Garnet Hathaway scores last-minute winner as Flyers edge Panthers, 2-1

SUNRISE, Fla. — If you thought this one was earmarked for a lopsided loss, you wouldn’t be in the minority.

The Flyers on Thursday night were facing the No. 1 team in the NHL, the Florida Panthers, a team that had won six straight and had just two losses in its last 18 games.

On top of that, the Flyers were without four of their top defensemen — Sean Walker, who was traded on Wednesday, and Nick Seeler, Rasmus Ristolainen, and Jamie Drysdale who are all injured — and had two young blueliners making their season debuts.

So you’d expect the Panthers to steamroll the Flyers. But if we’ve learned anything about this squad, there is no quit. And that’s exactly what happened with this group as Garnet Hathaway scored with 21.3 seconds left in regulation to give the Flyers an unlikely 2-1 win over the Panthers.

Ryan Poehling gave the Flyers the lead just 10 seconds into the second period. After winning the faceoff back to Travis Sanheim, the defenseman went D-to-D to Cam York. He then cut around venerable pest Matthew Tkachuk and dished to Poehling, who used his quick steps to dip around Aaron Ekblad before finishing with a pull and drag up and over former Flyer Sergei Bobrovsky.

Sam Ersson once again stood on his head at the other end of the ice and was squaring up to shooters all night.

He did allow the Panthers to even things up with 12 minutes, 48 seconds left in the second period when a Gustav Forsling point shot found its way through traffic. But he turned aside shots from some of the NHL’s best shooters like Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov, and Vladimir Tarasenko with seven seconds left. Ersson finished the game with 29 saves.

Travis Konecny returned after missing six games. ... Bobby Brink and Olle Lycksell were both healthy scratches. ... Defensemen Adam Ginning and Ronnie Attard made their season debuts.

The trade deadline is 3 p.m. Friday. On Saturday, the Flyers take on the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena (7 p.m. on NBCSP).