Hurricanes Allow Three Goals in Third Period in Loss to Flyers

The Carolina Hurricanes went on the road in hopes of bouncing back from a rough 5-3 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Saturday.

Instead, the Canes were dealt a 4-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night after taking a 1-1 game into the third period.

An early penalty put Carolina behind the 8-ball. Just over two minutes into the game, Joel Edmundson got whistled for a high-sticking penalty. The Flyers eventually converted on their opportunity in the form of a Sean Couturier deflection in the slot that bounced off Petr Mrazek and into the Carolina net.

From there, the first period was a back-and-forth affair that saw chances going each way. It was the Canes who ultimately took control of play in the second half of the frame.

The second period belonged to Carolina, who put together one of their better periods of the young season.

At the 6:17 mark, the Canes found a way by Carter Hart. Jake Gardiner’s good read got the puck into the corner, Martin Necas dragged the puck out and sent a beautiful seem pass on the tape of a pinching Trevor van Riemsdyk, and he sent the puck in front to Lucas Wallmark for the goal.

Carolina continued to control play through the final 14 minutes of the period and set themselves up well for the third period.

And then the third period happened.

A turnover in their own end led to a follow up chance for Matt Niskanen, whose shot rebounded out and onto the tape of Travis Konecny, who had all of the net to aim at and didn’t miss to give Philly a 2-1 lead early in the final frame.

The Canes managed to mount some quality shifts together as the period went on and had a number of chances on Hart, but they were denied at every turn.

One shift from the Aho line generated a close chance on the backdoor, but a pass to Foegele was tipped wide and the Flyers instantly moved the puck up ice and came away with a back-breaking goal.

Joel Farabee drove in from the half-wall, was shut down by Mrazek, and followed up his rebound across the goal mouth to tap home the goal that made it 3-1.

That goal pretty much nullified Carolina’s comeback attempt. The Canes were sloppy in the third period and it came back to bite them in a big way. They continued to push pucks toward the net, but their chances were less and less threatening as the period went on.

Just around the time when Rod Brind’Amour was likely thinking about pulling Mrazek in favor of the sixth skater, Claude Giroux put the exclamation point on the hockey game.

Playing aggressively, Carolina gave up a clear-cut long breakaway to Giroux, who stormed in, winded back, caught Mrazek off guard, and slid the puck through his legs to increase the home team’s lead to 4-1.

That’s how the game ended.

Once again, the 11 forwards and 7 defensemen route burned the Hurricanes, as they remain winless when they dress an extra d-man. It was a promising effort through two periods, but they couldn’t match the Flyers in the third. That ended up being the difference in another Metropolitan Division loss for the Canes.

Mrazek stopped 24 shots in the loss, and Wallmark was the lone goal scorer for Carolina.

The loss moves the Hurricanes to 9-5-1 on the season. They will return home to take on Hurricane legend Adam Fox and the New York Rangers on Thursday night.