Flyers Hang On to Defeat Hurricanes

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

When the game was on the line, the Flyers two top scorers delivered.

Claude Giroux and Jake Voracek scored third-period goals, as the Flyers had to overcome a strong effort from the Carolina Hurricanes to hang on for a 4-3 win on Thursday night at Wells Fargo Center, inching closer to the playoffs.

The Flyers came out with a strong start, peppering Carolina goalie Scott Darling with shots. A 4-on-4 opened up some space on the ice and set up the first goal of the game, but not in favor of the Flyers.

Jeff Skinner made a nifty drop pass to Klas Dahlbeck, who fired a wrist shot from the high slot past Brian Elliott for the first goal of the game at 13:45. It was also Dahlbeck's first goal of the season.

The Flyers had a quick answer. Keeping the pressure on, Giroux led an odd-man rush up ice and tried to pass to the trailer in Sean Couturier. The pass never connected, but took a strange bounce toward the front of the net. Michael Raffl was there and able to spin and turn a shot on goal and in to tie the game with his 12th goal of the season just 53 seconds after Carolina had opened the scoring.

The 1-1 tie was short-lived, as just 14 seconds later, the Hurricanes struck again. Sebastian Aho scored the goal, his 29th of the season, with a bank shot off Elliott's back and in from behind the goal line to put Carolina on top again.

Despite outshooting the Hurricanes, 15-7, after 20 minutes, the Flyers trailed where it counted.

The Flyers came out sloppy to start the second and allowed Carolina to remain in the lead and maintain play. Halfway through the period, shots were 6-6 and the Hurricanes had a power play, but failed to score.

The Flyers turned it on from there, outshooting the Hurricanes, 7-0, for the remainder of the period and finally getting the equalizer at 14:56.

Couturier waited out the Carolina defense after reeling in a loose puck and centered to a cutting Ivan Provorov. Provorov's first chance was stopped by Darling, but Provorov was able to knock home the rebound to tie the game at two.

After two periods, the Flyers had the advantage in shots, 28-13.

The Flyers came out in the third with a lot on the line and continued to apply occasional pressure in a fast-moving period with very few stoppages. Finally, they broke through.

Halfway through the period, the Flyers entered the zone and Couturier was able to corral a puck out of the air and draw the Carolina defense to him. He centered for Giroux, who won the Bobby Clarke Trophy as Team MVP at the pregame team awards ceremony. Giroux was wide open with plenty of time and space to control, pick his spot and score for his 31st goal of the season to give the Flyers the lead with 9:42 to play in the third.

Carolina was able to strike back on a soft goal. Jordan Staal had the puck along the boards at a sharp angle and threw a shot to the net that leaked through Elliott from a near-impossible angle to tie the game with 6:19 to play.

The Flyers quickly responded and got the lead back. Voracek came in off the rush on the wing and fired a laser top shelf on Darling to give the Flyers the lead with 5:45 to play.

The Flyers were able to hang on from there, securing the one-goal win.

Elliott was victorious in his return, making 19 saves. Darling stopped 30 shots in the loss.

The Flyers magic number dropped to one with the win. A win for Florida over Boston on Thursday night, kept the magic number at one entering the weekend. The Flyers would need to get one point on Saturday to clinch the spot themselves. If the Flyers lose in regulation, Florida would need to lose one of their remaining two games over the weekend.

The Flyers close out the regular season on Saturday against the New York Rangers. Game time is set for 3 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• CAR Klas Dahlbeck (1) (Jeff Skinner, Derek Ryan) 13:45
• PHI Michael Raffl (12) (Unassisted) 14:38
• CAR Sebastian Aho (29) (Valentin Zykov, Teuvo Teravainen) 14:52

2nd Period

• PHI Ivan Provorov (16) (Sean Couturier, Shayne Gostisbehere) 14:56

3rd Period

• PHI Claude Giroux (31) (Couturier, Gostisbehere) 10:18
• CAR Jordan Staal (18) (Justin Williams, Roland McKeown) 13:41
• PHI Jake Voracek (20) (Nolan Patrick, Radko Gudas) 14:15

Game Statistics