PHILADELPHIA – With the defending Stanley Cup champions in town, the Flyers wanted to show the Florida Panthers some respect.
But not too much.
And they didn’t.
Despite falling behind by a 3-0 score just 23 minutes into Thursday night’s game at the Wells Fargo Center, the Flyers were determined not to be real gracious hosts.
In fact, they came all the way back to tie the score at 4-4, thanks to a pair of goals by Owen Tippett just 23 seconds apart in the final two-plus minutes of the second period.
Then in the third period, Garnet Hathaway pounced on a loose puck in the Florida crease and poked it in at 5:39 for a go-ahead goal.
But Florida wasn’t finished. The Panthers got a tying goal by Gustav Forsling with 5:17 to play and then the winner from Sam Reinhart on the power play with 1:59 left on the clock.
The Panthers wound up with a 7-5 victory.
The loss might have been frustrating but there were some positive developments. Philadelphia did score a power-play goal and showed some real spunk after falling behind twice by significant margins.
Head coach John Tortorella did not make himself available to talk to the media after the game, so associate coach Brad Shaw stepped into the breach.
Down 3-0 at the three-minute mark of the second period, the Flyers came storming back. Rookie Matvei Michkov was in the middle of all of it.
Goals by Tyson Foerster and Nick Seeler brought the Flyers to within a goal at 3-2. Florida then scored to restore a two-goal margin.
That’s when Tippett took over. He fired a shot past goaltender Spencer Knight at 17:41 to get the home crowd worked up. Moments later, those fans were out of their seats as Tippett scored again, this time with a perfect set-up pass from Michkov, who finished the game with three assists.
“I mean at three nothing, I liked our ability to stay with it and find a way,” Shaw said. “To get it to 5-4 is a great sign. That we didn’t finish it off, it’s something we have to work on.”
Both Seeler and Hathaway saw positives.
“I thought we had a real good second period and crawled our way out of that hole,” Seeler said. “Got the lead, would have loved to hang on to that one. I thought we produced offensively and that was great for us.”
Hathaway added: “I thought there were times we played our aggressive style, on our toes, checking forward. I thought we did that for a good part of the game. I think we found it. We get ourselves in situations where we get down and fight back. Just take the positives that we found after that four-day break (in the schedule).”
After the Flyers fell behind by a 2-0 score, Tortorella decided to pull starting goaltender Ivan Fedotov and replace him with Aleksei Kolosov.
But that move, designed to perhaps swing the momentum, didn’t pay immediate dividends.
In fact, the Panthers made it 3-0 and put pucks in the net twice to accomplish that feat for the third goal.
First, Joel Farabee went to the box and Carter Verhaeghe did the honors. But Tortorella challenged the play and won it when officials ruled Matthew Tkachuk had interfered with Kolosov. So no goal at 2:01.
No matter. While on the same power play, Aleksander Barkov was left alone in front to take a pass from Tkachuk and score at 3:00 to make it 3-0.
Was the goaltender change a reflection on the team’s play or possibly due to Fedosov’s struggles?
“For both reasons it was done,” Shaw said. “It didn’t immediately help us. It was something that got us back in the game eventually.”
Philadelphia finally got a power-play goal of its own at 7:13. Michkov made the initial entry from the point, Farabee picked up the primary assist as Foerster finished off the play at the goalmouth.
Then at 9:31, Seeler stole a pass and fired a shot from near the left dot which beat Spencer Knight to close the gap to 3-2.
A penalty to Scott Laughton proved costly as it slowed the Flyers’ momentum and resulted in a goal by Verhaeghe from just outside the right post at 12:35.
The Flyers began this game not having played since last Saturday and it showed.
Florida took the two-goal edge before the game was seven minutes old.
Evan Rodrigues kicked things off for Florida by outdueling Foerster to a puck along the left boards. Foerster won that skirmish and finished the deal with a short shot past Fedotov at 2:36.
With the Flyers still spinning their wheels, the Panthers struck again. This time Niko Mikkola did the damage after a lead-in pass from Matthew Tkachuk at 6:57.
>Ersson available?
Reportedly, regular starting goalie Samuel Ersson has been cleared to play but he didn’t even dress for this game. Ersson has been sidelined with an injury since last month but on Wednesday Tortorella said Ersson was an option.
Shaw had no explanation.
“I’m not sure,” he said. “I’m not in on those meetings. I’m not sure when he’s a hundred percent cleared.”
>Short shots
The Flyers’ record for assists by a rookie in a game is five, set by a defenseman, Alexandre Picard. The record for a rookie forward is four, held by three players, including Pelle Eklund and Rick Tocchet.
Michkov was more concerned with the final score than any sort of a try at a record. “More important is that the team win,” he said through an interpreter. “Today it didn’t happen.” The improving chemistry with Tippett is encouraging. “Every game is getting better. We’ll continue to work on it.”
The Flyers travel to Boston on Saturday to play an afternoon game against the Bruins at TD Garden. . .Florida’s regular starting goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, who began his career with the Flyers, was excused from this game as he is away on paternity leave.
