Photo Credit: FNG’s Rob Windfelder
This was the second meeting between these two teams so far this season. The Canes took the first match edging the Flyers out in the final moments and winning by a goal. The Orange and Black won game two handily tonight 3-1. The Flyers Hurricanes season series is now tied at one thanks in part to a stellar performance by Philly goaltender Carter Hart.
Philadelphia vs Carolina
The Flyers came out with plenty of jump tonight. It was like they were on a mission to strike first. Prolonged pressure in the Carolina end paid off quick. Less than two minutes into the 1st period Morgan Frost passed to Owen Tippett who wasted no time putting a quick release behind the Carolina netminder. Everything about the way the Flyers attacked the start of this hockey game was done with speed and diligence.
Travis Konecny scored his 10th goal of the season with less than a minute left in the first. Nick Seeler shot the puck from the top of the left circle. His shot was on the ice and directed at Konecny who artfully tipped it up into the top corner. There was a running theme here, get dudes in front of the net and get them the puck.
Bang!
Twenty-nine seconds into the 2nd period Sean Walker hit Ryan Poehling with a pass who snapped the puck into the back of the net. Between the late goal to end the 1st period and the early goal in the 2nd the Flyers had already charted their course to victory. The challenge now was to hold onto it.
Maintaining
Exactly halfway through regulation the shots were tied at 15. Play was pretty even and chances were being traded back and forth. Carolina stepped up the pressure and at 11:00 Tony DeAngelo made a nice pass to Stefan Noesen who smacked the puck in off the crossbar. That would be Carolina’s only goal of the night.
Carter Hart
Carter Hart clearly did not order the fish tonight. He came out looking sharp after missing a number of games first due to injury and then to a bad piece of fish. Food poisoning can take a lot out of you but Hart was clearly all there making several outstanding saves throughout the game. His positioning, his focus, and his execution were all crisp and on point. Hart was a star in a game where he had to be in order for his team to earn the win.
Carolina did not look like an easy mark. They outshot the Flyers 32-24. Hart was just one of the keys to the Flyers success. There were and additional 30 shots that were blocked before reaching the net.
The Flyers penalty-kill went 3 for 3, but the power-play went 0 for 1. During the Flyers only man advantage they ended up spending a lot of time bottled up in the neutral zone. This was a step backwards for a power-play that is short on power to begin with.
It seems the whole PP situation is snowballing on them. The more they struggle with it the more they think about it the worse it gets. It didn’t come back to bite them in this game but it is a situation that they have to find their way out of.
Travis Konecny continues to impress. His speed is such an asset to the team. His goal scoring is something that just keeps going and going. He had a break out season last year and he is still off and running.
Owen Tippett is looking more like he did last season as of late. After a bit of a slow start he needed to get things going and they seem to be going just fine right now.
Tyson Foerster could really use a goal to open things up for himself. He is a good solid player with a ton of potential and he could really use a goal. They gotta put him in front of the net and put one in off his pants or a shin pad. Just get it out of the way so he can relax a bit and start lighting the lamp on a regular basis.
