Adrian Fedkiw
The Jakub Voracek redemption tour continues.
The same could be said about Matt Read.
Voracek scored twice and had an assist, while Read posted his team-leading fifth goal as the Philadelphia Flyers doubled up the Carolina Hurricanes 6-3 on Saturday night.
Read was temporarily tied for the NHL lead in goals when his deflection off an Ivan Provorov wrister found the back of the net in the second period, but Richard Panik scored his sixth goal of the season in a 5-4 shootout win over the Toronto Maple Leafs later in the night. Read didn’t score his fifth goal last season until Dec. 10. Voracek, meanwhile, didn’t find the back of the net for a second time until Dec. 15, his 31st games of the year. He leads the team with seven points.
“I think he’s been consistent all the way through right from the start of camp,” Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol said of Voracek. “Tonight was one of his better 60-minute performances.”
Shayne Gostisbehere recorded three points, including a tally in a four-goal, second period outburst. Wayne Simmonds added a goal and a helper and Brandon Manning also lit the lamp for the Flyers, who snapped a three-game losing streak and improved to 2-2-1 on the young season.
The rookie Provorov had his best performance of the year following some early growing pains. He had two assists and was paired with Manning instead of Mark Streit.
“Sometimes a little change just for the sake of change is a good thing, but I think mostly it was he came out and played a solid hockey game for us,” Hakstol said.
This lob pass from Provorov midway through the third was awesome, he was certainly on his game.
Oh my goodness what a pass by Provorov pic.twitter.com/qFUH0GV6hU
— Sons of Penn (@SonsofPenn) October 23, 2016
Steve Mason got his third straight start in net and saved 27 shots. He lost his stick at one point in the second period and was still able to make this stop on Justin Faulk.
Fellow rookie Travis Konecny added another helper to give him five on the year.
The Hurricanes struck quickly in the second period with a pair of goals in the first 3:07 following a scoreless opening frame, but the Flyers netted four straight goals and led 4-3 heading into the third.
Manning got it started by sneaking a nifty backhand past Eddie Lack at the 4:50 mark.
The Flyers evened the score just 2:29 later when Provorov fired a one-timer from the right point off a Konecny pass from the left circle and Voracek re-directed it home.
Read put the Flyers in front with 4:09 left in the stanza when he tipped in Provorov’s wrister from the high point.
Gostisbehere found twine less than two minutes later when he rifled his wrister from the right circle inside the left post. His goal gave the Flyers their 12th second-period goal of the year. They have just five in all of the other stanzas.
Lee Stempniak clawed Carolina within 4-3 heading into the third, where Simmonds and Voracek put the finishing touches on the victory. Simmonds banged home a rebound off a one-timed shot from Gostisbehere and Voracek maneuvered his way through the center of the ice before floating his high slot shot past Lack for a 6-3 margin late in the third.