Flyers can’t weather Hurricanes’ early storm, lose 3-0 in Game 1

RALEIGH, N.C. ― The Flyers got rocked by the Carolina Hurricanes.

Skating in Game 1 of the second round against the top team in the Eastern Conference, the Flyers were handed a sound 3-0 loss.

From the drop of the puck, it seemed as if the Flyers were overmatched by a team that has more speed, plays man-on-man, and fires more shots on goal from every angle than anyone, including the team the Flyers just sent golfing, the Pittsburgh Penguins.

“It’s obviously an adjustment. Completely different styles,” forward Travis Konecny said. “So, I thought, we didn’t come out with our best game. The beauty of it is you’ve got plenty more. So just flush it, regroup, and we know what to expect now.”

Carolina is a much different opponent, a much younger, hungrier, and more skilled team, and the Flyers struggled to get much going, playing a disconnected game, with icings and offsides running rampant, especially across the first 40 minutes.

“I don’t know if we were mentally prepared to play tonight. Winning our playoff series, [almost] not making the playoffs … there was a lot of excitement,“ said Tocchet. I don’t think we got down to earth quick enough for this game.”

» READ MORE: The Flyers weren’t just dominated in Game 1. Carolina wouldn’t fall for their baiting, and that’s a bad sign.

By the 10-minute mark Saturday, the Flyers had one shot on goal to the ‘Canes’ eight and trailed 2-0.

Carolina scored on its first shot attempt when Logan Stankoven tipped in a Mike Reilly point shot just one minute, 31 seconds into the game.

After an icing on a missed pass to Matvei Michkov, Noah Cates won the faceoff against Stankoven, but Carolina got control before working it around the boards. Flyers defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen poked it away from Taylor Hall and up to Michkov, but the winger gave it right back to the Hurricanes as he tried a blind backhand pass to Travis Sanheim, who did have room to skate the puck up if the pass connected.

Jackson Blake intercepted the poor pass and fed Reilly for a one-timer that was tipped in by Stankoven, despite Cates playing him properly in front.

“They’re hard, they’re quick, they play a simple, hard game. They rely on winning a lot of battles, and we’ve got to be ready for that,” said captain Sean Couturier, who led the Flyers with five shots on goal. “I think we knew coming in that’s the kind of game we would have, but for some reason, we weren’t good enough. That’s plain and simple.”

Carolina doubled the lead when Hall sent an outlet pass to Blake for his second goal of the postseason. With Michkov and Sanheim back, the speedy winger, and son of ex-NHLer Jason Blake, split between them after picking up a head of steam in the neutral zone.

Sanheim positioned himself well, getting back and playing him shoulder-to-shoulder to stay between Blake and the net. However, the forward was able to knock the puck between Dan Vladař and the post as the Flyers’ goalie was playing at the top of the crease, possibly thinking he’d cut more to the front of the net. Instead, with Sanheim pushing him to the outside, he was unable to stretch back to the post, leaving a lot of space.

In the second period, the Hurricanes increased their lead to 3-0. Flyers defenseman Noah Juulsen corralled a dump-in and carried the puck up the right boards. He tried to hit Denver Barkey, who was shifted to center — Tocchet said postgame he liked him down the middle and thought he was “effective” — in the neutral zone, but the puck hit the skates of Andrei Svechnikov in the Flyers’ end.

Seth Jarvis scooped up the puck and, with the turnover leading to a two-on-one down low, set up Stankhoven for his second goal of the game. He is now tied with Tampa Bay’s Brandon Hagel and Minnesota’s Matt Boldy for the NHL lead in playoff goals with six.

All three goals by the Hurricanes came from inside home plate, a high-danger zone that stretches across faceoff dots to the net, as they pressured the Flyers around the crease. Vladař finished with 20 saves on 23 shots after facing 12 shots in the opening frame and just two in the final 20.

“Obviously, with the crowd and stuff, I just feel like they were dictating stuff,” Cates said. “We weren’t getting to our game for the first period, maybe even 30 minutes of the game. I feel like maybe it’s good we got a taste of it kind of toward the end there, and we can get to it a little bit quicker in Game 2.”

Sporadically, the Flyers had some chances across the first two periods, with Garnet Hathaway putting a shot on goal in the first that had the rebound hop over the stick of a crashing Luke Glendening, and, although he didn’t get a shot on goal, Porter Martone put some pressure on as he cut across the crease and was tripped by Hurricanes goalie Frederik Andersen. Hathaway also had a chance on a breakaway after coming out of the box in the second, but Carolina blueliner K’Andre Miller perfectly knocked it away.

When the final buzzer sounded, the Flyers finished with 19 shots on goal after they had just four in the first period and five in the second. They finally came alive a bit in the third with 10 shots, including a Couturier short-handed chance in the opening minute and a couple of frantic goalmouth flurries in the final minute. But ultimately, they could not sneak one by Andersen in the shutout defeat.

The refereeing was once again questionable throughout the night, with weak calls or others missed. ... Trevor Zegras and Blake were handed minors and 10-minute misconducts in the third period after Blake slashed Zegras, and the Flyers forward retaliated with a cross-check behind the play. Nick Seeler and Shayne Gostisbehere were also given 10-minute misconducts a few minutes later when Seeler went after the former Flyers defenseman for slashing Glendening. ... Forward Owen Tippett did not dress and is listed as day to day with an undisclosed injury. ... At 23 years, 65 days, Stankoven became the youngest player in playoff history to begin a postseason on a five-game goal streak. Hockey Hall of Famer Alexander Mogilny had a five-game streak in 1993 at 24 years, 73 days.

Game 2 is Monday at 7 p.m. (ESPN).

» READ MORE: Full schedule released for Flyers-Hurricanes second-round series