Penalties Prove Costly as Panthers Down Flyers

After facing a 3-0 deficit, the Flyers somehow found themselves with the lead in the final 10 minutes of the third period on Thursday night. Then some late penalties proved costly.

The Florida Panthers scored at 4-on-4 to tie the game, then added two late power-play goals to sink the Flyers in a 7-5 loss at Wells Fargo Center.

The Panthers struck on two early chances to put the Flyers in a hole. Just 2:36 into the game, Evan Rodrigues won a battle with Tyson Foerster and put a chance through the five-hole of Ivan Fedotov to make it 1-0 Florida.

At 6:57, the Panthers added another goal, as Matthew Tkachuk centered the puck from below the goal line to the top of the left circle for Niko Mikkola, who fired one home through a screen to make it 2-0.

Through 20 minutes, shots were 10-7 Flyers. Fedotov was pulled after the first period, making five saves on seven shots. Aleksei Kolosov entered in relief.

Florida got an early power play and appeared to extend the lead on a rebound goal by Carter Verhaeghe that was disallowed for goalie interference. But just seconds after that, at the three-minute mark of the period, Aleksander Barkov finished off the rush to make it 3-0.

The Flyers got on the board at 7:13 with a power-play goal of their own. Matvei Michkov threaded a pass into the crease that deflected to Tyson Foerster for the goal, making it a 3-1 game.

Just 2:18 later, the Flyers cut the lead to one as Nick Seeler stole the puck and fired a shot by Spencer Knight to make it 3-2.

The Panthers got another power play and scored again at the 13:35 mark. Verhaeghe got his goal after all, scoring on another rebound to make it 4-2.

With under three minutes to go in the period, it briefly became the Owen Tippett show. Tippett scored on a one-timer at 17:41 to cut the lead to one. Then just 23 seconds later, Tippett scored again on a rebound to make it a 4-4 game.

Through two periods, shots were 22-20 Flyers.

At 5:39 of the third, the Flyers got the lead for the first time. Garnet Hathaway put home a rebound in front to give the Flyers the 5-4 lead.

The lead held up until 5:17 remaining. Gustav Forsling fired a shot from distance off the face-off that Kolosov never saw, making it 5-5.

With 2:27 to play, the Panthers got another power play and cashed in for the third time. A loose puck came out to Sam Reinhart with a wide open net, giving Florida the 6-5 lead with 1:59 to play.

Tkachuk scored into an empty net in the final seconds to cap the scoring.

Knight made 29 saves on 34 shots in the win. Kolosov made 16 saves on 20 shots in the loss.

Tippett and Michkov had multi-point games for the Flyers. Tkachuk had five points, Reinhart had three points, and Barkov, Rodrigues, and Verhaeghe each had two points.

The Flyers are back on the ice on Saturday afternoon to take on the Boston Bruins at 1 p.m.

Box Score

	1	2	3	T
Panthers	2	2	3	7
Flyers	0	4	1	5

Scoring Summary

1st Period

FLA Evan Rodrigues (7) (Unassisted) 2:36
FLA Niko Mikkola (2) (Matthew Tkachuk, Jesper Boqvist) 6:57

2nd Period

FLA Aleksander Barkov (7) PP (Sam Reinhart, Tkachuk) 3:00
PHI Tyson Foerster (6) PP (Joel Farabee, Matvei Michkov) 7:13
PHI Nick Seeler (2) (Unassisted) 9:31
FLA Carter Verhaeghe (8) PP (Tkachuk, Barkov) 13:35
PHI Owen Tippett (6) (Michkov) 17:41
PHI Tippett (7) (Michkov) 18:04

3rd Period

PHI Garnet Hathaway (3) (Scott Laughton, Rasmus Ristolainen) 5:39
FLA Gustav Forsling (4) (Sam Bennett, Rodrigues) 14:43
FLA Reinhart (19) PP (Verhaeghe, Tkachuk) 18:01
FLA Tkachuk (8) PP-EN (Reinhart, Dmitry Kulikov) 19:49

Game Statistics

	Panthers	Flyers
Shots	28	34
Power Play	4/5	1/4
Hits	37	16
Faceoff %	50.8%	49.2%
Giveaways	8	7
Takeaways	7	6
Blocked Shots	13	21
Penalty Minutes	12	14