A sloppy game for the Canes almost led to their first loss in seven games, but in the end they played well enough to extend their streak.
With 29.3 seconds left, Martin Necas continued his white hot streak, scoring a goal to put the Canes on top 5-4 against the struggling Philadelphia Flyers. Seth Jarvis would score an empty netter to make the final margin 6-4.
The Canes played their worst game of this seven game win streak, as they could never get more than a two goal lead up on Philadelphia and sloppy play defined the majority of the game. Once again the Canes allowed a 5-on-3 Power Play which burned them. The power play was started by a questionable tripping call on Andrei Svechnikov, and then Jordan Staal cimmitted a pretty clear high stick infraction to create the 5-on-3. Travis Konecny cashed it in shortly thereafter and the Flyers were up 1-0.
Seven minutes later, though, Jackson Black potted an abolute beauty of a pass from Jack Drury for his fourth goal on the year. The pass leading to the goal has to be seen to be believed.
After the intermission, the Canes were able to jump out to their biggest lead of the night in very short order. About nine minutes in, Eric Robinson managed his second goal of the season after a pass from Martin Necas for his first point of the night.
Much like against Boston, the next goal came quickly as PA announcer Wade Minter wasn’t quite done reading the Robinson goal when Jordan Martinook took the bump up shift and got on the goal sheet for the first time this season, as Aleksei Kolosov would leave up a juicy rebound for him and he was able to just tap it in.
It seemed like it was going to be a repeat of the Bruins game, however Philly was able to tighten things up and get back within one thanks to a goal by Owen Tippett. It was a well-placed shot thanks to the Canes letting their foot off the gas and giving Tippett a clean look. The second ended at 3-2.
The third period saw a couple of Flyer goals that were just wacky and emblematic of the sloppy play of the Canes. Pyotr Kochetkov made an initial stop but it bumped to the side and Morgan Frost was able to somehow get it in. It’s not clear how he actually touched it in, though it was a legal goal as it just slowly drifted to the goal mouth and across the line. It wouldn’t stay tied for long, as Jack Roslovic continued his goal scoring pace and potted a rebound when half the Flyer team crashed the net.
The Flyers once again wouldn’t give up, and more sloppy play in front of Kochetkov led to perhaps his worst goal in his career. Jalen Chatfield desperately attempted to clear, but instead passed it right to Sean Couturier, who threw it at the net, and Travis Konecny just got a little bit of lumber on it to deaden it. Kochetkov seeemed surprised at the change of pace and the puck just slid right between his legs to tie the score at four.
It looked like the game was going to overtime, but during the third period Martin Necas had some massive shifts that just seemed to wear the Flyers down. It was that effort that led to the game winning goal, as he just stayed around the net and was able to take advantage of a huge rebound, popping it past Kolosov and leaving the Flyers in agony while the Lenovo Center and Necas were in pure ecstasy.
Necas looked gassed on the bench, but was able to soak up the crowd as Philly called their time out to try and plan for the empty net. It didn’t take long for Seth Jarvis to end their dreams for any sort of getting it to overtime.
Kochetkov will likely want to forget this performance, as he gave up four goals on only 16 shots, and a couple of the goals were just ones that can’t go in. Still, with Freddie Andersen week-to-week now, he’s going to get a chance to put it behind him quickly. Meanwhile Necas followed up being named the NHL’s second star of the week by staying hot and getting two points on the night. He’s playing at a completely different level right now, and the hope is that he can keep it going.
Carolina is in action again Thursday night against the Penguins in Raleigh.