Flyers’ playoff hopes on life support after 4-1 loss in penalty-filled Game 3

They had waited — some patiently, some not patiently — but after 5,112 days of waiting, which, as the late Tom Petty said, is always the hardest part, the Flyers hosted a second-round Stanley Cup playoff game. The faithful donned their orange and brought their voices to South Philly.

Hoping to see their team get in the win column, they cheered every Carolina Hurricanes miscue, booed every missed call — or what they thought was a bad call — by the referees, and roared every time the Flyers did anything from throwing hits to trying to score.

But despite having the faithful in their corner, the Flyers were handed a 4-1 loss by the Hurricanes in a penalty-filled game that saw emotions boil over. The teams combined for 58 penalty minutes and 14 power plays, with Carolina getting the upper hand on special teams.

“I don’t really talk about officials,” coach Rick Tocchet said. “I mean, obviously we’re frustrated. ... But you guys saw some of the stuff. I don’t know. We have nine penalties. I don’t know. That’s a lot of penalties.”

“It’s awful, especially at this time of the year, you wouldn’t expect all these penalties,” captain Sean Couturier said. “But it is what it is. We’ve got to be more disciplined. At the same time, control our emotions and, yeah, be better.”

Philly now trails three-to-nothing in the best-of-seven series and can be eliminated with a loss in Game 4 on Saturday.

» READ MORE: The Flyers’ terrible power play damaged them badly against the Hurricanes. Fix it, guys. Now.

The question entering Game 3, aside from how the Flyers, already without Owen Tippett, would compensate for the loss of center Noah Cates, was whether they could pick up where they left off in overtime in Game 2. The Flyers dominated the extra session, outshooting Carolina 15-8, but the final shot on goal by Taylor Hall was the ultimate dagger.

The Flyers answered that question as they came out with more speed and gumption, following the lead of Tochet from earlier in the day: “We’ve got to physically invest tonight, and I think the crowd will help us.” They got the crowd amped with 19 hits in the first period and several Grade A scoring chances, but couldn’t get one past Frederik Andersen.

There was a speeding Travis Konecny down the right side; Porter Martone receiving a pass from Trevor Zegras and streaking through the defense before hitting the post; Carl Grundström using his best commodity, his legs, before batting a shot on goal; Martone dipping the shoulder and setting up Alex Bump with a cross-crease pass; and Rasmus Ristolainen stepping into a shot that popped through Andersen but was ripped off the goal line by Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin.

“We’re getting chances. We’re right there,” Couturier said. “We’re just not capitalizing. We’re not finishing. The next thing you know, we’re chasing the game a little bit. So just got to execute a little better.”

But it was Carolina who got on the board first with 2 minutes, 33 seconds left in the opening period when Jordan Staal knocked in a shot attempt by Andrei Svechnikov that hit the end boards during the first of their nine power plays.

The second period started with four-on-four action for 1:24 before Carolina had a short power play. As time expired, Tocchet sent out the line of Zegras, Martone, and Bump.

Deep into their shift, Zegras gained the Carolina blue line and passed it over to Martone on the right side. With a delayed call on Carolina, at just 19 years old, he made a heads-up play to stay still before drawing in Carolina rising star, Logan Stankoven.

Later in the sequence Martone got the puck back and put a shot toward goal that hit Flyers defenseman Emil Andrae in front and bounced to Zegras for the tying goal from a tight angle.

The goal 2:31 into the second frame was Zegras’ second of the postseason and first since Game 3 against the Pittsburgh Penguins. It was also his first point since Game 4 of that series. The goal came after he was spotted getting an earful from Tocchet on the bench. Zegras was not made available after the game.

The assist was Andrae’s first in a playoff game, and Martone now has four points in nine playoff games.

“I thought he played really well,” Tocchet said of Martone. “His last two games have been really good, a very mature game, both games. This is huge for him, being in these situations, because next year, these games will be slower for him, in a sense, because it’s a high-paced game.”

Unfortunately, the rest of the game went the same as the first period: the Flyers getting chances, the two teams playing physical, but the Canes getting on the board.

For Philly, there were chances, whether it was Martone splitting the defense on one shift or Bump flying in before getting knocked down into Andersen by Nikolaj Ehlers on another. Neither got a shot on goal; however, right after Bump’s attempt, Martone stole the puck and fed Bump all alone — he ended up hitting the side of the net instead.

Travis Sanheim was then on the receiving end of a hit to the head by Hall that looked like it should have been more than the two-minute minor he was assessed. The Flyers defenseman was cut on the play and grabbed his head after his helmet came off when he was crunched from behind. He felt Hall could have laid off a little bit.

“I was just trying to make a play on the puck,” Sanheim said postgame. “I fell to one knee, and was just trying to get it out, and in a vulnerable spot, and he decides to finish his check. Just felt like his hands drove my head right through the wall, and thought it was a pretty dirty play, and obviously, [the referees] only thought it was two minutes. So move on. And it’s unfortunate that we give up a short-handed [goal] at the start of that power play.”

That short-handed tally came when Jalen Chatfield buried a one-timer on a two-on-one after receiving a pass from Staal to give Carolina the lead. Off the opening face-off on the Flyers’ power play, Jordan Martinook dove to knock the puck away from Jamie Drysdale before he could receive it at the point, creating the odd-man rush with just Zegras back.

“I just made a bad play, and there’s honestly not much more to it,” Drysdale said. “It was a puck that came out, I felt like I could get to it. ... Kind of one of those what ifs, if it got through, it was great, but time and place, and I just got to put that puck back in and live for another.”

The Flyers had a big chance to get one back. With Hall still in the box, Drysdale was called for holding Seth Jarvis, who then got mixed up with Konecny after the whistle and was called for high-sticking his teammate from last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off tournament. Carolina coach and Flyers Hall of Famer, Rod Brind’Amour, got incensed on the bench with the replay showing the stick hit Konecny’s shoulder and not his face. He was tagged for a bench minor, and the Flyers had a five-on-three.

Sounds great, right? Nope. This is the Flyers, and during a 1:15 two-man advantage, they mustered one shot attempt from Zegras and one shot on goal from 35 feet out from Martone.

“I’ll tell you what, we’re trying,” Tocchet said when asked why the new coaching staff hasn’t been able to correct the power-play issues that have plagued this team for several seasons.

“There’s reads and plays you have to make to be on a power play. And in all fairness, we’ve got some guys that are playing power play that probably wouldn’t play a lot of minutes with a power play, and we’re trying to get these guys to understand certain things.

“But that’s on us. It’s on me to try to figure it out.”

In the third period, the Hurricanes doubled the score with their own power-play goal by Svechnikov after Cam York was called for goalie interference. Svechnikov scored with a one-timer that just squeaked by the glove of Dan Vladař and inside the right post.

And less than four minutes later, Martinook swatted the puck away from Ristolainen in the neutral zone and right to Ehlers, who broke in and scored on a breakaway to make it 4-1.

“We just can’t worry about anything else other than winning one hockey game,” said forward Christian Dvorak. “You win one, and then the pressure starts to flip. So we know we have it in this room. We’re not going to quit. We’re going to bring our best effort.”

The last time the Flyers hosted a second-round playoff game was May 8, 2012, when they lost 3-1 in Game 5 of their Eastern Conference semifinal to the New Jersey Devils and were eliminated. ... Garnet Hathaway re-entered the lineup after being a healthy scratch for Game 2. ... Martone is the second teenager in Flyers history to post multiple goals and assists in a single postseason, joining Dainius Zubrus, who had five goals and four assists in 1997.

Game 4 is Saturday at Xfinity Mobile Arena (6 p.m., TNT, truTV, HBO Max).