Flyers defeat Bruins in opening game of Qualifiers round-robin

The Philadelphia Flyers scored three goals in the second period of a 4-1 win against the Boston Bruins in the opening game of the round-robin portion of the Stanley Cup Qualifiers at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Sunday.

Michael Raffl had a goal and an assist for Philadelphia, which will also play the Washington Capitals on Thursday and the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday in Toronto, the Eastern Conference hub city.

WATCH: [All Flyers vs. Bruins highlights]

Carter Hart made 34 saves to become the youngest Flyers goalie (21 years, 355 days) to win a postseason game. Pete Peeters held the previous record (22 years, 235 days) from when he helped Philadelphia win Game 1 of the 1980 Preliminary Round against the Edmonton Oilers.

"I know I've been here a short time, but he doesn't look 21 to me," said Flyers forward Nate Thompson, who was acquired in a trade with the Montreal Canadiens on Feb. 24. "He's pretty poised, even off the ice. He carries himself well beyond his years. He's a true pro. He reminds me a little bit of a goalie I used to play with in Montreal (Carey Price). He's our backbone and he was really good tonight for us."

Chris Wagner scored for the Bruins, who will play the Lightning on Wednesday and the Capitals on Aug. 9 to determine seeding for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

"I think that we all realize we can do better," Boston captain Zdeno Chara said. "It goes to simplifying certain plays, just managing the puck and making better decisions with the puck. I'm sure it's something that we want to improve going forward, so we need to realize this time when everybody's fresh and feeling good about their game, we just need to play a more simple game."

Jaroslav Halak started for Boston and made 25 saves in place of Tuukka Rask, who was unavailable after missing practice Saturday because of an illness.

"We expect and hope that [Rask] will be back in the net Wednesday," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. "Let's see if he's on the ice (for practice) tomorrow. ... Obviously, he's an important part of our team. My understanding is he is feeling better."

Raffl gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead at 5:33 of the second period. Defenseman Travis Sanheim pinched to hold a puck in the Bruins zone and passed to Raffl, who deked and lifted a backhand over Halak.

Raffl left the game with 6:17 remaining in the third period after getting tangled with Bruins defenseman Jeremy Lauzon and falling into the boards in front of the Flyers bench. As part of the NHL Return to Play Plan, teams are not permitted to disclose player injury or illness information.

Thompson gave Philadelphia a 2-0 lead at 9:31 of the second period when he scored short side from the top of the left circle.

Wagner scored from behind the net when his shot redirected off the skate of Flyers defenseman Robert Hagg to make it 2-1 with 1:09 remaining in the second. Philippe Myers scored eight seconds later on a 2-on-1 to push Philadelphia's lead to 3-1.

"I think just the first shift after a goal scored, no matter if we're scoring or they score, that first shift right after is really huge," Hart said. "For us to retaliate like that with [Myers] sniping a goal there, that's huge. And that really kind of kills any momentum that they have when they score."

Scott Laughton extended the lead to 4-1 at 4:07 of the third period when he scored on a 2-on-1. The play began when Bruins defenseman Brandon Carlo couldn't find the puck in his skates at the Philadelphia blue line.

"The goals against ... they're plays we typically don't make," Cassidy said. "On one face-off, right after we scored, that goal hurts, but it's a play that we're going to make most of the time. And even the fourth goal, we just mishandled the puck. So some of those things are correctable."

The Bruins' top line of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak combined for eight shots on goal and a minus-7 rating.

"We obviously talked about needing to do a job against that top line, making sure that we were in the right position when we didn't have the puck," Flyers coach Alain Vigneault said. "And when we did have the puck, we needed to make sure that we made the high-percentage plays not to feed any transition, any opportunity, for that skill line to get themselves going. ... For the most part, we did a really good job against that line."

The seeds for the playoffs will be determined by points in the round-robin, with regular-season points percentage the tiebreaker.

NHL.com staff writer Amalie Benjamin contributed to this report