Carter Hart sparks rally, as Flyers score three unanswered goals to beat the Canucks, 3-2

Just when the Flyers couldn’t afford to give up a goal, netminder Carter Hart stood tall and kept his team in the fight.

After winger Travis Konecny handed the puck over to forechecking Vancouver Canucks winger Nils Hoglander behind the net with the Flyers down, 2-0, Hart managed a momentum-shifting, sprawling right-pad save on winger Andrei Kuzmenko to keep the Canucks from going up by three. The Flyers subsequently scored twice in the second period to tie their game on Saturday afternoon at the Wells Fargo Center, giving way to Konecny’s game-winner with just over six minutes remaining for a 3-2 final score.

“He’s battling,” Konecny said of Hart’s clutch save. “Those long, hard practices when he’s fighting the puck at the end of an hour skate, that’s what pays off, because we were a little on our heels at the start and he stuck right in there and kept us in it the whole time.”

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While Hart gave up an early goal from defenseman Kyle Burroughs, whose shot clipped the skate of defenseman Nick Seeler, he finished strong. In total, Hart denied 27 of 29 shots. The Canucks challenged Hart in the third period and even had a two-man advantage in the final two minutes of the game, but Hart hung in there to ensure a 2-0 start to the season.

Winger Nick Deslauriers attempted to shift the momentum away from the Canucks with seven minutes remaining in the third period when he dropped the gloves with Burroughs for his first fight as a Flyer. Konecny scored roughly one minute later, notching his third goal through two games this season.

Last season, the Flyers floundered on the power play, finishing last in the league (12.6% conversion rate). However, with a new power-play coach in Rocky Thompson and different personnel, the Flyers looked to change the narrative early this season with a power-play goal against the New Jersey Devils on Thursday (1-for-3 overall). The Flyers were challenged to carry that momentum over to their first period against the Canucks, who handed the home team three straight man-advantage opportunities.

However, the Flyers failed to capitalize on their scant scoring chances. They attempted seven total shots across the three power plays, only managing to put three of them on goalie Thatcher Demko. However, on their fifth man advantage of the night, defenseman Tony DeAngelo scored on a seeing-eye wrist shot from the blue line through traffic to pull the Flyers within one, 2-1. The Flyers finished 1-for-5 on the power play.

“We had our chances to score in the first and we didn’t,” center Kevin Hayes said. “We played really well and we’re down 2-0. That’s easy to be like, ‘Oh [crap], we’re screwed. We’re not going to win tonight. But we stuck to it.”

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Last season, as a fixture of the Flyers’ penalty kill, winger Scott Laughton finished second on the team with two shorthanded goals (Cam Atkinson scored three). Although Laughton has been a key part of the penalty kill, winger Travis Konecny hasn’t been — last season, he spent an average of just 10 seconds on the ice per 60 minutes while the Flyers were shorthanded. But this season, assistant coach Brad Shaw has used both Laughton and Konecny when shorthanded.

The Flyers benefitted from having that duo on the ice late during a second-period kill. Konecny intercepted a Canucks pass high in the Flyers’ zone, springing Laughton for a breakaway with an excellent indirect pass off the boards. Laughton’s wrist shot went bar-down on Demko to tie the game, 2-2. The Flyers finished perfect on the penalty kill, as the Canucks went 0-for-5.

“Really heads-up play,” Laughton said of Konecny’s pass. “Saw that there was two guys in the middle of the ice and banked it hard enough where I still had some speed to go in. It was a really, really good play by TK.”

Throughout training camp, new coach John Tortorella put a priority on playing sound defense above all else. But the Canucks’ second goal of the night in the first period likely frustrated him, as it came as a result of poor defense. Hayes lost a puck battle at his own blue line against former Flyers defenseman Luke Schenn to put the Canucks back on the attack. In the Flyers’ zone, Canucks winger Vasily Podkolzin put a pass on the tape of late-arriving winger Conor Garland, who had plenty of time and space to pick his spot and score on Hart thanks to a defensive breakdown.

The Flyers embark upon a three-game road trip next week, starting with a matchup against the reigning Eastern Conference champion Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday at 7 p.m. (ESPN/ESPN+)