May 04, 2026
James Guillory/Imagn Images
Dan Vladar made some big saves for the Flyers in Game 2.
The Flyers let up one bounce too many.
Approaching the final minute of overtime, the Hurricanes charged in at the Philadelphia net and jammed away, and in the scramble to try and sweep the puck out of trouble, it instead hopped to the stick blade of Taylor Hall, who knocked it past the outstretched pad of Dan Vladar to send the Carolina crowd to its feet.
The Flyers lost to the Hurricanes, 3-2, Monday night in Game 2 of their second-round Stanley Cup Playoff series down at the Lenovo Center in Raleigh. The series will bring the team back to Philadelphia and Xfinity Mobile Arena on Thursday for Game 3, but with it now facing a 2-0 hole in the best-of-seven set.
TAYLOR HALL CALLS GAME IN OT 🚨
— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) May 5, 2026
CANES ARE 6-0 IN THE PLAYOFFS 🔥 pic.twitter.com/DtR60La7ze
Vladar was brilliant in the crease, making 39 saves. That doesn't matter much now.
The skaters ahead of him came storming out of the gate to start, then produced chance after chance with sustained pressure once the night went outside of regulation. Yet that hardly matters right now either.
The Flyers did a whole lot right on Monday night, far more than they did in Game 1's dud, but it's the playoffs. Silver linings at this point mean little, if anything.
So it's just on to Thursday night for them to try and get back in this series.
Here's how they were left with the climb they now face...
Head coach Rick Tocchet lamented the way the Flyers played Game 1.
They were put on their heels. They struggled to so much as take a step into the ice through the middle, and just struggled to generate a shot in general.
In the day in between, the head coach said they had to be faster and far more assertive in getting the puck, and then driving it to the net. They had to skate like a "dog on the bone." They weren't going to last against Carolina otherwise.
Out of the gate Monday night, the message looked received.
With some reshuffled lines – the most interesting among them being a kid line centered by Denver Barkey with Porter Martone and Alex Bump at the wings – the Flyers tried to put the pressure on right away.
They were surer about finishing checks and trying to play through the opposition, marked by Travis Konecny dropping Shayne Gostisbehere to the ice as the former Flyer, now Hurricane, was trying to break the puck out.
And they tried to shoot with a quicker trigger.
On the power play from a delay of game call charged to Sean Walker, Jamie Drysdale dropped into the high slot, and through traffic, rifled a laser that gave the Flyers the opening lead, and their first first-period goal all playoffs, along with leaving the Hurricanes trailing for the first time in the postseason.
THE FLYERS STRIKE FIRST IN GAME 2 💥
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 4, 2026
The Hurricanes trail for the first time in the 2026 #StanleyCup Playoffs 😮 pic.twitter.com/FvREfdFQ0f
HOW ABOUT TWO??? ✌️
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 4, 2026
39 SECONDS LATER, SEAN COUTURIER MAKES IT 2–0 FLYERS 🤯 pic.twitter.com/QIKqAMP0Pq
Carolina was going to push back with its own bite, and it would've been foolish to think otherwise.
Nikolaj Ehlers cut it to a one-goal game midway through the first.
With the Hurricanes in the final seconds of their own power play from a Cam York hold, Rasmus Ristolainen's attempt to clear the puck off the glass and out of the Philadelphia zone got pinned down and sent back in, which gave Carolina another chance to cycle it around to Jackson Blake, who stepped into the open, faked a shot toward Vladar, then sailed a one-time pass across to Ehlers that he teed up on to sound the Lenovo Center's horn.
Nikolaj Ehlers FIRES one home to get the Canes on the board 🔥
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 4, 2026
That’s Ehlers’ first playoff goal as a Hurricane 🫡 pic.twitter.com/lV6p8xy7kq
From there, the game felt like it bounced between even and the Flyers trying to hold on for dear life.
In the second period, and on another power play from Carolina having too many men on the ice, Ristolainen chipped in another puck that Seth Jarvis knocked down, chased back, and shifted around the big defenseman to recollect and take off with on a shorthanded rush down the ice.
Ristolainen had to trip him to recover, but not before Jarvis flung a pass into the middle for a streaking in Eric Robinson, whose shot was stopped just in time by Vladar's collapsing pads.
The #Flyers powerplay ladies and gentlemen. pic.twitter.com/7aRevQ51B2
— Flyers Nation (@FlyersNation) May 5, 2026
But it was only the first stage of a Carolina wave that Vladar would have to endure through the second, as the Hurricanes went on to generate 16 shots through the period, including a flurry that needed the luck of Travis Sanheim's stick on the goal line to fully withstand.
Travis Sanheim saves what would’ve been a game-tying goal for the Canes 😳 pic.twitter.com/ujRZ3ujaux
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 5, 2026
Vladar, though, kept standing on his head, even stopping another breakaway and followed-up attempts from Robinson on a lobbed puck that the Carolina skater chased down across the ice.
Through two, Vladar had saved 25 of 26 shots.
But down the other end, Frederik Andersen had steadied up after those first two early goals, with 14 of 16 stopped, and with a shot count that was starting to get lopsided in favor of Carolina again – it was 30-19 Hurricanes by the time there were six minutes left in the third.
The Flyers, both at even strength and while shorthanded, started having to heavily depend on their defense, and Vladar behind them, to keep it together while the Hurricanes were only beginning to press more.
They hung on for a while, making it past the halfway mark of the third period, but eventually, the dam broke.
The aforementioned kid line of Martone, Bump, and Barkey turned a rush down the ice, but the chance was broken up crashing in toward the net. The Hurricanes quickly recovered from it, and Ehlers led the sprint back the other way, carrying the puck across the line then dropping it off for Jarvis, who got a clean shot by that Vladar couldn't glove for the tie game at 2-2.
WE ARE TIED IN GAME 2 ‼️
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 5, 2026
SETH JARVIS HAS HIS FIRST OF THE PLAYOFFS ☝️ pic.twitter.com/ACkuMynW6u
DARTH VLADAR HUGE SAVE!!! #Flyers pic.twitter.com/0eRPg6xWu2
— Flyers Nation (@FlyersNation) May 5, 2026
But the extra ice didn't bring the go-ahead break for either side, which eventually brought on overtime.
Another chance from Sean Couturier. The captain has been their best player. #Flyers pic.twitter.com/KZfTMVqjte
— Flyers Nation (@FlyersNation) May 5, 2026
The Flyers established themselves in the sudden-death frame with a massive sustained cycle in the offensive zone that left Carolina flailing to escape, and soon enough, a gassed Andrei Svechnikov to commit a hook on Travis Sanheim.
Couturier, Grundstrom, and Luke Glendening brought on the initial wave, Martone nearly tipped a chance in front, then the line of Trevor Zegras, Christian Dvorak, and Konecny tagged in to keep the pressure up and pile chances on.
Still, Andersen was fighting them away. Then on the power play, a puck came out to Matvei Michkov all alone, but the shot he dragged across his body ricocheted off the stick of a falling K'Andre Miller and away from the net.
The Flyers were still looking, and Vladar was keeping them alive down the other side as the clock ticked down, but then Carolina had their rush to the front, and then a scramble.
And then the puck took a hop to Hall's stick.
Just one bounce too many.
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