PHILADELPHIA – Carter Hart made 34 saves on Thursday night, and the Flyers downed the Edmonton Oilers, 2-1, after penalties.
“He’s been like that all year,” Flyers forward Kevin Hayes said of Hart. “He’s been the backbone of this team. He’s an unbelievable goalie. We see it in practice every day. He just allows us to know that if there is a breakdown, we’re not nervous or anything because we know he’s back there.”
The win moved the Flyers to 22-22-9.
James van Riemsdyk was credited with the deciding goal in the skills competition.
“Just coming down on that route, there’s a few different things I’m kind of looking for,” van Riemsdyk said. “Me and ‘Hartsie’ actually were doing shootouts yesterday, the first time I think I’ve done it the whole year to practice it. Thankfully we did that, and I felt pretty confident and comfortable going in.”
The Flyers took a 1-0 lead in the first period on a strike from
Evander Kane knotted the game, 1-1, in the second stanza.
The Flyers were not whistled for a penalty throughout the match.
“Their power play is lethal,” Hayes said. “We said that before the game, stay out of the box, that’s the best way to penalty kill. And I thought we did a great job with that tonight.”
The Oilers dropped to 29-18-5.
“I thought it was a highly contested game where every square inch of the ice was up for grabs and contested hard,” Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. “I thought it was a hard game for both teams, and in the end we didn’t come away with the extra point.”
Edmonton’s Zach Hyman scored in the third period but the goal was waved off for interference.
“I was pretty sure that it was going to be goalie interference,” Hart said. “He drives the net, shoots the puck first and then his momentum runs into me and takes me out of the crease, so I think that’s pretty obvious and was the right call.”
Stuart Skinner made 35 saves in the Oilers loss.
“I thought Evander, along with ‘Skins,’ were our two best players tonight,” Woodcroft said. “I thought they were ultra-competitive. Evander was physical, he shot the puck, he’s playing the game the right way. He’s getting up to speed. … We anticipated it would take him time to get up and running, but I thought he played a whale of a game, and the better he can play the more dangerous a team we are.”
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