Couturier, Flyers defeat Panthers for Tocchet’s 1st win as coach

PHILADELPHIA -- Sean Couturier had two goals and two assists to help the Philadelphia Flyers to their first win of the season, 5-2 against the Florida Panthers at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Monday.

It was Rick Tocchet’s first victory as Flyers coach. He was hired May 14 to replace John Tortorella, who was fired March 27.

"It's great, that first win," Tocchet said. "But I'm just happy the guys, the way they've been working, and working on the concepts. There's some growing pains, but glad the way they hung in there. We get to enjoy tonight, then tomorrow back at it again."

Tyson Foerster, Bobby Brink and Christian Dvorak also scored for Philadelphia (1-1-1) in its home opener. Travis Sanheim had two assists, and Dan Vladar made 24 saves for his first win with the Flyers.

Sam Reinhart had a goal and an assist for Florida (3-1-0) in its first loss of the season. Daniil Tarasov made 17 saves in his Florida debut.

"They came out fast, they had a lot of jump to start the game and put some good pressure on us," Panthers center Sam Bennett said. "I thought we actually played well in the third, we had a good pushback, and had a lot of chances. They capitalized, and we couldn't get it back."

Couturier's second goal gave the Flyers a 3-2 lead at 15:50 of the third period. Couturier was knocked down in the right face-off circle by Bennett, but got back into open space. Trevor Zegras spotted him and made a spectacular backhand pass from behind the Panthers goal on the left to Couturier for a one-timer from the right face-off circle.

"I was just trying to recover from the hit and get up and be ready for the next play," Couturier said. "The puck just came right on my blade."

Zegras got the pass off before he was hit by Bennett and Aaron Ekblad.

"I feel like I settled it for a second and tried to read the play, and two guys came pretty hard," Zegras said. "Just tried to get it off my stick as quick as possible. ... You kind of look up for like a split second, see where your guys are. Obviously if two people are coming at you ... somebody's probably open. Little bit of [an] area [pass], a little bit of feel for where the guys are, for sure."

Tocchet was as impressed by Zegras holding on to the puck to make the play as he was by the skill it took to make it.

"That's what I like,” Tocchet said. “You know you're going to get hit and you're willing to take it to make a play. It's a high-level play."

Brink made it 4-2 with an empty-net goal at 17:43 before Dvorak also scored into an empty net at 18:33 for his first goal with the Flyers and the 5-2 final.

Foerster put Philadelphia ahead 1-0 at 8:54 of the first period. Couturier knocked down a clearing attempt by Panthers defenseman Uvis Balinskis, and his pass attempt up the wall hit Bennett and went to Foerster. He skated through the left face-off circle and beat Tarasov to the short side.

Couturier scored on a breakaway to make it 2-0 at 15:47 of the second period.

Reinhart scored a short-handed goal to make it 2-1 at 19:22. After Vladar stopped his initial shot, Reinhart pushed his own rebound behind the net, where he took the puck away from Brink and scored on a wraparound at the right post.

"We had no momentum at that time, and that gave us a bunch of life going into the end of the period there," Bennett said. "That was a big-time goal, and it really motivated us for the third there."

Bennett tied it 2-2 on a power-play goal at 10:15 of the third.

The Flyers are hoping to use a win against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions as a building block.

"They're a hard team to play against, so to hang in there against that team … " Tocchet said. "Can we build confidence? Can we build an identity, a little bit of swagger? Hopefully this can help us catapult to the next level. We'll see."

NOTES: The Flyers honored Hockey Hall of Fame goalie Bernie Parent before the game. Parent, a key part of Philadelphia’s back-to-back Stanley Cup championship teams in 1974 and 1975, died at age 80 on Sept. 21. The players wore a No. 1 patch on their jerseys and introduced a white Parent tribute mask to be given to the player of the game after victories. There also was a No. 1 painted behind each goal crease. ... It was Couturier's third four-point game in the NHL. ... Vladar was making his second start with Philadelphia since signing a two-year, $6.7 million contract ($3.35 million average annual value) on July 1. ... Dvorak was playing his third game with the Flyers. He signed a one-year, $5.4 million contract July 1. ... The Panthers went 5-for-5 on the penalty kill and are 12-for-12 through four games. ... It was the first road game of the season for Florida, which began a five-game trip. ... Tarasov signed a one-year contract with the Panthers on July 1.