This time Matthew Tkachuk’s tour de force resulted in victory as the Florida Panthers staged a late third period comeback after blowing an earlier three-goal lead to defeat the Philadelphia Flyers 7-5 at Wells Fargo Center.
After producing four points (2G/2A) in Tuesday night’s 5-4 overtime loss in Pittsburgh, Tkachuk assisted on four goals and sent the clincher into an empty net with 11 ticks left on the clock.
Evan Rodrigues bagged the first of the game’s 12 goals at 2:36 of the first. Rodrigues harried Tyson Foerster down the ice, claimed the puck and skated in on Ivan Fedotov and slipped it between his pads.
Tkachuk first helper of the night came at 6:57 when he sent the puck from low to high to Niko Mikkola, who sniped a screened Fedotov from just above the left circle. Jesper Boqvist got the secondary assist on Mikkola’s second of the season.
Sixty-one seconds after Carter Verhaeghe had a goal erased, Sam Reinhart would combine with Tkachuk to set up Aleksander Barkov’s power-play marker three minutes into the second period. After working a give-and-go with Tkachuk, Reinhart found Barkov with a sweet backhand dish and the captain lifted the puck over Aleksei Kolosov, who started the middle frame in place of Fedotov.
Foerster made up for his earlier transgression, getting the Flyers on the board at 7:13 with Sam Bennett off for hooking. Matvei Michkov’s back door pass hit Joel Farabee’s skate and went across the crease to Foerster, who easily deposited it past a helpless Spencer Knight.
Nick Seeler intercepted a Eetu Luostarinen outlet pass and then took a quick wrister that found its way through Knight to cut the deficit down to one 2:18 later.
Verhaeghe would get one that counted at 13:35 when he collected and potted the rebound of a Tkachuk shot after Barkov fed the red-hot wing down low. The goal came with Scott Laughton serving an interference minor.
Former Panther Owen Tippett tied the tilt with back-to-back goal that came 23 seconds apart.
The first came at 17:41 after Tippett blocked Aaron Ekblad’s clearing attempt and then received a great pass from Michkov, who put the puck past two Panthers to Tippett for a successful one-timer.
Tippett potted another after he went up ice, was knocked down at center, got back up, took an entry pass from Michkov and then converted his own rebound to make it a 4-4. Michkov became the first Flyers rookie with three assists in a game since Philippe Myers had three against the Toronto Maple Leafs on December 3, 2019.
The Flyers would forge ahead 5:39 into third when Garnet Hathaway scored off a goalmouth scramble after both Laughton and Rasmus Ristolainen cranked shots wide.
Gustav Forsling would strike a key blow for the Panthers with 5:17 remaining in regulation when his routine wrister from the blue line sailed into the back of net with Kolosov’s mind apparently on a post-game cheesesteak. Rodrigues won an offensive zone draw to Bennett, who fed Forsling at the right point for his 50th career goal with teams skating 4-on-4.
Reinhart notched his league-leading 19th goal with 1:59 left on the clock and Farabee off for roughing. Koloosv denied an Ekblad’s drive and then Verhaeghe’s rebound attempt, but couldn’t stop Reinhart’s wrister from the right circle.
Philadelphia pulled Kolosov with defenseman Emil Andrae in the sin bin and Tkachuk took advantage, filling the vacated cage with the assists going to Reinhart and Dmitry Kulikov to complete the scoring.
After getting dented four times in the second and giving up another early in third, the Panthers kept their composure to take it late. Florida’s power play was a huge difference-maker, going 4-for-5 on the night. I know Knight’s stat line was ugly for a second-straight game, but you can’t really fault him on two or three of those goals. Tippett’s first was a nice shot off a pretty pass and the Foerster and Hathaway goals came off bad bounces. What a performance by Tkachuk, who absolutely terrorized the NHL’s two Pennsylvania-based clubs by racking up three goals and six assists during the trip to the Keystone State. Wow! The The late rally gave Paul Maurice his 110th win with the Panthers, tying him with Jacques Martin for the most by a Florida head coach. Congrats, PoMo!
Lift & Drag
- Matthew Tkachuk extended his point streak to five games. He has amassed three goals and nine assists during the run to overtake Aleksander Barkov for second on the team in scoring. The five-point performance was the fourth of Tkachuk’s career.
- Speaking of point streaks, Sam Bennett upped his to six games when he assisted on Gustav Forsling’s tying goal. Bennett was credited with a game-high seven hits.
- Sticking to the streaks subject, Aleksander Barkov has points in five games in a row. He has produced three goals and five assists over that span.
- Sam Reinhart finished the game with a goal and two assists and is now fifth in the league in scoring with 37 points. Reinhart’s helper on Barkov’s goal was the 300th of his career.
- Not sure why the Flyers changed goalies, but it didn’t work out in the end. Ivan Fedotov departed with five saves on seven shots. Aleksi Kolosov stopped 16 of 20 shots faced.