Instant reactions: Tyson Foerster is Flyers third period hero in win over champs

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After a decent first five minutes for the Philadelphia Flyers, the Florida Panthers dominated the first period, but Dan Vladar made sure the defending champs only had a 1-goal lead to show for it.

Carter Verhaeghe made it 2-0 early in the second, but the Orange & Black were much better, tying the game on a goal and an assist by Emil Andrae, the assist coming on a deflection by Matvei Michkov. Erasing two-goal leads has been a speciality for Philly, and they put up one hell of a fight on the road against a Panthers team that had won three of four and five of seven, although the shot total didn’t necessarily reflect it thanks to a territorial blowout in the first.

But it was the late heroics of Tyson Foerster and Sean Couturier that won the game in regulation, scoring a pair of goals inside the final 45 seconds to win in regulation… HOT DAMN!

First period

I’m liking the Flyers’ early shooting mentality. The have way more energy than they did in Tampa. But now the Panthers are peppering Vladar after a Philly turnover. They get one clear, but after Nick Seeler loses his stick, Sam Bennett, with matvei Michkov trying to ride him but not doing enough to disrupt as Bennett carries deep into the zone, slides a puck under a diving Seeler to Brad Marchand, who slams his 14th goal of the season behind Vladar. The first few minutes were all Flyers, and then Florida flipped a switch and earned a goal after a dominant couple of shifts.

That makes 16 of 22 games, and nine consecutively, in which the Orange & Black have surrendered the first goal. Of course, they’re 8-5-2 (.563 points=percentage) in the first 15.

And with 12:17 left, the Flyers are headed to the penalty kill, as Noah Cates is whistled for high-sticking. So the FlyGuys will be without one of their top PK guys. Cates’ 1:49 short-handed TOI/game is third among Philly forwards, behind only Sean Couturier (2:03) and Christian Dvorak (1:57). But the Flyers are able to survive the two minutes, with Vladar making a pair of saves along the way.

With 9:13 left in the first, Florida is leading 1-0 on the scoreboard, and 8-5 in the shot battle. This game has been all Panthers challenging Vladar since about the four-minute mark. He’s up to 10 saves with seven minutes left.

Charlie sums it up perfectly in this Tweet: Flyers got off to a solid enough start, but since that Marchand goal, it’s like they got staggered by a punch. They look like they’re just trying to hang on until the end of the round… and there’s eight minutes left in the period.

Trevor Zegras and Dvorak got a 2-on-1 chance, but Zegras, with a wide open shooting lane, tried to deke Seth Jones to set up a pass across to Dvorak, but Jones denied the attempt. But, hey, a POWER PLAY! Let’s see if Philly can tie it up on the man advantage. This Panthers PK is aggressive, even challenging Zegras and Cam York behind the Philadelphia net. With 20 seconds left on the penalty the Flyers are finally set up, but don’t get anything out of it. Impressive kill for the reigning champs.

With 2:04 left in the first, Florida is up to 15 SOG, the most the Flyers have surrendered in a period this season. They’ll be lucky to get out of the period trailing by one.

Zegras got a chance to tie it with 30 seconds left after Owen Tippett found him on a 2-on-1, but he appeared to fire it high. Flyers escape, down only 1-0, thanks mostly to Vladar’s 14 saves.

Second period

While the getting-scored-on-first-and-still-winning thing is fun, it doesn’t really tell the whole story. Yes, Philadelphia often allows the first goal. But when actually trailing after 20 minutes they’re 4-3-1. The Flyers are 4-0-1 when leading after the first. So allowing the opening goal is one thing, but in most of these comebacks, they’re answering within the same period and actually leading or at least tied when the first intermission begins. That was certainly not the case tonight, and now they’ll have some serious work to do. The Flyers are 4-6-2 when trailing after 40 minutes.

Michkov only played 3:43 in the first, and only took three shifts in the final 14+ minutes, with one of them coming on the power play. He appears to be on his normal line with Sean Couturier and Bobby Brink to start the period, but as always, this is something we’ll be monitoring.

The Flyers are palying a much more deliberate pace than the frenetic first period, and it has resulted in some possession time. Four minutes in the Flyers haven’t allowed a shot, and just forced an icing. They don’t appear to have hit Sergei Bobrovsky with any of their attempts yet, but they’ve found some success forechecking thus far.

VLADAR! The Flyers goalie stops a mini-breakaway bid after A.J. Greer got loose in the middle, taking a pass of the wall but Vladar denied him. Tippett got a 1-on-1 chance that didn’t go, and then Florida came back down and made it 2-0 when Vladar came out to his left to challenge Bennett at the side of his crease, and Bennett fed the puck across to Carter Verhaeghe who was able to score on an essentially empty net. Damn. Things were going well up until one mistake, once again. Now it’s all about how they rebound. Extracting a point out of this game now has to be the goal, and tying this thing won’t be easy.

THE FLYERS ARE ON THE BOARD! With a ton of traffic in front after a rush chance for Zegras and a shot from Drysdale that forces Bob to drop his stick, Emil Andrae deposits the puck behind the former-Flyer netminder. Good job getting second and third chance opportunities, and getting the puck to the net with a mad scramble in front of Bobrovsky. That’s the sort of effort and pressure they’ll need to keep this interesting.

But now the Flyers are going to the PK, as Andrae, shortly after scoring his second of the season, goes to the box for high-sticking. That’s not what you want.

In a comedy of bad decisions, Dvorak gets to a loose puck on the PK as it crosses the FLA blue line for a short-handed breakaway and he drops it, a long way, to Couturier, who tries to find Dvorak, I guess on the back door, but he was all the way in the corner. So they don’t even get a shot attempt out of a breakaway. WTF?!

ANDRAE TIES IT! OR MAYBE MICHKOV TIPPED IT? EITHER WAY, IT’S 2-2! I’m still not over the stupidity of the Dvorak-Coots thing, but hell yeah! Right after the kill, Philly starts the game over 11:11 into the second. Michkov seems to have got a stick on it, and he’s being credited with his sixth goal of 2025-26. Andrae has 1G, 1A about halfway through the game, and Drysdale gets the secondary assist, after picking up the primary on the first goal.

Travis Konecny nearly had a costly turnover in the middle of the defensive zone, handing the puck over to Florida for a scoring chance, but Vladar may have got a piece of the Evan Rodrigues attempt. Box score play-by-play says it went wide. TK is lucky. The Postgame chat would be all over him, especially considering the double-standard in terms of ice time he is perceived to have, compared to fan-favorite Michkov.

Florida had a chance or two in the final two minutes, but the end of the second was mostly uneventful, and now we’re headed to the third tied at 2. Shots were five a piece, quite the improvement for Philly, after allowing 15 in the first. Total attempts for the game are 43-29 in favor of the Panthers. Philly did a nice job slowing the game down and clogging the neutral zone in the middle frame after Florida hit the line with speed quite a bit in the first. They’ll need to be equally as tight in the third if they want a point or two out of this game.

With no power play time in the second, Michkov played 4:25 and is up to 8:08 in the game. Still not a ton of time, but it’s more, at least.

Third period

Right off the opening draw Tyson Foerster gets a chance with a rolling puck into Florida’s zone, but no go, as his bid is nullified. On the very next shift Andrae almost picked up right where he left off where his shot from the left point nearly deflects off Brink and into the net, but it catches Bob and stays out. VERY CLOSE.

The Flyers fourth line had a pair of chances to end their scoreless start to the season, but after a couple of Hathaway attempts can’t connect, it seems as if they’re cursed. No other explanation.

Over five minutes into the period, despite about four or five quality chances, Philly hasn’t been credited with a shot on goal yet. They’re getting close, but can’t quite find the lane. On the bright side, a lot of the near-chances are denied as actual shots because of the traffic. The Flyers have absolutely controlled play to this point, but there’s now 13:46 left in regulation and the score remains 2-2, and the Panthers have accounted for the only two SOG thus far.

Marchand almost deked his way through Drysdale with York also all over his back, but it’s broken up, however Vladar took contact to the head as Marchand barreled towards the crease, but he quickly shook it off and the spotters allow him to remain, at least for now.

Game gets a little feisty on the next stoppage in front of Vladar, with Michkov getting some stick work, face-washes and a few punches in on whatever Panthers were in his way. Love this from #39.

Shots are 3-1 Panthers with 9:43 left. Florida is starting to get going a little, but not really threatening outside of the Marchand chance. With a point shot (that got tipped?) Vladar gloved with 8:45 left, Philly’s goaltender has stopped all four of the Panthers’ SOG so far.

Ah, hell. Brink goes to the box with 7:20 left for a hook as the Panthers were regrouping. A little too aggressive with the stick, and the Flyers have to kill their third penalty of the game. Here’s hoping if the get a short-handed breakaway someone tries to shoot the puck. Successful kill. Let’s see if we can get a third straight regulation result.

TYSON FOERSTER GIVES PHILLY THE LEAD WITH 44.5 SECONDS LEFT! Foerster’s first shot got blocked, and with the defender hurt and out of the play after the block, TyFo gets the puck back and fires it short side into the net! 3-2 FLYERS! HOT DAMN!

MAKE IT 4-2! With the Panthers trying to set up a break out behind their own net in order to pull Bobrovsky, the trio of Coots, Cates and Dvorak apply the pressure and eventually Coots scores to put the game away!

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