Jake Voracek's goal late in the third period lifted the Philadelphia Flyers past the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 Thursday night at the Wells Fargo Center.

Claude Giroux, Ivan Provorov and Michael Raffl also scored one goal each for the Flyers, who crept closer to a playoff spot. The Flyers could have clinched a playoff spot Thursday had Boston beaten Florida, but the Panthers beat the Bruins, 3-2.

Shayne Gostisbehere recorded a pair of assists for the Flyers.

Flyers goaltender Brian Elliott, who had been out just shy of two months after undergoing core muscle surgery, had 19 saves in his shaky return.

The Flyers were 13-7-5 without Elliott and had three other goaltenders see action - Alex Lyon, Petr Mrazek and Michal Neuvirth.

Jordan Staal, Sebastian Aho and Klas Dahlbeck each scored one goal each for the Hurricanes.

Carolina goaltender Scott Darling stopped 30 shots.

Giroux put the Flyers ahead 3-2 with his 31st goal of the season at 10:18 of the third period. The captain fired a nasty wrist shot into the corner of the net for the go-ahead goal, setting a career-high.

Giroux also has a 13-game home point streak.

The lead was short-lived as the Hurricanes tied the game at 3 when Staal scored at 13:41, finishing a pass from Justin Williams.

In this wild third period, the Flyers took the lead again, 4-3, with a goal by Voracek, his 20th of the season at 14:15.

The Hurricanes pulled Darling for the final minute but couldn't capitalize.

Despite being sluggish for much of the second, the Flyers tied the game at 2 when Provorov notched his 16th goal of the season at 14:56. The rookie defenseman had two shots and pushed the puck into the back of the net on second effort.

Provorov's goal seemed to ignite the Flyers and the game wound up 2-2 at the end of the second.

Dahlbeck and Aho scored 1:07 apart late in the first, which was sandwiched around a goal by Philadelphia's Raffl, and the Hurricanes led 2-1.

Dahlbeck scored at 13:45, Raffl equalized at 14:38 and Aho put Carolina ahead 2-1 at 14:52.

The Flyers outshot the Hurricanes 15-7 but still trailed by a goal heading into the locker room.

--Field Level Media