3-21

PHILADELPHIA --On the second half of a back-to-back, the Panthers saw their seven-game point steak come to an end with a 6-3 loss to the Flyers at Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday.
Falling to 36-28-7, the Panthers, who are 6-1-1 since March 4, still hold a one-point lead over the Penguins for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with one more game played.

Sam Bennett (injury) and Anthony Duclair (illness) both missed the game against the Flyers, while Sergei Bobrovsky was given a breather between the pipes after making 13 straight starts for the Panthers.
"We move on and we get ready for the next one," Panthers forward Sam Reinhart said.
Cracking the scoresheet for the sixth straight game, Matthew Tkachuk opened the scoring for the Panthers when he skated straight down the slot and re-directed a centering feed from Carter Verhaeghe past Carter Hart and into the twine to make it 1-0 at 1:15 of the first period.
Despite the Panthers being in seemingly full control for a good stretch to start the game, the Flyers managed to even things up just a few minutes later when Joel Farabee set up shop right in front of Alex Lyon and tipped a shot from Noah Cates into the cage to make it 1-1 at 4:43.
After going roughly six minutes without a shot on goal, the Flyers took the lead in the second period when Travis Sanheim connected on a one-timer from the right circle to make it 2-1 at 8:42.
Finishing off a great shift of sustained pressure in the offensive zone, Brandon Montour pulled the Panthers back even when he skated down from the blue line, took a pass from Aleksander Barkov and beat Hart with a sharp-angle shot from the right of the net to make it 2-2 at 14:17.
Benefitting from some defensive breakdowns, the Flyers made the Panthers pay with three goals within a span of 2:01. After Scott Laughton beat Lyon on a breakaway to make it 3-2 at 16:54, Sanheim and Ivan Provorov lit the lamp at 18:05 and 18:55, respectively, to make it 5-2.
"I think at this point of the year, no matter how tired you are, you figure it out," Montour said of the team's lapse in the second period. "You try to make the right plays, but they beared down on their chances there and we couldn't come back."
Coming up short on a 5-on-3 advantage, the Panthers cut into their deficit on the ensuing 5-on-4 when Reinhart found a loose puck in the slot and buried it to make it 5-3 at 13:49. But with Hart making several highlight-reel stops, that would be as close as Florida would get to Philadelphia.
Standing on his head from the moment the puck dropped, Hart stopped 15 shots in the third period en route to finishing with 41 saves in the game. Named the first star of the game, he stopped 12 of the 14 high-danger shots the Panthers sent his way, per NaturalStatTrick.com.
With 2:01 left in regulation, Morgan Frost made it 6-3 with an empty-net goal.
"Those are two good players and you're going to miss them, but we had by far enough offense to win that hockey game," Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said when asked about missing Bennett and Duclair. "We were loose at times defensively, but not to the point of giving up 40 shots. They finished on the ones they had a chance on. We spent most of the time in their end of the ice and their guy made a whole bunch of saves. We lost the game, we leave it here, and we move on."

CATS QUOTES

"We're not going to win every game. It's obviously a team that's on the outside and we want that one back, but we lost that one and we'll move on to the next. That's our mindset." -- Brandon Montour on coming up short against the Flyers
"Some of those saves were hard saves and they were quick-reaction saves. He was fantastic tonight." - Paul Maurice on Carter Hart's performance

CATS NOTES

  • Matthew Tkachuk extended his goal streak to five games.
    - Up to 96 points (34 goals, 62 assists), Matthew Tkachuk sits four points shy of becoming just the sixth player in the past 30 years to register 100 points in their first season with a franchise.
    - The Flyers led 22-8 in blocked shots.
    - Carter Verhaeghe fired off a team-high nine shots on goal.
    - Brandon Montour recorded his fifth multi-point game in his last eight outings.
    - Florida led 2.77-2.40 in expected goals at 5-on-5, per NaturalStatTrick.com.

WHAT'S NEXT?

The Panthers (36-28-7) will return to South Florida to kick off a two-game homestand with a matchup against the Maple Leafs (42-19-9) at FLA Live Arena on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET.