Flyers give up early lead, lose in shootout to Hurricanes

Gabriela Carroll, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Dec 13, 2025

Published in Hockey

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PHILADELPHIA — It took six tries, but the Flyers have finally lost in the shootout.

After shootout star Trevor Zegras missed his first attempt, Matvei Michkov, Travis Konecny and Bobby Brink each failed to convert. Jackson Blake secured a 4-3 victory for Carolina in the fourth round of the shootout after Samuel Ersson saved the first three attempts.

The Flyers started the first period off poorly, thanks to a Michkov penalty that gave the Canes an early power play.

But after that early kill, the Flyers started to gain momentum. Bobby Brink scored the first goal of the game with a snipe off a Zegras zone entry, and Zegras capped off his excellent first period with a goal of his own, burying a feed from Konecny behind the net.

Enter the second period, and the Flyers’ luck began to turn. Ty Murchison, playing his third game in place of the injured Cam York, turned the puck over on a breakout to former Flyer Shayne Gostisbehere. He fired one quick pass to Nikolaj Ehlers, who sniped the puck over Ersson’s shoulder to put Carolina on the board.

An Emil Andrae turnover right in front of the net almost led to another disaster, but Ersson made a point-blank save, and Andrae was able to clear the puck.

But with just over five minutes to go in the period, Canes defenseman Alexander Nikishin tied it with a huge slap shot from the blue line.

The Canes’ man-on-man coverage system is notoriously suffocating defensively, and the Flyers felt it in the third period, struggling to break the puck up the ice and generate any consistent offensive zone time. Late in the third, Seth Jarvis snuck past the Flyers’ defense and easily tucked the puck in one-on-one against Ersson.

That might’ve been just the kick the Flyers needed, because just 23 seconds later, Carl Grundström took advantage of a two-on-one opportunity and beat Pyotr Kochetkov to tie the game at three on just the Flyers’ second shot of the period.

Grundström was called up on Dec. 2 in place of the injured Tyson Foerster, and is on a three-game point streak, including the game-winner in San Jose and the game-tying goal against Carolina.

Canes forward Jordan Martinook had a good look at what could have been the game-winner with 11 seconds to go after the Canes recovered a Travis Sanheim turnover, but his shot sailed above the goal. Martinook slammed his stick on the ice in frustration after the game officially was sent to overtime.

The Flyers are 2-4 in games that end in overtime so far this season, but were undefeated in the shootout heading into Saturday’s game.

Zegras had a breakaway one-timer opportunity late into overtime, but flubbed the pass, allowing Kochetkov to make an easy save, and Ersson made a strong save on Jordan Staal with just seconds to play.