Necas does it again: Hurricanes overcome sloppy game to edge Flyers on late goals

RALEIGH, N.C. — It’s not often you see an NHL coach come into the Lenovo Center to face the Carolina Hurricanes saying he feels good about the game.

But John Tortorella of the Philadelphia Flyers is a different kind of coach and personality, as everyone in the league knows. He also can be blunt in his remarks.

Before Tuesday’s game against the Canes, who had won six straight games, Tortorella talked of his team having good meetings and good practices. He said playing the Canes, in his mind, was “good timing.”

Tortorella’s gut feeling turned out to be wrong. The Canes pulled out a 6-4 victory as Martin Necas, off the best start of his career, scored with 30 seconds left in regulation for the lead.

Necas, who also had an assist, extended his pointstreak to seven games. Seth Jarvis added an empty-net goal and Carolina had its seventh straight win.

Travis Konecny had two goals and a pair of assists for the Flyers, and it was his second goal — with 10:43 left in the third period — that made it a 4-4 game.

Jack Roslovic’s goal, 29 seconds after the Flyers had scored, pushed the Canes in front, 4-3, at 1:47 of the third. Roslovic had an empty net after Sebastian Aho drove the net and quickly deposited the puck for his seventh goal in 11 games.

Roslovic’s score came after the Flyers’ Morgan Frost barely got the puck across the goal line with an open net on the other end. Frost mostly whiffed on the puck, which ever so slowly made it in the net for a 3-3 tie.

It was a night when Canes rookie Jackson Blake scored his fourth goal of the season, when Eric Robinson and Jordan Martinook scored in a 54-second span in the second for a 3-1 Carolina lead.

It was a game that matched goalies Pyotr Kochetkov of the Canes against the Flyers’ Aleksei Kolosov. Kochetkov was making his fourth consecutive start and Kosolov playing his third career NHL game and second in four days after losing to the Boston Bruins on Saturday.

Choppy start for the Canes

Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour always talks about his team not “taking a breath” and letting up in games. But the Canes didn’t have the same jump in the first period Tuesday they’ve had in recent home wins over the Boston Bruins and Washington Capitals.

The Canes’ Andrei Svechnikov and then Jordan Staal took penalties in the first period, allowing the Flyers to have a 5-on-3 power play. The Flyers promptly converted, Konecny tapping in the rebound of a shot by rookie forward Matvei Michkov.

The Canes killed off the Staal penalty but had to play from behind and get a goal from its fourth line – and their rookie forward – to tie the score in the first.

Blake was alone at the top of the crease, taking a no-look pass from Jack Drury after defenseman Dmitry Orlov got the puck low to Drury. For Jackson, who was unchecked in front, it was his fourth of the season.

The Canes had the two goals in 54-second sequence in the second period to open up a 3-1 lead as Robinson and then Martinook scored.

Robinson’s second of the season came off the rush, off a crisp pass from Necas, whose sizzling early season continues, Martinook then scored his first of the season in typical Martinook fashion, going to the front of the net, outbattling defenseman Emil Andrae and backhanding the puck past Kolosov.

The Flyers’ Owen Tippett made it a 3-2 game later in the second with a snipe from the left circle that beat Kochetkov. Tippett, who usually plays well against the Canes, scored his second of the season and it was a one-goal game heading into the third.

Tippett first kept a Jaccob Slavin clearing attempt in the zone near the blue line, then took a pass from Konecny as he went to the net.

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