Goaltender Cal Petersen, making his first start since Nov. 11, made 17 saves as the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the visiting Seattle Kraken 3-2 on Saturday night.
Sean Couturier scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period and Scott Laughton and Ryan Poehling added special-teams tallies for the Flyers, who won their third in a row since the All-Star break.
Tomas Tatar and Jared McCann scored and Joey Daccord stopped 35 of 38 shots for the Kraken, who were playing for the first time since Jan. 30.
Petersen was making just his third start of the season.
Carter Hart is on an indefinite leave of absence after being one of five players from Canada’s 2018 world junior team who have been charged with sexual assault in Ontario.
Trailing 2-1, McCann tied it for the Kraken just 36 seconds into the third as his wrist shot from the right faceoff circle deflected off Couturier’s stick and into the far upper corner of the net. It was McCann’s team-leading 21st goal of the season.
Couturier made up for that at 5:30 of the period, winning a faceoff in the offensive zone and heading for the front of the net to tip Travis Sanheim’s shot from the left point past Daccord.
Laughton opened the scoring with the man advantage at 4:36 of the first period. Cam York controlled the puck at the blue line and fed Laughton for a one-timer from just outside the faceoff dot along the right-wing boards that sailed over Daccord’s left shoulder.
The Kraken tied the score at 17:09 of the period on Tatar’s wrist shot from the high slot that beat a screened Petersen.
The Flyers regained the lead just 1:05 later while killing a penalty.
Garnet Hathaway lifted the puck out of his own zone with a backhander, with the cross-ice pass falling just in front of Poehling as he raced down the right wing. Poehling snuck a shot between Daccord’s pads from just inside the faceoff dot. It was Poehling’s second consecutive game with a short-handed goal and the Flyers’ league-leading 12th of the season.
Seattle defenseman Justin Schultz missed the game due to what coach Dave Hakstol termed “personal reasons.” Rookie Ryker Evans took Schultz’s spot in the lineup.
–Field Level Media
