Carter Hart Stones Coyotes in 3-0 Victory
By Collin Coyne
The Flyers returned from a pretty successful West Canada road trip to face the Arizona Coyotes back in the Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday night.
The game saw three major storylines coming in, with Ryan Ellis still out of the lineup and the team looking to bounce back from a brutal game against Calgary a few days ago.
The true homecoming tonight wasn’t the Flyers coming back to Philadelphia, but Shayne Gostisbehere coming back to face the Flyers for the first time as a member of the Coyotes after being traded for cap relief this past summer. The team put a heartwarming video on the jumbotron early in the opening frame, as Ghost saluted the fans to uproarious applause.
The game itself started slowly with neither team able to generate a scoring chance that managed its way past the goalie. Rookie net minder for Arizona, Karel Vejmelka, put on a show early, as did Carter Hart.
The Flyers seemingly found a way past the Coyotes goaltender in the second period but a truly bizarre sequence ended up wiping the goal off the board. It was said that Vejmelka had actually frozen the puck prior to the goal despite no whistles being blown. The goal likely had some shade of goaltender interference, but the officiating crew decided on the freezing explanation.
So with no goals heading into the third, chances were coming for both teams when Travis Konecny and Sean Couturier found themselves in a 2-on-1 when Couturier buried the perfect pass to put the Flyers up late. This came in his 700th career game.
With time running out, Vejmelka moved to the bench looking to bring on the extra attacker just as a long range shot came down towards his empty net. A flying poke check attempt didn’t matter as the puck missed the net, but with the defense completely broken down around him, Scott Laughton found the puck in open ice, sliding it five-hole for the back breaker.
Some love between Couturier and the captain saw Giroux score a final empty netter, which when added to his secondary assist earlier in the game, saw his electric scoring streak start to the season continue as Carter Hart collected the shut out.
A fantastic goaltending duel ended up looking a little lopsided in the score sheet, but Carter Hart’s earning of a hard fought game should do much to silence questions of whether he can return to past form.
The Flyers will looking to build on this momentum heading into an important divisional matchup against cross-state rivals the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday.