Carter Hart Dominates in Flyers’ 3-1 Win Against Hurricanes

For the first time in nine tries, the Philadelphia Flyers finally defeated the Carolina Hurricanes, 3-1. They’re now winners of three straight, and move to 8-7-1 on the year.

Owen Tippett bought the Flyers an early first period goal, one-timing a pass from Morgan Frost past Pyotr Kochetkov and catching the Russian goaltender completely off guard. The move got started through a neat neutral zone carry by Louie Belpedio, who continues to be rock-solid for the Flyers during his call-up stint.

With his goal, Tippett has now scored in each of his last three games for the Flyers. And, with his assist, Frost has a point in each of his last three games as well. These two clicking is going to be key for Philadelphia’s short-term and long-term future.

The two teams went back-and-forth for the rest of the first period, but Travis Konecny doubled the Flyers’ lead on a tidy deflection of a Nick Seeler shot. Playing on a line with Sean Couturier and Tyson Foerster, Konecny was motoring around offensively all night and got rewarded with his 10th goal of the season.

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— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) November 16, 2023

Ryan Poehling also continued in his more offensively-oriented role for the Philadelphia Flyers, and scored the team’s third goal of the game in the second period. The former first-round pick deftly chipped home a Sean Walker rebound in the Hurricanes’ crease, despite heavy interference from former Flyers blueliner Tony DeAngelo. Poehling’s goal was his first in Orange and Black.

Ten minutes later, DeAngelo would get a bit of revenge on his former team.

The 28-year-old slung a pass across the circles in the Flyers’ zone, connecting with Stefan Noesen for a one-timer goal at the left circle. Michael Bunting had a chance to follow that up and bring Carolina within one, but his backhand attempt went off of Carter Hart, off the crossbar, and out.

Carter Hart Dominates In Comeback

In his first game since suffering a lower-body injury – and succumbing to fish-induced food poisoning – Hart locked down the fort against the Hurricanes. Noesen’s goal was as much as Carolina got as Hart stopped 31 of 32 shots, recording a .969 save percentage. He was also the First Star of the Game for this sparkling performance.

However, the 25-year-old also owes a lot of credit to his teammates.

The Flyers blocked 30 shots in the high-octane contest, whereas the Hurricanes only got themselves in front of nine. You can bet head coach John Tortorella will be fired up with that kind of effort after a similar one against the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday. Tortorella wants to teach this team how to play winning hockey, and the results of this road trip have reflected that.

This Flyers Penalty Kill

By extension of the renewed effort in front of Hart, the Flyers‘ penalty kill had an outstanding performance against a top-10 unit in the NHL.

In three chances, the Hurricanes mustered two shots on goal in total, and went 0-for-3 on their power play. While Philadelphia still works to figure out their own power play units, completely nullifying those of their opponents will be of great assistance.

Poehladelphia

Initially, when Tortorella gave Poehling a bump in the lineup at the expense of guys like Noah Cates and Bobby Brink, it felt like a bit of a head-scratcher. Suffice to say, the veteran coach knows what he saw.

The 24-year-old played a very effective game against the Kings on Saturday in his new role, and earned his first Flyers goal on Wednesday by going to the net like his coach has been demanding. In the win over the Hurricanes, Poehling played 17:18 – his largest amount of ice time in two seasons. He also played more against Carolina than the likes of Scott Laughton, Cam Atkinson, Joel Farabee, Nick Seeler, Frost, and Tippett.

Even though Egor Zamula was benched for most of the third period, this is the kind of win he and the rest of the Philadelphia Flyers can learn from. His delay of game penalty could have been a costly one, and sometimes it’s about the plays you don’t make. The same can be said about Brink and Frost.

Overall, it’s hard to argue with the Flyers’ methods when these are the results they get. Philadelphia just keeps on rolling.

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