The Philadelphia Flyers (18-20-5) host the Florida Panthers (25-15-3) tonight at the Wells Fargo Center in the season’s third and final meeting between the two hockey clubs. Philadelphia has lost both games to the defending Stanley Cup Champions this season, including a home contest in December.
The Flyers enter the game against Florida following a 6-0 beatdown of the Anaheim Ducks over the weekend. Travis Konecny led the way with four assists in the win in front of a fired-up Philadelphia fan base. Florida arrives in Philly following a 4-3 overtime loss to the Boston Bruins. Florida forced OT with a goal by Sam Reinhart with 1.2 seconds remaining. Boston hit the goalpost while shooting on an unguarded net moments before Florida’s forward sent the game to overtime, where Boston returned the favor by scoring the game-winner with the clock almost expiring in the extra session.
Final Regular Season Meeting Between Flyers & Panthers This Season
In November, Philadelphia lost in a shootout, 4-3, during their only trip to Sunrise this season. Joel Farabee opened the scoring for the Flyers in the first period. Florida responded by scoring three goals in the middle frame to hold a 3-2 advantage at the second intermission. Garnet Hathaway tied the game halfway through the third period, allowing the Flyers to secure a standings point on the road. Florida’s Evan Rodrigues scored in the skills competition to win the game.
Nearly a month later, Philadelphia’s comeback attempt was thwarted in a 7-5 loss on December 5. Florida scored three unanswered goals to claim the regulation win, including Reinhart’s game-winner with two minutes left in regulation. Ivan Fedotov started the game for the Flyers but was removed after allowing two goals on seven shots in the first period. Aleksei Kolosov stopped 16 of 20 shots over the final two periods in the defeat. Owen Tippett scored twice, and Matvei Michkov collected three assists in an exciting but disappointing home date at Wells Fargo Center.
Ersson Receives His Third Straight Start
At the beginning of his media conference, Flyers Head Coach John Tortorella clarified the starting goalie for tonight’s game against Florida – Sam Ersson. The 6-foot-3 netminder has started the two games with 41 saves on 44 shots faced, so it comes as little surprise the NHL goalie with the most experience gets the crease against the defending Cup champs.
Ersson and the Flyers’ defense have a difficult task tonight: slowing down a top-10 NHL offense. Florida is 9th in the NHL with a 3.26 goals-for-per-game average (GF/G) over 43 regular-season games. Philly has slowly climbed the chart all season and finally sits in the top half of the league, in 14th place, with a 3.00 GF/G average in the same number of games.
On the flip side of that question, Philadelphia sits nearly the bottom of the league in goals allowed per game at 3.47 goals-against-per-game (GA/G). That number ranks 30th out of 32 NHL teams halfway through the 2045-25 season. Florida ranks 17th – allowing 3.07 GA/G this season.
No Letdown After Emotional Anaheim Game?
The Flyers return to Wells Fargo Center following a supercharged atmosphere in the win against Cutter Gauthier and the Ducks. The emotion in the building is not expected as rambunctious this evening against Florida, but Tortorella does not expect energy to be an issue tonight for the Flyers. “I hope not,” Tortorella told the media this morning. “If we’re going to have to talk about that, as far as being ready to play each and every night, we have a lot more work to do than we thought. I think Florida tries to impose their will… we need to stand up and try to dictate our game to them.”
Florida enters as one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference with a 25-15-3 record, including a 5-4-1 run over their last ten games. Philly is 4-5-1 over their last handful of games and sitting under .500 on the 2024-25 season. The Flyers and the Panthers drop the puck at 7 PM EST at Wells Fargo Center in South Philadelphia.
Mandatory Credit: Russell LaBounty-Imagn Images
