John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (26-31-11) are home on Saturday evening to take on Rod Brind'Amour's Carolina Hurricanes (44-15-8) at the Wells Fargo Center. Game time is 5:00 p.m. EDT.
This is the fourth and final meeting of the season between the Metro Division teams and the second game in Philadelphia. The Flyers are 0-2-1 to date against the Hurricanes. Most recently, in Raleigh on March 9, the Hurricanes shut out the Flyers in a 1-0 decision.
The Flyers, who are 3-9-1 in their last 13 games, are coming off a
5-2 win on Friday evening against the visiting Buffalo Sabres.
Philly's win was highlighted by a "St. Patrick's hat trick" by right winger Owen Tippett; the first three-goal game of his NHL career. In the process, Tippett also reached the 20-goal milestone for the first season in his still-young NHL career (goals 19. 20, and 21). Additionally, Joel Farabee (10th goal of the season) ended a 26-game goal drought on Friday evening, while James van Riemsdyk (10th) ended an 11-game goalless stretch. Carter Hart earned the win in net with 34 saves on 36 shots.
Look for Felix Sandström to get the start in goal against Carolina. Frederik Andersen is the likely starter for Carolina.
The Hurricanes, who are 5-5-0 in their last games and 2-3-0 in the last five, suffered a 5-2 road loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday. Brady Skej (14th) and Martin Necas (26th) tallied in a losing cause. Pyotor Kochetkov stopped 19 of 24 shots on goal.
Projected lineups (subject to change)
Flyers
86 Joel Farabee - 13 Kevin Hayes - 52 Tyson Foerster
21 Scott Laughton - 49 Noah Cates - 74 Owen Tippett
25 James van Riemsdyk - 48 Morgan Frost - 22 Brendan Lemieux
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 58 Tanner Laczynski - 57 Wade Allison
9 Ivan Provorov - 45 Cam York
6 Travis Sanheim - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
24 Nick Seeler - 77 Tony DeAngelo
32 Felix Sandström
[79 Carter Hart]
Hurricanes
13 Jesse Puljujärvi - 20 Sebastian Aho - 24 Seth Jarvis
86 Teuvo Teräväinen - 82 Jesperi Kotkaniemi - 88 Martin Necas
48 Jordan Martinook - 11 Jordan Staal - 71 Jesper Fast
23 Stefan Noesen - 18 Jack Drury - 21 Derek Stepan
74 Jaccob Slavin - 8 Brent Burns
76 Brady Skjei - 22 Brett Pesce
41 Shayne Gostisbehere - 5 Jalen Chatfield
31 Frederik Andersen
[52 Pyotr Kochetkov]
************
Phantoms Lose Again to Hershey
The Hershey Bears have dominated the 2022-23 season series against Ian Laperriere's Lehigh Valley Phantoms including sweeping a home-and-home set with regulation wins over the Phantoms on Wednesday and Friday. In the latter game, a power play goal by Hershey's Sam Anas at 10:47 of the third period proved to be the game-winner as the Phantoms suffered a 2-1 defeat.
Samuel Ersson, who had a tough game against the Bears on Wednesday, saw just 19 shots for the game on Friday. He stopped 17. Defenseman Ronnie Attard (11th goal of the season) scored the lone Phantoms goal on Friday, tying the score at 1-1 with 3:51 remaining in the second period. The goal was assisted by Adam Ginning and Olle Lycksell.
By virtue of failing to gain any points from the two games against Hershey, the Phantoms (31-24-6) squandered some of the good work they did in rattling off five straight wins before running into Hershey again. The Phantoms remain in 5th place in the Atlantic Division but are now two points behind fourth-place Springfield with the Thunderbirds holding two games in hand.
Additionally, the 6th-place Bridgeport Islanders are four points behind the Phantoms with one game in hand. The Phantoms are still somewhat comfortably above the danger zone off missing the playoffs entirely (by falling below sixth place). The 7th-place Hartford Wolf Pack are seven points behind the Phantoms with one game in hand.
On Sunday, the Phantoms will host the last-place Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in a 4:05 p.m. game at the PPL Center. It's important for the Phantoms, who have beaten the Baby Pens with regularity of late, to come away with two points. After that, the Phantoms are idle all week and will not play again until March 25 (next Saturday).
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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