Cates & Vladar Overtime Heroics Lift Flyers Past Wild, 2-1

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Thanks to Noah Cates’ and Daniel Vladar’s overtime heroics, the Philadelphia Flyers were able to rally past the Minnesota Wild, 2-1 on Saturday night.

Cates’ game winning goal at 2:37 of overtime and goalie Daniel Vladar’s critical saves in net were catalysts in helping the Flyers take their second win of the season.

Following a big glove save by Vladar on Wild winger Matt Boldy’s wrist shot, defenseman Jamie Drysdale managed to escape the zone and found forward Tyson Foerster up ice. The winger got the puck to Cates who cut to the middle and ripped a shot past Wallstedt.

The win gives the Flyers a 2-2-1 record through their first five games, while the Wild fall to 2-3-1.

Vladar Stay Hot

Vladar finished the game with 15 saves. While the game stats give the appearance of a light work load, the Czech goalie made several difficult stops prior to the Boldy shot.

He made a big second period save on a Ryan Hartman one timer from the circle. Later in the third period, he denied Marco Rossi. When the moment called for a critical save, Vladar answered it. Two wins in three starts, a 1.65 goals against average and .934 save percentage only adds to his starting goaltending case.

Tippett Continues Strong Early Season Run

In addition, winger Owen Tippett was a threat throughout the final period. He scored the game tying goal at 7:10 of the third period. Tippett’s speed created several scoring opportunities for the Flyers in the final 20 minutes.

After the game, forward Trevor Zegras, who made an excellent pass on Tippett’s goal, made note of his extraordinary speed.

“Fastest skater ever,” Zegras said, laughing. “Awesome. I’ve never played with a guy that has that much speed. He does some wild things (on the ice).”

Flyers Game Summary

First Period

The first period turned out to be a fairly low event period as both teams got through the opening 20 minutes scoreless. However, that didn’t prevent some excitement in the form of a spirited fight between Nicolas Deslauriers and Marcus Foligno. Deslauriers, with his right cheek cut, waved his arms toward the crowd as he skated toward the penalty box.

Travis Konecny had an early chance in tight against Wallstedt, but was denied. Cued by the work of the Noah Cates line with defensemen Travis Sanheim and Cam York, the Flyers pinned the Wild deep for about a minute or so. Throughout the period, the Wild’s top line with Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy were held in check by the Cates unit.

In doing so, Philadelphia established a strong period of puck possession hockey. However, even though they generated a 23-14 shot attempt advantage, the Flyers were unable to beat Wallstadt.

At the same time, they seemed more than happy with a heavy forecheck approach which featured a lot of dump-in’s to keep the Wild in their own end.

Second Period

As much as the Flyers seemed to dominate puck possession early, the inverse seemed to happen in the second period.

It started after Minnesota struck first only 1:55 into the period when Vladimir Tarasenko rifled a one timer past Vladar. On the goal, Travis Konecny tried to clear the puck, but Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin was able to find it. Brodin got the puck to center Marco Rossi who found Tarasenko in the right circle to give the Wild a 1-0 lead.

The Flyers attempted to challenge for offsides, but on replay, winger Marcus Johansson was able to just keep the puck on-sides. As a result, the Flyers had to twice deal with Minnsota’s top ranked power-play. While they were able to kill off the initial penalty, Tippett was called for tripping Brodin on a somewhat debatable call.

Consequently, the Flyers seemed to be caught on the back-foot, as they were unable to generate a shot through the opening 11 minutes of the period. Minnesota established a strong possession game, with a near scoring chance down low that was snuffed out by a Travis Sanheim diving block at the right post.

It was a struggle for the Flyers to get clean zone exits for most of the period. Even in the moments where they did, they made questionable decisions with the puck. One such moment came from a rare offensive zone opportunity where Travis Konecny inexplicably skated the puck of the zone.

However, Konecny sparked the Flyers with two big hits in both the offensive and defensive zones on the same shift that seemed to give his team a lift. And as the period closed, Tippett drew a tripping penalty on Ryan Hartman, giving the Flyers a power-play for 1:53 for the next period.

Third Period and Overtime

At the start of the third period, the Flyers power-play continued it’s early season struggles. While it showed some life with it’s movement, the Wild’s penalty killing units were able to limit any attempts to get to the middle.

Once again, star forward Matvei Michkov saw his minutes disappear in the third period, while another teammates increased. The Russian star forward would not see another shift after the eight minute mark of the third period. He would not play in the overtime period.

Around six minutes into the period, the Flyers started to stir offensively as Sean Couturier got a partial break-in on Wallstedt, but he hammered his shot off the Wild goalie’s right pad.

The Flyers continued to grind away at the Wild’s defense. And they would finally tie the game at 1-1 when Tippett cut to the net, missing his initial shot. After finding the puck off the backboards, he backhanded it and caromed off Wallstedt’s left skate for his third goal of the season at 7:10.

However, the Wild would get an important power-play of their own, when Drysdale got called for hooking down Boldy near the crease. With the exception of a Kaprizov drive from the middle of the circle, they were able to keep the Wild to the perimeter for the most part. The remainder of the third period was a tight checking affair, which led to overtime.

Next Up:

The Flyers take on the Seattle Kraken on Monday night for the final game of their opening four game home-stand. After that, they head north to take on the Ottawa Senators in Kanata, Ontario on Wednesday, before returning home Saturday versus the New York Islanders.