THURS FLA NHL ROUND-UP: FLYERS SPOIL TARASENKO DEBUT, FLAMES BURN LIGHTNING

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Garnet Hathaway scored off a rebound with 22 seconds left to give the Philadelphia Flyers a 2-1 victory over the NHL-leading Florida Panthers on Thursday night.

“I think it just reinforces that belief within the room,” Hathaway said. “Guys playing knowing that we step up and play your best game and the guy next to you plays his best game. We can play anyone every night.”

Ryan Poehling also scored for Philadelphia. Samuel Ersson made 29 saves.

“I think they care and I think they believe,” coach John Tortorella said of his team, which gutted out a win while already short-handed on defense with Sean Walker being traded to the Colorado Avalanche the day prior. “That’s the only way we are going to keep ourselves going here is the belief of how we play and play as a team. It’s important, not just with Walker .. but we’re banged up back there, so that just forces you to accept that you have to be a team.”

Gustav Forsling scored for Florida, and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 24 shots. The Panthers had won six in a row.

“Going in, we knew it wouldn’t be easy for us,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “It didn’t look like we had a lot in the tank and they played hard. I think we kind of matched that. It was even, and we would like to be better than even at home, and then they got the break at the end that we hadn’t earlier, so we can get some rest and come back for the next one.”

Poehling opened the scoring at 10 seconds of the second period. Forsling tied it at 7:12 of the second, scoring hours after finalizing a four-year contract extension.

Vladimir Tarasenko made his Florida debut after coming over from Ottawa in a trade Wednesday. He was held pointless with two shots on goal, and logged 15:09 of ice time.

Flyers defenseman Cam York left late in the third after blocking a shot with his knee, while Travis Konecny returned from an upper-body injury that sidelined him six games.

UP NEXT

Flyers: At Tampa Bay on Saturday night.

Panthers: Host Calgary on Saturday.

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Yegor Sharangovich had two goals and two assists, Jacob Markstrom made 19 saves and the Calgary Flames won for the sixth time in seven games, beating the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-3 on Thursday night.

Dryden Hunt, Jakob Pelletier, Blake Coleman and Andrew Mangiapane also scored for the Flames.

“I think we just outworked them,” said Calgary center Jonathan Huberdeau, who had two assists. “That’s what we do when we play well. I think that’s what we did tonight.”

Calgary played for the first time without defenseman Noah Hanifin, who was dealt Wednesday to Vegas. Defenseman Chris Tanev was traded to Dallas on Feb. 28. Markstrom has been the subject of trade speculation as Friday’s deal-making deadline nears.

“Obviously, we know there’s a lot of noise and stuff and we lost some key guys.” Huberdeau said. “It’s never fun to lose some guys. I think we’ll stick with it. We’re a team with a lot of character.”

Conor Sheary, Anthony Cirelli and Michael Eyssimont scored for Tampa Bay. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 18 shots as the Lightningdropped 1-4-1 in their last six home games.

“The product they put on the ice tonight for fans was inexcusable,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said.

Tampa Bay is tied for the first wild-card position in the Eastern Conference with Detroit, but the Red Wings have two games at hand.

Lightning right wing Nikita Kucherov had an assist to give him 106 points. He trails NHL points leader Nathan Mackinnon by three.

UP NEXT

Flames: Play on Saturday night at Florida.

Lightning: Host Philadelphia on Saturday night.

(Associated Press)