PHILADELPHIA – It wasn’t the way the Flyers wanted their season to end but at least they can hold their heads high that they went down swingin’.
The Flyers played probably their best hockey of their series against the Carolina Hurricanes at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Game 4 on Saturday night but it wasn’t quite enough.
The Hurricanes picked up a goal from Jackson Blake at 5:31 of overtime to break a 2-2 tie and went on to 3-2 win, ending the Flyers’ season with a four-game sweep.
Before that Logan Stankoven had scored at 4:13 to give Carolina a 2-1 lead. But the Flyers responded with a goal from Alex Bump off a Travis Konecny feed just 39 seconds later.
After the soldout XMA gave an appreciative two-minute postgame standing ovation, coach Rick Tocchet gave his team a positive assessment, both for Saturday night’s effort and projecting for the years ahead.
“We’ve got some guys banged up,” Tocchet began. “Broken rib and all that sort of stuff. They gave their all. Obviously we would like a little more possession, we ran some guys to the ground. They tried tonight.”
Tocchet shook things up by inserting rookie Jett Luchanko into the lineup and making Matvei Michkov a healthy scratch. It was Luchanko’s first taste of Stanley Cup playoff action. He skated on a third line with Denver Barkey at center and Carl Grundstrom at right wing.
Also, rookie defenseman Oliver Bonk made his playoff debut. He played on a pairing with Nick Seeler, replacing Emil Andrae.
Even though the Flyers didn’t win a game in the second round, they were playing a very good team and should have nothing to feel bad about. All the games were close and that speaks to the competitive nature of this Flyers team.
Plus, there are a number of young players who will benefit from this experience.
“Be proud of what they’ve done,” Tocchet said in response to what the kids can take away from this postseason. “And what it’s going to take to where we want to go. Get that taste.”
Overall, the whole season was a step in the right direction.
“Taking punches and getting off the canvas,” Tocchet said of his team. “I saw that a lot with this team. A lot of growth, a lot of learning. We’ll learn a lot from this series. It makes you hungry in the summer.”
Captain Sean Couturier might have been the best player in this series for the Flyers. Like Tocchet, he appreciates what this experience will mean to all the players, young and old.
“Right now it’s hard to comment on the season,” he said. “Tough to swallow right now. The team kind of battled to the end. There’s no quit. For a young team like us, it’s a great experience.”
Another veteran, Travis Konecny, said the playoffs as a whole will be beneficial to this team moving forward.
“I love that the guys got a little taste of the playoffs this year,” he said. “See what the fans are like, see what it’s like playing in this city in the postseason. Keep the guys hungry for the offseason.”
With so many players in their early 20s getting a feel for hockey at the playoff level, this was a positive development.
“It’s great,” Konecny said. “Next year we know what the goal is, to get in again. You get into overtime, you get into those situations, closing series (Pittsburgh), we did a lot, you know. It’s frustrating but there’s some stuff we can take from it for sure.”
Added Bump: “They (the Hurricanes) are a good team, you can’t take a shift off. We gave it our all. I think that’s what we wanted. We can take some confidence going into the summer, that we can play in this league, do well in it.”
Trailing 1-0 after one period, the Hurricanes came out for the second and dominated play. It finally paid off when Jackson Blake hit the net with a shot past Dan Vladar shortly after a right circle faceoff at 12:35.
Carolina thought it had a go-ahead goal just 33 seconds later via a shot from ex-Flyer defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere but it was waved off after a review. Officials ruled William Carrier committed goaltender interference.
Tyson Foerster’s first point of the postseason gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead in the first period.
Foerster joined a rush across the blue line, took a feed from Trevor Zegras and one-timed a shot past Frederik Andersen at 7:50. Porter Martone picked up an assist on the play, his NHL rookie-leading fifth point of the postseason.
For the first 20 minutes, the Flyers did a good job bottling up the Carolina rushers and for the most part kept their top shooters from prime scoring areas.
>Missing Tippett
The Flyers were without the services of leading goal scorer Owen Tippett and that certainly didn’t help the team’s chances.
“Listen, I’m not making excuses,” Tocchet said. “It (Carolina) is a good hockey team. They deserve everything from this series. You take (away) one of our speedsters, he gets a break almost every game. Is there a difference, yeah. He would have made a difference in our lineup.”
>Short shots
With an assist in Game 3, Martone became just the third Flyers rookie to record four or more points in a playoff series in the last 10 seasons. He had produced two goals, two assists entering Game 4. The only other Flyer freshmen to achieve that mark: Joel Farabee (three goals/five points, 2020) and Philippe Myers (three goals/one assist, 2020). Martone’s four points through three games led all NHL first-year men.
Tocchet said he went with Bonk and Luchanko partly because of the speed element. “We just wanted to get some speed in there,” Tocchet said. “We just felt it was the right time to try ‘Bonker.’ He’s a future guy. I thought he held his own. I thought he did a nice job.”
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