Jeff Skinner is on some kind of a roll right now. The 23 year old winger had his second hat trick in the past three games and now has nine goals in his past six as the Carolina Hurricanes fell 4-3 in overtime in Philadelphia as rookie defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere scored his second overtime winner against Carolina this year.
Skinner got the ball rolling for the Hurricanes (12-14-5) against the Flyers (13-12-6). A little less than two minutes into the game he took a pass from rookie winger Phillip Di Giuseppe up the boards and fired a low shot through the five hole of Flyers goalie Michal Neuvirth for a 1-0 Hurricanes lead.
Philadelphia had a few good chances in the first, but Eddie Lack was equal to the task for Carolina and the visitors headed to the locker room with a one goal lead.
The Flyers wasted no time tying things up to start the second, as defenseman Radko Gudas’ shot was tipped in by winger Jakub Voracek for his second goal of the season, both of which have come against Carolina.
The Canes regained their lead about three minutes later as Skinner knocked in the rebound of a Brett Pesce slapshot on the power play to put the team up 2-1.
The Flyers tied it once again less than a minute later as Brayden Schenn took a pass from Michael Raffl right down the middle on an odd man rush and fired it past Lack to knot the game at two.
The rest of the period was pretty evenly played, but the Hurricanes caught a tough break as Flyers center Sean Couturier backhanded a shot off Lack’s pad that then deflected off the skate of Canes rookie defenseman Jaccob Slavin and in for a 3-2 Flyers lead, which they would take into the intermission.
Skinner’s hat trick goal tied the game at three a little less than halfway through the third period as he beat two defenders with some shifty skating, finding himself between four Flyers, and zipped a shot past Neuvirth for the equalizer. Both teams had a few chances to take the lead in the third, but the goalies held serve and the game headed for overtime.
A little less than two minutes into overtime, Voracek and Gostisbehere broke in on a two-on-one rush, and Gostisbehere took Voracek’s nifty backhand feed and snapped the puck over Lack for the Philadelphia win.
This was the third meeting between the Canes and Flyers this year, Philadelphia has won all three in overtime.
The Canes will head home after going 2-1-1 on this four game road trip, and will take on the Florida Panthers at PNC Arena Friday night.
