Flyers come back to beat Wild in OT, 2-1

PHILADELPHIA – Sometimes in hockey the bounces can go either way.
On Saturday night, the Flyers were fortunate enough to be on the receiving end of more good fortune than they weren’t.
Down 1-0 early in the third period, Owen Tippett’s blind pass from behind the Minnesota net must have had a four-leaf clover attached to the puck. It clicked off Wild netminder Jesper Wallstedt’s skate and into the net at 7:10 to tie the score.
Then the Flyers won the game at Xfinity Mobile Arena with a goal from Noah Cates at 2:37 of overtime. On the play, the Wild were slow getting back on defensive coverage, made an ill-timed line chance and it was another fortunate development for the Flyers, who raised their record to 2-2-1.
All these heroics were made possible by the solid goaltending of Dan Vladar, who once again played superbly and dropped his goals-against average under two goals per game.
So, the three stars of the game on the scoresheet were, in order, Cates, Tippett and Vladar.
The Cates line, including Tyson Foerster who is now plus-5 for the season, continues to amaze with its powerful two-way play.
“Yeah, we’re sticking with it,” Cates said. “Playing hard for each other. It’s kind of the team motto, if we stick with it, play our game, play north. . .we just have to be consistent.”
Cates had praise for Vladar, who continues to keep his team in every game he’s played.
“He’s awesome, just the energy he brings every day in the locker room,” Cates said. “I’ve never seen a goalie do that. He comes in the room, we trust him. He never gets too high or too low. He picks us up and you don’t see that from a goalie too often.”
Vladar seems like he has a matter-of-fact approach to the game, even on nights when he has to practically stand on his head to keep his team in the game.
Tippett’s speed impresses even his teammates.
“He’s the fastest skater, he’s awesome,” Trevor Zegras said. “I never played with a guy who has that much speed. He does some wild stuff. . .the spin-arama in the third period. I said, ‘oh my god.’ Someone who’s that big who can shoot that fast, it’s fun to watch.”
“We knew we were in the game all along,” Tippett said. “It was a low-shot game. I think we did a good job staying up on the bench. It (the tying goal) was a little bit of a breakdown. Anytime you can attack off of those, it helps.”
Tocchet had Tippett moving up to the top line to replace Matvei Michkov late in the game.
“A dynamic drive guy,” Tocchet said of Tippett. “When I move him, he helps whoever he’s playing with.”
The coach continues to be impressed by Vladar’s work.
“He’s very good, solid,” Tocchet said. “He’s just a real confident, solid goalie. Comes by the bench, cheering the guys on. He’s really done a nice job for us.”
The Wild, who had surrendered 20 goals in their first five games, shut down the Flyers for the first two periods of this game in pretty convincing fashion.
Minnesota got a lucky break of its own when it scored the first goal of the game at 1:55 of the second period on a controversial play.
Minnesota’s Vladimir Tarasenko appeared to be offside on the play and after he put a 20-foot shot past Vladar, the Flyers challenged.
The play went to review and ultimately officials ruled there was not an offside infraction and allowed the goal to stand.
The Flyers didn’t record a shot for the first 12 minutes of the middle frame but did deliver five over the last eight minutes.
Vladar, who entered the game with a 2.02 goals-against average and .933 save percentage, didn’t get much work in the opening frame, facing only three shots.
Meanwhile, Wallstedt was playing in only his seventh NHL game. The 22-year-old was a former Minnesota draft pick.

>Lineup changes

For this game, fourth-liner forwards Rodrigo Abols and Deslauriers returned to the lineup and Jett Luchanko and Nikita Grebenkin were scratched. Also, on defense, Egor Zamula went back to action and Adam Ginning sat this one out. Zamula played on a third pairing with Noah Juulsen.

>Short shots

The Seattle Kraken are next up on the Flyers’ schedule. They visit XMA on Monday. . .Travis Sanheim entered the game with the second-highest average minutes per game (26:35) in the NHL. Only Columbus defenseman Zach Werenski (27:04) was higher. . .The Flyers’ penalty kill has been holding its own so far. Going into the Minnesota game, the Flyers stood 16th in the NHL at 80.0 percent.