Flyers wing past Panthers 6-3
PHILADELPHIA - Travis Sanheim scored twice, Carter Hart made 41 saves and the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Florida Panthers 6-3 on Tuesday night.
Joel Farabee added a goal and an assist, and Scott Laughton and Ivan Provorov also scored for the Flyers. Philadelphia won for just the fifth time in 16 games.
Brandon Montour had a goal and an assist, and Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Reinhart also scored for Florida. The Panthers had won three in a row and six of seven before falling to the lowly Flyers.
Hart was stellar throughout the game. He kept it tied at 1 by denying Reinhart on the power play with 5 1/2 minutes left in the first and used his glove to snare Radko Gudas' hard slap shot with just over 14 minutes to play in the second.
Hart made arguably his best save with 4:13 remaining in the third, keeping Philadelphia ahead by two goals with a stellar right pad save on Carter Verhaeghe.
"Just terrific," Flyers coach John Tortorella said.
Florida outshot the Flyers 44-24 but remained only one point ahead of idle Pittsburgh for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
"They were playing quicker than us," Reinhart said. "It's tough. You're going to go through moments like that. We move on and get ready for the next one."
Philadelphia broke a 2-all tie with three goals in 2:01 late in the second period. Laughton started the scoring barrage. He got in all alone on goalie Alex Lyon after a long pass from defenseman Tony DeAngelo. Then, he patiently stickhandled back and forth from forehand to backhand until Lyon lunged to his right, leaving an opening for Laughton to lift the puck into the net on his backhand with 3:06 to play in the period.
Sanheim netted his second of the game 1:11 after Laughton's goal. Lyon lost his stick and Sanheim scored from close range as the Florida goalie was trying to recover it.
Provorov made it 5-2 with 1:05 left before intermission by beating Lyon with a backhand from close range.
"Obviously (that) is the difference," Tortorella said.
It was a surprising offensive surge from the Flyers, who entered averaging just 2.61 goals per game and ranked 30th out of 32 NHL teams in that category.
"We grinded them out," Farabee said. "When you do that over time, you're going to get some bounces."
The Panthers pulled to 5-3 with 6:11 left on Reinhart's power-play goal, but it wasn't enough. Philadelphia matched its season high for goals when Morgan Frost scored an empty-netter with 2:01 remaining.
Tkachuk opened the scoring with his 34th goal 1:15 in on a deflection. That gave him 15 points in the last six games while upping his season total to 96 points. He entered fourth in the NHL in points.