Facing elimination for the first time, the Philadelphia Flyers had their home ice and new blood in the lineup. Carolina was attempting to be the first team since the 1985 Edmonton Oilers to open the playoffs with eight straight wins. Missing Noah Cates, Owen Tippett, and now Matvei Michkov, the Flyers did what they do best: lean on Dan Vladar. William Carrier also leaned on Vladar, taking a goal off the board for Carolina, and for the second time in the series, they needed overtime to settle the score before the Hurricanes eventually advanced to the conference final.
The basics
First period: 7:50- Tyson Foerster (Trevor Zegras, Porter Martone)
Second period: 12:35- Jackson Blake (K’Andre Miller, Taylor Hall)
Third period: 4:13- Logan Stankoven (Taylor Hall, Jackson Blake), 5:52- Alex Bump (Travis Konecny)
Overtime: 5:31- Jackson Blake (Taylor Hall, Jaccob Slavin)
SOG: 17 (PHI) – 40 (CAR)
Takeaways
Let the kids play — most of them
Matvei Michkov didn’t take the ice for warmups in his first elimination game as a Philadelphia Flyer. It’s a monkey’s paw scenario: appease the fans with Oliver Bonk and Jett Luchanko to make their playoff debuts, but Michkov has played his last minute of the season. In a perfect and just world, perhaps all three could play at the same time one day. The writing was on the wall– he’d just played a team low 9:29 in the Game 3 loss with a late game benching– and he’s got a 33.6 percent Expected Goals Share in all situations through the two rounds. His long term outlook is probably unchanged, but this year, he’s gotten started on his off season training a day early.
Flyers strike first again
Philadelphia has the first goal in three of their last five games including Game 4. The problem is, they’ve also now lost six of the last seven dating back to the first round against Pittsburgh. The Flyers have shown plenty of fight against Carolina, who everyone can agree is a vastly superior team, and aside from the first game of the series, Philadelphia has more than held their own for long stretches. Keeping that going against the Hurricanes for 60 minutes has been impossible, however, and a big reason the series went 3-0 the other way to begin with. They put up more of a fight than Ottawa (hang the banner) but it’s just not enough.
The boys on Broad came out swinging. #IgniteTheOrange pic.twitter.com/J042oaxVDY
— x – Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) May 9, 2026
Tyson Foerster finally made an appearance on the scoresheet in the playoffs. Of all the skaters who had made an appearance before Game 4, Foerster was the only one without a point in the playoffs. He’s had his chances, and he finally put one past a super-human Freddie Andersen at a time where seemingly no-one else can. He’s the 16th Flyer to score a goal in the playoffs this year– second to Florida’s 17 last year for the most unique scorers since 1996. It’s too little too late, but it’s good to see that Foerster won’t be the only scoreless member of the team.
Power play remains fully unwatchable
The power play, if you can call it that, is a hideous, historical stain on the team at this point. Five forwards, 5-on-3, extended zone time– it doesn’t matter. There’s a generational curse at play. The power play scored one goal in one of the most heavily penalized series of the NHL playoffs thus far. A 40-second two-man advantage resulted in zero shots on goal in the second period, even culminating in a Rasmus Ristolainen interference penalty in the offensive zone to add insult to an even bigger insult. The Hurricanes immediately tied the game after the penalties expired in the most “saw that coming” fashion imaginable, and the Flyers were lucky to have a second Carolina goal taken off the board seconds later for goaltender interference. That would be their final “opportunity” with the man advantage, and the season was over.
Porter Martone is that guy
Porter Martone stumbled through the Pittsburgh series after scoring in the first two games of the series. That isn’t the case against Carolina, a much stronger opponent. Martone immediately had two or three scoring chances on his first shift of the game and was consistently dangerous throughout the game. He picked up a secondary assist on the Tyson Foerster goal in the first period for his efforts. The teenager had half of the Flyer shots on goal on six attempts through 45 minutes in an elimination game– embarrassing for the rest of the team, but it speaks to how wildly exciting Martone is going to be. With 17:37 of ice time, Martone gathered five shots on goal with a 55.1 percent Expected Goals Share– one of seven Flyers to break even in the statistic, per MoneyPuck.
The Carolina Hurricane special
This was about as Carolina of a game as you’re going to get. The Hurricanes, with ten minutes still to play in regulation, had a 30 to 10 shots on goal advantage on the Flyers. Porter Martone had four of the first nine for the Flyers. The other 17 Flyer skaters combined for the remaining five in the first two periods, and yet, miraculously, they survived a full 60 minutes. The Flyers had some excellent chances that didn’t count as shots on goal– Trevor Zegras hit the post on the power play and Christian Dvorak rang iron from a brilliant Travis Konecny feed– but the Hurricane system was in top form in this one. The series was a story of missed opportunities, even if they weren’t ultimately going to win.
Jackson Blake and Taylor Hall were fully unstoppable in the series-clincher, with two goals off the stick of Blake and three assists from Hall. After Stankoven killed them early in the series, the Blake line did just about whatever they wanted.
The epic highs and lows of Travis Konecny
Travis Konecny was the unfortunate story of the Game 2 overtime loss in Carolina, as his breakaway opportunity was denied shortly before Taylor Hall won the game for the Hurricanes. He was effective in other ways, but as the highest paid player, he needed to be on the scoresheet more often for a team that struggles to score– especially given the quality of the chances he’s been getting in the series. Konecny missed wide on a feed from Dvorak early in the game– the pass was in his skates and didn’t give him much of a chance– but he found some redemption on a heavy forecheck, finding Alex Bump for the tying goal in the third period.
Bump up the jam. #CARvsPHI | #IgniteTheOrange pic.twitter.com/GH8NfXbUof
— x – Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) May 10, 2026
Konecny should have more goals than he does, but he’s generating plenty of chances. He could have had two or three assists along with a goal in this one. It just isn’t their time to win yet.
Dan Vladar deserves better
It’s a real shame the series ended the way it did– a shot Vladar gets a good chunk of that still finds the back of the net– but if anyone is free of blame, it’s the Flyer goaltender. Vladar made 37 saves tonight, and the 40th shot he faced was the dagger in the Flyers’ surprise playoff run. Philadelphia was under siege constantly, and Vladar was on the receiving end of 3.37 Expected Goals Against, 58 unblocked shot attempts, and was the only reason the Flyers survived to have a chance in several of the games through their playoff run. Philadelphia has one less hole on their roster to fill with Vladar, who gave them an outstanding 61 starts after not making more than 29 in a season until 2026.
CAROLINA TAKES IT IN THE EXTRA FRAME 🙌
— NHL (@NHL) May 10, 2026
Jackson Blake scores in @Energizer overtime to send the @Canes to the Eastern Conference Final! #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/Ikp6ZTirG5
