This season has been a thing of firsts for Philadelphia Flyers rookie goaltender Carter Hart: he made his first start and won his first game on the same night, and nearly had his first career NHL fight in the Flyers 7-4 win over the Minnesota Wild on Monday night.
In what turned out to be a goal-scoring spree of a game, Hart and his counterpart Devan Dubnyk combined to give up 11 goals. Whenever a goal total reaches in and around the double-digit marker in a game, you can all but guarantee the netminders aren't going to be thrilled with their performances. So when Flyers forward Scott Laughton interfered with Dubnyk in his crease, you can understand why the Wild goaltender took a roughing penalty as frustrations boiled over.
Now, when one goaltender attacks a player, that automatically sets off the opposing 'tender approximately 178 feet at the other end of the nice.
Such was the case for Hart, who's instincts to the orange and black immediately kicked in when he saw Dubnyk throw a jab at Laughton, but wisely thought twice about rushing down the ice.
Smart play, Carter.
Hart stands 6'2" and weighs 181-pounds and would've been severely outmatched by the 6'6", 224-pound doobie. Factor in Dubnyk's ten years of experience and aggression at the time, and you can see how things wouldn't have ended nicely for Hart.
While a win on the fight card wouldn't have been likely, the 20-year-old Hart turned aside 34 of 38 shots and improved to 4-5-1 on the season in his tenth career start, but saw his numbers drop to a 2.69 GAA and.913 save percentage.
