A few weeks ago, I said that there were six Flyers who needed to get better. One of the players I mentioned was Carter Hart. Since returning from the All-Star break, Hart stopped 28 of 30 shots as his team failed to find their feet in a 2-1 loss against the Islanders.
Last night, Hart had one of his best games of the season as he recorded 34 saves against the Edmonton Oilers. The game went into overtime and then a shootout, but the Flyers won their first shootout game this year wit a 2-1 win over Edmonton.
The Flyers got on the board first thanks to a goal by Kevin Hayes. Hayes was assisted on the goal by Travis Sanheim and Scott Laughton in the first period. Sanheim intercepted a pass in the Flyers end of the ice, skated forward, and dropped the puck off the Laughton. Laughton took a shot and Hayes grabbed the rebound and skipped it past Stuart Skinner. It was the only goal that Skinner gave up in regulation. He would stop 35 of 36 shots.
So with 36 shots taken, you would’ve thought that the Flyers got their offense back and rolling. Well, not exactly. There were three penalties assessed during the game. All of them were taken by Edmonton. The Flyers failed on each power play attempt and now have the league’s worst power play unit.
The Oilers didn’t stay quiet for long. At just under two minutes into the second period, Evander Kane finally cracked Hart and scored. And while Hart let in that one, he kept Connor McDavid silent. McDavid was stopped on all five shots he took, including three hard shots in the overtime period. Leon Draisaitl never got a shot off.
After both teams went scoreless in overtime, they went to a shootout. In the first round, Travis Konecny was stopped by Skinner. McDavid fumbled the puck and never got the shot off. In round two, Morgan Frost scored but so did Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. In the third round, James van Riemsdyk found the back of the net. Draisaitl took his turn, but was stonewalled by Hart. Flyers win!
The game is a great victory against a top team for the Flyers. The Flyers will play them again on the 21st of February. Next up for the Flyers are the Nashville Predators on Saturday afternoon. They will also play a Sunday afternoon game against the Seattle Kraken; which should be over before your Super Bowl party kicks off. Go Birds!