PHILADELPHIA – The Stanley Cup playoff hiatus is officially over.
After five long years, the Flyers are going back to postseason play courtesy of Monday night’s 3-2 shootout win over the Carolina Hurricanes at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Tyson Foerster scored the only goal of the shootout (on the Flyers’ fourth attempt) to break a 2-2 tie and it wound up being the difference at the Flyers clinched the third and final automatic playoff spot in the Metropolitan Division.
The Flyers will open the first round at Pittsburgh against the Penguins in a best-of-seven series with a most likely starting date of Saturday, although nothing official has been announced yet.
Philadelphia was nine points out of a playoff spot on March 10. But they made up the difference and became the first team in NHL history to overcome that deficit after having played at least 60 games.
Coach Rick Tocchet had praise for everyone from Foerster to goaltender Dan Vlader to practically everyone who played a role in this crucial victory.
The Flyers still had Tuesday night’s home game against Montreal as insurance but it was clear no one wanted to fall back on that one.
Philadelphia fell behind by a 2-0 score in the first period and during the intermission, Tocchet didn’t have to say much.
“I was really proud of the guys, right from training camp,” he said after the game. “It was a tough game, Carolina is a tough team. They had six, seven guys out, they didn’t give in. We had to earn it, we did.”
The Flyers have won 20 games this season after an opponent has scored first. That’s what you call a comeback team.
“We’ve come from behind a lot this year,” Tocchet said. “So there’s a lot of fight in this team. A lot of good things happened for us.”
Foerster completed an amazing comeback. After arm surgery in December and missing 49 games, he comes back to score a shootout goal in the most noteworthy game of the year.
“I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t think he was going to come back,” Tocchet said. “But he was determined. A lot of lonely days for him. He’s scored that sniper type of goal. Didn’t seem like a lot of room there, the goalie looked big. It was a great shot.”
Foerster took the big locker room celebration in stride. He takes a business-like approach to the game, even when the stakes are high.
“These guys battled all year for me to come back,” Foerster said. “I love ‘em all. So let’s go.”
The right wing went into the deciding shot with a definite plan.
“I had that kind of shot in mind,” he said. “I’ve been hurt a while so I’ve been doing it on ‘Vlady’ (in practice). That kind of helped me out.”
What was going through his mind when Vladar made the final save in the fourth round?
Foerster grinned.
“We’re going to the playoffs.”
After getting dominated by the substitution-loaded Hurricanes in the first period to the tune of a 2-0 score, the Flyers were equally overwhelming in the second.
They evened the score on goals by Matvei Michkov and Trevor Zegras.
Michov used a cross-crease pass from Denver Barkey to send a shot from the lower left circle past goaltender Brandon Bussi at 7:57.
Then, after an interference call on Carolina’s Sean Walker he ripped the helmet off Trevor Zegras), Zegras returned the favor by finishing off an entry from Porter Martone.
It was Martone’s eighth point in just his eighth NHL game.
It wasn’t the start the Flyers were looking for as Carolina scored twice in the first period and needed only a total of three shots from the outset to get that edge.
The Hurricanes hit the board at 8:41 to start things off. Bradly Nadeau had Dan Vladar at his mercy with a shot from the hash marks.
Then, after Christian Dvorak went off on a questionable penalty call, Carolina struck on the power play. An entry pass nicked off Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim’s skate and straight to Nikolaj Ehlers at the right post. Vladar had no time to get over.
>Tippett emotional
Owen Tippett is usually reserved in his post-game comments but he was rather emotional when he talked about what took place on Monday night.
This is the first time he’s been to the playoffs since he arrived in the trade which sent Claude Giroux to Florida.
“It’s a big win,” Tippett said in s somewhat choked up voice. “It’s going to be a lot of fun. These guys in this room love each other.”
The Flyers have gone 17-6-1 since the Olympic break and that fueled the run to the playoffs.
“We knew we had to have a big push here,” Tippett said. “I liked our start but that California trip (where the Flyers went 3-0) really turned us around. Anytime you go on a trip like that, there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff. You come together as a group. To sweep that trip really put a lot of belief back in the room. That was kind of the turning point for us.”
>Short shots
The Hurricanes, who have first place in the Eastern Conference wrapped up, chose to rest some of their top regulars, including ex-Flyer defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere, Jaccob Slavin, Jordan Staal, Seth Jarvis, Andrei Svechnikov, Sebastian Aho. . .Since Dec. 20, the Flyers’ seven shorthanded goals are second in the NHL only to Carolina’s eight. . .Foerster picked up an assist on the Zegras goal for his 100th NHL point.
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