Hart's 48 saves help Flyers extend Devils skid to 4 games

Carter Hart made 48 saves to help the Philadelphia Flyers hand the New Jersey Devils their fourth straight loss, 2-1 at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, on Thursday.

"You need your goalie to be good, especially against a team like that with so much speed and skill," Philadelphia forward Scott Laughton said. "He was great for us."
Laughton and Travis Konecny scored, and Noah Cates had two assists for the Flyers (10-14-7), who were 0-2-2 in their previous four games and 0-4-5 in their previous nine road games dating to Nov. 10.
Hart tied his NHL career high for saves, set in a 4-3 win against the Florida Panthers on Oct. 27. He has started eight of Philadelphia's past nine games.
"We played hard and did some crazy things at times," Flyers coach John Tortorella said. "But that has to be our recipe when you play against a team like that, a high-octane team. We needed play like that from our goaltender.
"I liked [Hart's] demeanor throughout the game. It was one of the better games I've seen him play."

Jack Hughes scored, and Vitek Vanecek made 22 saves for the Devils (21-7-2), who extended their longest slide of the season (0-3-1).
"We came out great," New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff said. "Skated well in the first period, got a lot of pucks going to the net and had some good opportunities. We got in a little bit of penalty-killing trouble, which I think took some momentum out for a little bit. But I thought our penalty-killers did a great job, and after that, I thought we stepped on the gas again."
Konecny made it 2-1 at 11:46 of the third period on a breakaway, shooting past Vanecek's blocker from the right hash marks after Cates broke up a cross-ice pass by Damon Severson in the Devils' offensive zone.
"That's a play, it's just not even in our playbook," Ruff said of Severson's attempted pass. "We talked this morning about getting pucks to the net. … They didn't have a chance in the period. I had just gone down the bench and talked about creating chances that are there, that we don't play high risk. You get in a game like this and you might have to hang around for overtime. But to make that play and trap the people, totally unacceptable."

Severson said he should have attempted a safer play.
"It's just hockey. I'm trying to make a play there," the defenseman said. "I shouldn't have made the play, it [stinks] it ended up in the back of our net, but you just have to move on. I'm an offensive player who tries to make plays, and unfortunately that one didn't work out. I should have just kept it more simple."
Tortorella praised Cates for making the play that led to the go-ahead goal.
"Right now he is that guy (who settles us)," Tortorella said of the second-year forward. "He's just an impressive guy. And I stuck him in the middle of the ice where he's never played before. I just think he's handled himself so well."

Hughes gave New Jersey a 1-0 lead on the power play at 4:20 of the first period when he got the puck at the red line and skated past three defenders before shooting over Hart's right shoulder from below the right face-off circle.
Laughton tied it 1-1 on the power play at 4:12 of the second period when he one-timed a pass from Travis Sanheim from just above the right circle.
The Flyers killed off the Devils' 38-second, 5-on-3 power play that began at 16:33.
"Five-on-threes are key for sure," Severson said. "That can swing momentum one way or another. It's too bad we didn't score on that one, but we just have to keep playing."

Hart made 19 saves in the third.
"There's plenty of good things we did," Severson said. "Their goalie played well. We had chances, there was plenty of 2-on-1s and opportunities, but overall it just [stinks] to lose. That's the biggest thing."
NOTES: Philadelphia forward Kevin Hayes did not play in the third period. Tortorella said it was a coach's decision and did not elaborate. ... Flyers defenseman Tony DeAngelo was placed on nonroster status due to personal reasons. Forward Olle Lycksell was called up from Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League and had two blocked shots in 10:07 of ice time. .... Philadelphia forwards Patrick Brown and Max Willman did not play, each because of an upper-body injury. ... Devils defenseman Brendan Smith played his 600th NHL game. He had two shots on goal, two hits and a blocked shot in 13:51.