May 09, 2026
James Lang/Imagn Images
Travis Konecny and the Flyers fought as hard as they could to hold on, but eventually, Carolina put them away.
The puck flipped over Dan Vladar, and that was it.
The Flyers' run, for as incredible and unexpected as it was, was over.
They battled their way to overtime in Game 4 of their second-round Stanley Cup Playoff series, but the Carolina Hurricanes out-possessed and out-chanced them in sudden death once they were there.
Then Jackson Blake's shot popped off Vladar's glove and in, bringing a 3-2 defeat for the Flyers and a 4-0 sweep for Carolina complete.
The Flyers first moved to the crease to comfort their goaltender, who had been an outright star for them all year. Then they lined up for the handshakes, as fans stood up, applauded, and echoed "LET'S GO FLYERS" chants through an Xfinity Mobile Arena that finally, after so long, got to believe in them again.
The loss, and a breakout season being over, that's going to sting now.
But the hope is that this is only going to be the start for a team on its way up, after finally showing the tangible signs that it actually is.
"I mean, head into next year, now we know what the goal is again," veteran winger Travis Konecny told a sea of press postgame, but with the emotions of the run ending still fresh and needing to be processed. "It's to get in.
"To get into overtime, to get into those situations, closing series, we did a lot, you know? We experienced a lot. A lot of the guys, myself included, we got some great experiences here. Again, it's frustrating, but there's some stuff to take from it, for sure.
Until then...
The nerves could be felt coursing through Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Maybe the Flyers would never admit to as much at ice level, but in the seats, every chant, every cheer, had that underlying bit of trepidation that the crowd wanted to mask with as much energy as it could muster.
Porter Martone tried to ease the tension right away. The 19-year-old had a puck bounce right to him as he skated through center ice, and with speed and sudden possession, he cut in to fire the first shot off goaltender Frederik Andersen, then chased down the save behind the net to try and jam it back across the goal line, first with a look to deflect it off of the back of Andersen's pads, and then around the other way to try and roof a backhander before a wall of Hurricanes closed in to push the rookie away.
Porter Martone came out flying again, hopefully the puck goes in soon. #Flyers pic.twitter.com/h7amMuuD1S
— Flyers Nation (@FlyersNation) May 9, 2026
The pace of play, and the wave of orange-adorned fans still holding out hope, stayed on edge until just under eight minutes elapsed.
Martone chipped a puck over the offensive blue line, Trevor Zegras chased in to recover it, then made a sharp turn back around to his forehand to free up space and see Tyson Foerster crashing in.
Zegras floated the pass over a Carolina stick. Foerster pulled it in and dragged it around that same defender to get into the open, then loaded up a shot that beamed straight past Andersen to give the Flyers the opening lead, 1-0.
TYSON FOERSTER HAS ARRIVED!!! 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/LHus1QxKie
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 9, 2026
Garnet Hathaway crushed Hurricanes star Sebastian Aho into the boards midway through the period, the Flyers killed off a Martone hooking penalty with the left-handed Travis Sanheim breaking his stick and then skating the rest of it with Luke Glendening's right-handed one to drain the seconds away.
Oliver Bonk, making his playoff debut in far from an easy situation, bounced a pass off the wall that hopped off K'Andre Miller's skate at the Carolina blue line and right to Konecny, who caught the defenseman on his heels and quickly skated in for another shot that Andersen just fought away with his blocker.
But the energy kept up.
Denver Barkey got tackled into the Carolina net, and Andersen, as he crashed in by Jordan Martinook to draw an interference call, though still with a struggling power play, and Martone swiped at a puck that Andrei Svechnikov tried to stick handle the last two seconds of the period with, which brought the two into a shoving match as the first horn sounded.
The Flyers played the better opening period, just like Game 3, but to a better result.
The thing about the Hurricanes, though, as they've proven already, is that they can methodically climb back.
Pressing into the second period, the Flyers got a 5-on-3 from a Jordan Staal trip and an Aho hook called in short order.
But yet again, the power play came up empty. Martone and Zegras excelled at putting the pressure on with successive shots, but ultimately, they did more to put a dent in the back glass rather than find the back of the net before a Rasmus Ristolainen interference call canceled it all out.
Back at even strength, Jackson Blake handled the puck along the wall and was given the space to, which he made the Flyers pay for. Blake turned in toward the net and threw a shot on through traffic. Vladar couldn't track it, and the Hurricanes worked their way back to a tie game.
Eventually, they took the lead, too.
Carolina's original go-ahead by Mark Jankowski was waved off due to a won Philadelphia challenge for goaltender interference.
But early into the third, Taylor Hall led a rush down the ice and slipped a pass just out of the reach of Bonk and Nick Seeler for Logan Stankoven to score for the official 2-1 lead.
Seventh goal of the playoffs for Stankoven 😮💨 pic.twitter.com/7RxCYri3Hk
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 10, 2026
The Flyers didn't want to crumble in that spot, like they had in Game 3. They couldn't afford to anymore.
Then Alex Bump gave them a line, when Konecny skated in to bump Miller off a puck behind the Carolina net, then shifted to get the quick pass out.
Bump was right where he needed to be all alone, and hammered the puck by to tie it back up 2-2 with just over 14 minutes left.
TIED ONCE AGAIN 🚨
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 10, 2026
ALEX BUMP HAS HIS SECOND OF THE PLAYOFFS ✌️ pic.twitter.com/Fd0hFy4Ifp
That was a long 14 minutes to skate, though, with zero room for error during a game, and a series, where Philadelphia goals have been incredibly difficult to come by.
But they fought to see overtime, if only to play for just a few more minutes, and in the end, with Flyers fans proud to salute them for how far they've come, regardless.
It had been such a long time since they had reason to.
"It reminded me back in the day when I played," head coach Rick Tocchet said. "The crowd was into it, the Flyers fans, that's what I'm most proud about, how they helped us as the year went on.
"We had to help them, too. I mean, they haven't really had a lot to cheer for, so I think you gotta give the players a lot of credit this year. They gave them a lot."
And eventually, they'll shift toward how to take that next step to more.
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