SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Tyson Foerster scored on a rebound of his own shot with 45.2 seconds left for what became the game-winner, and the Philadelphia Flyers topped the Florida Panthers 4-2 on Wednesday night.
Foerster’s shot from just inside the blue line ricocheted off the leg of Florida defenseman Aaron Ekblad and went right back toward the Philadelphia forward. With Ekblad out of the play and writhing in pain, Foerster shot again and beat Florida goalie Sergei Bobrovsky for a 3-2 lead.
Sean Couturier scored on a tip-in about 20 seconds later for the final margin. Dan Vladar stopped 25 shots for the Flyers.
Brad Marchand and Carter Verhaeghe scored early for Florida, which jumped out to a 2-0 lead with Sam Bennett assisting on both goals. Emil Andrae had a goal — just the second of his career — and added an assist for Philadelphia, while Matvei Michkov also scored and Jamie Drysdale added two assists.
Bobrovsky gave up four goals on 17 shots.
The Panthers were again without a slew of players, including Aleksander Barkov and Eetu Luostarinen — but made some promising news public earlier Wednesday when forward Matthew Tkachuk, who has yet to play this season following summertime surgery, revealed that he has started skating. There’s no timetable for his return to play, but he’s obviously progressing.
“He’s back on the ice and he wasn’t two weeks ago,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “So, we’re taking it.”
It was the third and final matchup between the teams this season, after they split the first two meetings. Philadelphia has also finished its season series with Nashville and St. Louis; Florida has completed its games for the season with Anaheim and Vegas.
Up next
Flyers: Visit the New York Islanders on Friday afternoon.
Panthers: Host Calgary on Friday afternoon.