damage to a 1-0 deficit at the first intermission. This time, Ersson held Florida off the board entirely and Philly was able to nurse the game to intermission in a scoreless deadlock.
Thereafter, just as with the previous meeting, the game increasingly turned into a tight-checking contest. The clubs traded off one goal apiece -- Ryan Poehling at the 10-second mark of the second period after Cam York gained the attack zone, Gustav Forsling through traffic at 7:12 -- in the second period. In the third period, the advantage eventually turned to the Flyers. The first time the team's played, Noah Cates converted a Florida turnover into the winning goal. This time, Cates' forechecking work started the winning sequence in which Hathaway followed up on a Marc Staal shot and knocked home the deciding goal.
The Flyers (33-23-8) held firm in the race for third place in the Metro. The NHL leading Panthers (43-17-4) saw their six-game winning streak come to an end. They've only lost twice at home since the All-Star break, with both losses coming against Philly.
Samuel Ersson made several spectacular saves on the way to making 29 saves on 30 shots. He also received help in the form of 29 blocked shots in front of him. In a losing cause, Sergei Bobrovsky turned aside 24 of 26 Flyers shots.
For more, see the Postgame 5 on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com:
Click here.
Note: If the Flyers make any trades today prior to the 3 p.m. ET deadiine, today's blog will be updated. Tomorrow, we'll have Flyers vs. Lightning preview and a Phantoms update. Lehigh Valley has another three-in-three gauntlet this weekend while battling uphill for the final playoff spot in the Atlantic Division.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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