Sam Reinhart scored the go-ahead goal with 1:59 left, and Matthew Tkachuk had a goal and four assists to lead the Florida Panthers to a 7-5 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday.
During a scramble in front of the net, Carter Verhaeghe made a no-look backhand pass to an open Reinhart, who blasted a slap shot into the empty net for his 19th goal, leading the league. This goal broke a 5-5 tie.
The goal came just after Joel Farabee of the Flyers was penalized for cross-checking, giving the Panthers a power play. Tkachuk added an empty-net goal with 11 seconds left to seal the win.
Owen Tippett scored twice, and Matvei Michkov had three assists for Philadelphia, which saw its three-game winning streak come to an end. Flyers goalie Ivan Fedotov gave up two goals on seven shots, and Aleksei Kolosov allowed four goals on 20 shots in relief during the final two periods.
The Flyers were down 4-2 late in the second period when Tippett scored twice in just 23 seconds. First, he scored off a one-timer from Michkov, then he tapped in a rebound of his own shot to tie the game with 1:56 left in the second.
Garnet Hathaway gave Philadelphia a 5-4 lead at 14:21 of the third period, scoring during a scramble in front of the net. Florida answered with 5:17 left when Gustav Forsling scored from the blue line with a flip shot that Kolosov didn’t see.
Evan Rodrigues opened the game with a goal 2:36 into the first period, stealing the puck from Tyson Foerster and beating Fedotov. Niko Mikkola made it 2-0 less than five minutes later, and Aleksander Barkov increased the lead to 3-0 with a power-play goal off a great pass from Reinhart early in the second.
The second period saw six goals. Foerster and Nick Seeler scored for the Flyers, making it 3-2, but Verhaeghe restored Florida’s two-goal lead with a rebound goal over Kolosov’s shoulder.
Florida goalie Spencer Knight made 29 saves, helping the Panthers win four of their last five games.
