Flyers win seventh straight, beating Oilers in overtime on Nolan Patrick’s goal

A few minutes before scoring the game-winning goal for the Flyers, a despondent Nolan Patrick slammed his stick into the wall.

The second-year forward missed a solid look on net in the waning seconds of regulation, leading to overtime Saturday against the visiting Oilers.

“He fixed his stick after he missed the empty net in the hallway there and got the right one,” Flyers coach Scott Gordon joked.

Patrick must have known an equipment change was needed.

“That stick’s not around anymore," he said.

Patrick’s goal gave the Flyers their seventh straight win, a 5-4 overtime victory against Edmonton.

Those from Edmonton watching hometown favorite Carter Hart in the NHL for the first time saw lots of impressive moments as the Flyers' rookie goalie managed 40 saves, including 16 in the first period.

Hart has trained with Oilers goalie Cam Talbot, his former coach Dustin Schwartz is Edmonton’s goalie coach, and Oilers winger Jujhar Khaira mentored Hart when they both played in junior hockey.

“To get the chance to face off against them was pretty special," Hart said.

The Flyers scored a season-high four power-play goals.

Against an Oilers team coming off 10 days rest through the All-Star break, the Flyers used an early power play to strike first. Sean Couturier beat Talbot off a pass from Claude Giroux. It was Couturier’s 20th goal of the season.

The Oilers responded with two goals, and outshot the Flyers, 18-7, in the first period.

McDavid netted Edmonton’s second goal, nudging a wrist shot past Hart with three defenders draped over him. It was McDavid’s 30th goal of the season.

“Something is different about that guy, he’s unbelievable,” said Patrick, who was matched up against the two-time winner of the Ted Lindsay Award as the league’s most outstanding player. “You can’t leave him for a second, I think we did a pretty good job against him and I think Hart made some pretty big saves against him, too.”

Giroux got the Flyers to within one in the final minutes of the second period, as the Flyers offense started gaining some traction while Hart continued to keep the Flyers in it with a handful of impressive saves.

A Flyers power play in the third led to two goals within a minute. Oilers winger Zack Kassian intercepted a pass and scored, unassisted, on a breakaway for a shorthanded goal. But Travis Konecny answered with a rebound about 40 seconds later.

“Confidence helps in the power play,” Giroux said. “You make plays, you keep it simple. The power play hasn’t won us a lot of games this year, but today we were able to make a few plays.”

Wayne Simmonds had the equalizer in regulation, a power-play goal off a rebound, assisted by Giroux and Jake Voracek.

In the final seconds of regulation, Patrick missed a nearly open net off a rebound. But in the overtime, he took a feed from James Van Riemsdyk and beat Talbot over his shoulder for the win.

Hart’s record improved to 9-5-1. He finished January 6-2-1 with a 2.33 goals-against average and a .931 save percentage over nine appearances. His 283 saves were the highest total in the NHL last month, and he was third in ice time (540:13).

Shayne Gostisbehere returned to the ice after missing the last three games with a lower-body injury. He picked up an assist on Giroux’s second-period, power-play goal.