Sam Reinhart scored the go-ahead goal with 1:59 remaining and Matthew Tkachuk had a goal and four assists to highlight the Florida Panthers’ wild 7-5 road win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday.
Amid a scramble in front of the net, Carter Verhaeghe sent a no-look backhand pass to a wide-open Reinhart, who hammered a slap shot into the wide-open net for his 19th goal, snapping a 5-5 tie. Reinhart and Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl are tied atop the league’s goal list.
The tally came shortly after Philadelphia’s Joel Farabee was whistled for cross-checking, setting up the decisive power play. Tkachuk’s empty-net goal with 11 seconds left sealed the deal.
Owen Tippett scored twice and Matvei Michkov had three assists for Philadelphia, which had its three-game winning streak halted. Flyers netminder Ivan Fedotov allowed two goals on seven shots before Aleksei Kolosov surrendered four goals on 20 shots over the final two periods.
The Flyers trailed 4-2 late in the second period before Tippett scored twice in 23 seconds. First, he deposited a one-timer set up by Michkov, and then Tippett slammed home a rebound of his own shot to draw the hosts even with 1:56 left in the session.
Garnet Hathaway put Philadelphia in front 5-4 with 14:21 remaining in regulation, scoring on a scramble in front of the net. However, Florida drew even with 5:17 left as Gustav Forsling scored on a harmless flip from the blue line that Kolosov never saw.
Evan Rodrigues opened the scoring 2:36 into the contest, stealing the puck from Tyson Foerster and burying the puck past Fedotov. Niko Mikkola made it 2-0 less than five minutes later and then Aleksander Barkov increased the lead to 3-0 with a power-play goal off a nice feed from Reinhart early in the second.
That was the first of six goals in the second period. Foerster and Nick Seeler scored for Philadelphia to make it 3-2 before Verhaeghe roofed a rebound over Kolosov’s shoulder to restore a two-goal cushion.
Florida netminder Spencer Knight made 29 saves, helping the Panthers win for the fourth time in five games.
–Field Level Media
