The Philadelphia Flyers appear to have righted the ship, but a stiff challenge awaits Thursday when the Utah Mammoth come to town.
The Flyers have won three games in a row following a 3-9-4 stretch. They defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 in a shootout on Monday as Noah Cates recorded a goal and an assist, while Christian Dvorak also scored in regulation.
Matvei Michkov and Trevor Zegras came up clutch with shootout goals as the Flyers matched their longest winning streak of the season.
“We’re just playing our brand — smart hockey,” Dvorak said. “It’s hard to do it for 60 minutes. We still have to work on that, but that’s how you are going to win hockey games at this time of year. It’s going to be greasy goals and close games the rest of the way, so you just have to get gutsy and find ways to win.”
With Travis Konecny (upper body) out against Toronto, Cates continued to step up. He has two goals and three assists during a four-game point streak.
“I think it was just a playoff-style game, grinding it out,” Cates said. “We were just battling and finding ways to win and finding ways to help this team. … We’re just playing hard every game.”
Utah has won four of its last six games, allowing just seven goals in those four victories. Karel Vejmelka turned aside 23 shots in Tuesday’s 3-2 win over the Washington Capitals in the opener of a five-game road trip.
The Mammoth had dropped their previous game 4-0 against the Chicago Blackhawks in one of the team’s worst performances of the season.
“(Tonight was) a good bounce back,” said Clayton Keller, who had a pair of assists. “It wasn’t the way we wanted to play last game. We wanted to kind of flush it, and I thought we did a great job and everyone contributed tonight. It was a great effort. ‘Vej’ was great, made a huge save at the end there. So it’s good to see that response, for sure.”
Dylan Guenther had a goal and an assist for Utah, while JJ Peterka and Mikhail Sergachev also tallied for the Mammoth. For Guenther, it was a rare opportunity to play on a line with Nick Schmaltz and Keller — a look that the team might return to against Philadelphia.
“I haven’t really played with them a ton,” Guenther said. “Obviously (I play with them sometimes) on the power play. So it’s just exciting. Two really good players. Really good with the puck. Really good away from the puck, too. I think when we just play direct and try to outwork the other team, our skill can take over.”
Utah currently holds the top wild-card spot in the Western Conference with 21 games remaining.
“Since training camp, that’s the position we wanted to be in,” Mammoth coach Andre Tourigny said. “So we should be excited by that opportunity and situation. As much as we need to stay focused on the present, the present should excite us.”
