Marchand, Panthers edge Flyers to spoil Tocchet’s debut as coach

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Brad Marchand broke a tie early in the third period for the Florida Panthers, who spoiled Rick Tocchet’s debut as Philadelphia Flyers coach with a 2-1 win at Amerant Bank Arena on Thursday.

Tocchet was hired by Philadelphia on May 14, replacing John Tortorella.

“There were pockets of good stuff,’’ Tocchet said. “There was some good stuff, a good measuring stick. The thing I respect about Florida is they believe in what they do; they dump a lot of pucks, great forechecking team. We have to believe in what we’re doing for 60 minutes. We turned over pucks, stuff like that. We have to clean that up. But for the most part, the effort was there.”

Anton Lundell also scored for the Panthers (2-0-0). Sergei Bobrovsky made 19 saves.

Florida has allowed a total of 39 shots on goal in its first two games of the season -- and has scored five goals in those two wins.

“I think we’re generating enough and that’s kind of the expectation that we will probably score a little less right now,” said Florida coach Paul Maurice, whose team is missing Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk to injury. “Hopefully we don’t have to give up less [defensively] and that is the bigger ask, especially from our blue line and our goalie.”

Noah Cates scored for the Flyers, who were playing their season opener. Dan Vladar made 32 saves.

“I think it was a good start for us, you see the team, the defending Cup champs,” Cates said. “We just can’t take breaks. You see how mature their game is, and we were right there. So, we know we can play with the best teams in the League and compete with them.”

After a scoreless opening period, Lundell gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead at 5:29 of the second with a power-play goal.

Lundell’s goal was set up by Evan Rodrigues, who slipped a shot pass to him on the edge of the right circle before his wrist shot beat Vladar stick side.

“We are happy we have been able to get the wins,” Lundell said. “You can always play better, but it’s super early in the season. We just want to keep improving our game. We’re happy right now, but we want to stay humble and fight for more.”

Cates tied it 1-1 at 17:48 on a hustle play. After winning the face-off in the Florida zone, Cates rushed the net and grabbed the loose puck off a Tyson Foerster rebound and scored over the head of Bobrovsky.

That was it for the Flyers, who were held to five shots on goal in the third period.

Marchand put Florida back ahead 2-1 at 2:19 of the third, sending a shot through traffic from the left point over the left shoulder of Vladar.

“That’s the right way to win, it means we’re playing a good game,” Marchand said. “We are getting a lot of opportunities and we could score more goals, but we are more concerned about the defensive side of it and make sure we don’t allow many. So, we’re good on that front. We’re playing pretty tight, and I think that’s where we excel.”

The Panthers played a large portion of the game with five defensemen after Dmitry Kulikov left with an upper-body injury after going into the boards in the second period.

Maurice said Kulikov would be evaluated on Friday and that he had no update.

The Panthers and Flyers face each other again Monday night in Philadelphia (7 p.m. ET; SCRIPPS, NBCSP, TVAS).

“We started the right way, but unfortunately it was not enough,’’ Vladar said. “It wasn’t enough.’’

NOTES: Florida is the sixth reigning Stanley Cup champion in the past 30 years to win each of its first two games of the season. The Vegas Golden Knights were the most with seven consecutive wins to begin the 2023-24 season. … The Flyers had their streak of recording at least one point in 10 straight season openers (8-0-2) end. The last team to go 10 straight openers with at least one point were the Dallas Stars (1996-2007).