The young Philadelphia Flyers produced some unexpected offense in a 6-3 victory over the Florida Panthers on Tuesday.
The Flyers, however, secured the two points largely because of goaltender Carter Hart.
Hart made 41 saves, including several stellar ones late in the third period before Morgan Frost sealed the win with an empty-net goal.
Hart will now look to lead the Flyers (26-32-12, 64 points) to a second straight win on Thursday when they host the Minnesota Wild (41-22-8, 90 points).
“He’s been there all year,” said defenseman Travis Sanheim, who scored two goals. “Doesn’t really surprise me anymore. He’s been good all season. … He was excellent tonight, big reason we won a little bit more comfortably.”
Joel Farabee, Scott Laughton and defenseman Ivan Provorov each scored one goal for the Flyers.
But it was Sanheim who sparked the team with his first two-goal performance of the season. In fact, he had just one goal in the previous 33 games.
“That’s a big part of my game, contributing and joining the offense,” Sanheim said. “That’s something in the past when I’ve been getting goals like I got tonight, right around the net. That’s something I want to continue and hopefully the last stretch here I can put together some good games.”
If the Flyers can defeat the Wild, head coach John Tortorella will become the 12th coach in NHL history to reach 700 victories.
Tortorella is 699-573-144 with 37 ties with the Tampa Bay Lightning, New York Rangers, Vancouver Canucks, Columbus Blue Jackets and the Flyers.
The Wild will look for their third straight victory on Thursday when they battle the Flyers.
Matt Boldy scored with 1.3 seconds left in overtime of Minnesota’s 2-1 victory versus the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday.
Soon after Jack Hughes hit the post, Boldy broke free and connected on the backhand in spectacular fashion.
“I didn’t know there was that little amount of time,” Boldy said. “I didn’t know it was going to be 1.3 seconds, but it was really nice just because I was able to kind of make my own read, make my move that I wanted to make.”
While Boldy ended the game, goaltender Filip Gustavsson kept the Wild in play by recording a career-high 47 saves.
“It’s just so much fun to win,” Gustavsson said. “Anyone that likes losing shouldn’t be doing sports. It was really close (on the winner). I don’t know if there was five seconds when (Boldy) got the puck. I guess he’s been working out a lot this summer and skating super-fast, so it was fun to see he got a shot on net.”
Minnesota is a stellar 13-1-3 in its last 17 overall games. The Wild also are riding a nine-game point streak on the road (7-0-2) to improve to 19-11-5 away from home.
Minnesota is tied with the Dallas Stars for first place in the Central Division following the Stars’ 5-4 overtime loss to the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday.
–Field Level Media