Recap: Canes stave off late surge in Philly to defeat Flyers 5-3

The Carolina Hurricanes should probably schedule the Philadelphia Flyers more often. The Canes survived a third-period scare and topped the Flyers 5-3 at Wells Fargo Center Thursday night.

Teuvo Teravainen had twos goal and an assist for the Canes (17-17-5). Dougie Hamilton had a goal and an assist, Warren Foegele and Justin Williams also scored, and Sebastian Aho had two assists.

The power play finally broke out of its slump with two goals. Petr Mrazek stopped 33 of 36 shots in net in his first game against the Flyers after a less than successful run in Philly last season. Former Flyer Rod Brind’Amour won his first visit as a head coach.

The Canes nearly took a 1-0 lead early in the first period; Michael Ferland’s backhand shot beat Neuvirth but struck the post.

Clark Bishop skated off doubled over in pain after a collision along the boards with Robert Hagg about halfway through the first period and went to the locker room. He did not return to the game.

The Canes caught a break with about five minutes left in the first; with Jordan Weal breaking in on Mrazek, Wayne Simmonds was called for interference behind the play. The Carolina power play, however; lasted all of two seconds before Williams got the gate for tripping in the offensive zone right off the draw.

Hamilton put Carolina up 1-0 a little over two minutes into the second period, creeping in from the point and zipping a shot over Carter Hart’s glove from the left circle. The goal was Hamilton’s first since Nov. 10.

Brett Pesce went to the locker room after taking a shot off his hand; but quickly returned to the game.

Williams made it 2-0 barely a minute later with a power-play goal from the slot, the Canes’ first power-play tally in 27 attempts. Hamilton earned an assist on the goal, giving him his first multi-point game as a Hurricane.

The Canes scored their second power-play goal of the game late in the third period; Aho slid a perfect pass to Teravainen at the left circle, and he one-timed a shot home to make it 3-0.

Foegele extended Carolina’s lead early in the third, tipping home a point shot from Faulk. Saku Maenalanen was initially awarded an assist when it appeared he also got a piece of Faulk’s shot, which would have given him his first NHL point, but it was later determined he did not touch the puck.

But despite the Canes controlling play for long stretches in the first 40-plus minutes, the Flyers roared back and made the game way more interesting than it had any business being.

Shortly after Foegele’s goal, Simmonds started the Flyers’ rally, breaking Mrazek’s shutout bid with a power-play goal. He finished off a sharp feed from Jakub Voracek that gave life to the Flyers’ woebegone power play. A little over a minute later, Sean Couturier brought the Flyers within two goals, the beneficiary of a few fortunate bounces. Brind’Amour challenged that Travis Konecny interfered with Mrazek, taking advantage of the timeout to calm his team down, but the goal was predictably upheld.

And the Flyers weren’t done yet. James van Riemsdyk potted a rebound goal on another Flyers power play with about eight minutes left and Hamilton in the box to bring Philly within one.

Finally, with 4:47 to go, Teravainen’s second of the game gave the Canes their breathing room back. Using Aho as a decoy, Teravainen burst into the zone on a 2-on-1 and had his shot in mind all the way, beating Neuvirth through the pads to restore a two-goal Carolina lead.

Mrazek did the rest, making a pair of spectacular saves on Couturier and Simmonds, doing a split on the latter to deny the goal with the Flyers’ net empty, to seal the game and give the Canes a victory to open the new year.

It’ll be a quick turnaround for the Canes, as Columbus comes to Raleigh Friday night.