Carter Hart leads the Flyers to a 2-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils, ending four-game skid

NEWARK, N.J. — Hockey, much like life, does not always make sense.

The New Jersey Devils controlled the pace of play through 60 minutes on Thursday night at the Prudential Center, outshooting the Flyers by a staggering 49-24 margin. But luckily for the Flyers, goalies play the game, too, and they have an excellent one in Carter Hart. His 48 saves paved the way to a 2-1 Flyers victory despite the Devils possessing a 13-7 advantage in high-danger scoring chances, according to Natural Stat Trick.

“We played hard, did some crazy things at times, did some really good things,” coach John Tortorella said. “But that has to be our recipe when you play against a team like that, a high octane-team. ... We needed a play like that from our goaltender, and we got it.”

Tied, 1-1, going into the third period, the Devils overwhelmed the Flyers in shots through the first 11 minutes (11-5). But winger Travis Konecny scored the game-winning goal on a breakaway, capitalizing on a Devils turnover forced by center Noah Cates. All four of the Flyers’ games on this road trip have been one-goal games.

Less scoring didn’t mean less chaos. While pucks flew, so did punches — fights broke out in the second period between forward Nick Deslauriers and Devils center Michael McLeod and winger Joel Farabee and Devils defenseman Brendan Smith.

Meanwhile, forward Kevin Hayes did not see the ice in the third period after turning the puck over at the offensive blue line late in the second period to spring a Devils odd-man rush.

In the first period, the Flyers struggled to kill plays in their own zone and keep the puck on their sticks. That led to more possession and scoring chances for the Devils — of their 16 shots on goal to the Flyers’ seven in the first period, they generated five high-danger scoring chances, according to Natural Stat Trick. Luckily for the Flyers, their goaltender bailed them out and kept the Flyers within one after the first period. Carter Hart made saves on 16 of 17 shots in the opening frame, only getting beaten by Hughes on a power play.

» READ MORE: Flyers’ Joel Farabee looking for consistency in his young career

The Flyers didn’t fare much better in the second period, as the Devils outshot them, 14-8. But Hart only improved, turning aside each shot that came his way. One of his more impressive saves of the night came early in the third period when the Devils went high-to-low with the puck, and Hart robbed forward Jesper Bratt from the high slot with his glove to keep the game tied.

“You need your goalie to be good, especially against a team like that with so much speed and skill,” center Scott Laughton said. “He was great for us.”

Going into Thursday night’s game, the Flyers had gone scoreless on the power play through three games on their road trip (0-for-4). They received a prime opportunity to buck that trend against the Devils when Cates drew a four-minute high-sticking minor. However, the Flyers floundered on their faceoffs and entries, managing just one shot on goal in that span.

However, they stuck with it when Konecny drew a tripping penalty. Shortly after Laughton won a faceoff, he passed the puck to defenseman Travis Sanheim at the point. Sanheim found Laughton at the top of the right circle for a one-timer past Devils goalie Vitek Vanecek to tie the game, 1-1. The Flyers had additional opportunities on the advantage, including 1 minute, 2 seconds of 5-on-3 time. But they finished the night 1-for-5 on the power play.

“You see all the good power plays, their faceoff plays, they have things they do off it,” Laughton said. “So we’ve got to continue to try and get better at that and continue zone time.”

The Devils’ power play isn’t exactly red-hot, ranking 24th in the league going into Thursday’s game (20.22%). But they were opportunistic in the first period, jumping out to the lead on the man advantage. Just 4 minutes, 20 seconds into the game, center Jack Hughes breezed through the neutral zone, crossed the offensive blue line uninhibited past defenseman Ivan Provorov and forward Lukáš Sedlák, and flashed his slick stickhandling while scoring on Hart to put the Devils up, 1-0.

» READ MORE: Overtime problems will crush Flyers’ hopes of being competitive if they’re not fixed

Hughes continued to be a thorn in the Flyers’ side in the second period, when he drew a tripping penalty against Nick Seeler to put the Devils on their second power play of the night. Less than a minute and a half into the infraction, Konecny committed a reckless penalty, slashing Hughes into the neutral-zone boards to give the Devils 38 seconds on the two-man advantage. But the Flyers survived on the kill, finishing the night 2-for-3.

“That was a stupid penalty by me,” Konecny said. “So it was good that they killed it off.”

The Flyers return home to face the New York Rangers at 7 p.m. Saturday (NBC Sports Philadelphia).