*Photo from WRAL Sports Fan*
They were certainly flying in this game. Owen Tippett scored, Carter Hart dazzled in net, and the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Carolina Hurricanes with a 3-1 victory on Wednesday night in Raleigh.
The Flyers won their 3rd straight game as they dispatched the Hurricanes, sitting at 8-7-1 and 4th place in the Metropolitan Division. 9 different skaters recorded a point for the Flyers as they used a fast start to take control early.
Flyers forward Travis Konecny said that "We knew they wanted to play a fast game and create turnovers and get in behind us. As long as we just frustrated them by chipping pucks in, chipping pucks out and sticking to our game plan, when we got our chances we were going to bear down and hope for the best."
Early in the game, the Flyers took the lead. It was Tippett who got it done, scoring just 1:50 into the game to make it 1-0 Flyers with assists going to Louis Belpedio and Morgan Frost. With 58 seconds left in the first period, Konecny doubled the Flyers lead to 2-0 on his 10th goal of the season, assisted by Nick Seeler and Sean Couturier.
Just 29 seconds into the second period, Ryan Poehling lit the lamp for the Flyers, scoring his first goal of the season to make it 3-0, with Sean Walker and Scott Laughton assisting. Stefan Noesen ended the shutout bid, scoring to get the Hurricanes on the board, making it a 3-1 game. The Flyers then kept them off the scoreboard further to preserve the win.
Flyers head coach John Tortorella said that "I thought the most important part of the game was the second period when they scored a goal. The building gets revved up, we take two penalties, have to kill the penalties, and we get out of the second period, 3-1. Not 3-2 or 3-3. I thought we held our composure, handled the momentum swing and ended up starting the third period 3-1."
Hart got the start in net for the Flyers, playing his first game since November 1 after missing time due to illness and a back injury. Hart made 31 saves on the 32 shots he was tested with, which was good for a .969 save percentage in the win.
Getting the start for the Hurricanes was Pyotr Kochetkov, who got saddled with the loss as his record fell to 1-4-0 in 4 starts and 5 appearances. Kochetkov turned aside 21 out of the 24 shots on goal the Flyers had, giving him a .875 save percentage.
Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said of the loss that "As a group, it doesn’t look like we’ve consistently bought into how we want to do things. And it’s going to look like that, it’s going to be a .500 club that wins some games, loses some games, just kind of ho-humming. It’s certainly a little frustrating, and we’re going to need to have everyone."
Both teams resume their schedules with Saturday home games. Samuel Ersson is the expected starter for the Flyers as they take on the Vegas Golden Knights, while the Hurricanes take on the Pittsburgh Penguins, with Antti Raanta projected to start.
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