Panthers slip by FLyers, 4-3

In Sunrise, Carter Verhaeghe  staked the Florida Panthers to a 2-0 lead over the Philadelphia Flyers in the first period on Wednesday night.

The Flyers rallied to tie before the Panthers rediscovered their claws and put up two more goals en route to a 4-3 win.

“Hopefully I will keep this trend going,” Verhaeghe said. “We’re not playing as run-and-gun as in years past, we’re playing better defensively and that takes from our offense, but I think that’s worth it. Going into hard games going down the stretch, it’s going to be worth it.”

It was the first loss of the new season for the Flyers.

Sergei Bobrovsky made 31 saves in the Florida win.

Nick Seeler and James van Riemsdyk  tied the game at 2-2 for the Flyers.

“I thought we were slow coming out,” Flyers head coach John Tortorella said. “I thought as the game went on, we played better, found a way to crawl back into it. To give up the third goal and just a simple 2-on-2, that’s the one that hurts. I thought [Sandstrom] gave us a chance. But to give up a 2-on-2, that’s a free one, even-strength, strange situation. That’s the one that hurts to me.”

Rudolfs Balcers restored the Florida lead at 3-2 n the third period.

“I thought we did a lot of good things,” Seeler said. “We knew they were going to come out hard in the first. You know, it’s their home opener. We knew that. They got a couple quick [goals] and we showed some resiliency again, which is positive. But there were a few breakdowns that led to a few untimely goals, which hurt us.”

Josh Mahura pushed the Panthers lead to 4-2 midway through the third period.

“Obviously it is exciting to get the win here in the home opener,” Florida coach Paul Mahura said. “I did exactly what I wanted to do. It’s exciting for our team. It was awesome, we had a lot of energy out there, and I thought we played a pretty good 60-minute game.”

Travis Konecny scored for the Flyers with two seconds left in the game for the 4-3 final.

Felix Sandstrom made 31 saves in the Flyers loss.

“We kept playing,” Tortorella said. “I thought we beat up the puck a little bit. I just think we need to make more plays. We bang it around a little bit, it goes back to the other team, and that’s where we end up kind of back on our heels.

“I think we have the ability to make more plays. We’ve just got to keep on working. I’m happy with the effort. We stayed in it.”