Road Trip Ends in 4-1 Loss in Minnesota
The inevitable happened on Tuesday night. The Philadelphia Flyers have been mathematically eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs with 15 games remaining in their 2021-22 schedule. The Flyers concluded a five-game road trip with a 4-1 loss against the Minnesota Wild in St. Paul on Tuesday. The Flyers finished the trip with a 1-4-0 record.
From midway through the first period onward, the Wild dominated the game for roughly the next 30 minutes of game play. Trailing 4-0, the Flyers made a push in the third period but it was too little and too late. The Wild have won seven straight games.
Matt Dumba (6th goal of the season) opened the scoring at 14:29 of the first period. A Kirill Kaprisov power play goal (37th) at 16:23 doubled the lead. Jordan Greenway (8th) made it a 3-0 game at 1:35 of the second period and then Kevin Fiala (23rd) scored from a very flat angle on a delayed Flyers penalty at 18:49 of the second period. Morgan Frost (power play, 3rd) got the Flyers on the board at 4:21 of the third period.
With Carter Hart day-to-day with an undisclosed physical issue, Martin Jones made his second straight start in goal. The Flyers recalled Felix Sandström on an emergency basis to back up Jones. Jones stopped 33 of 37 shots in a losing cause.
Marc-Andre Fleury made his second start for Minnesota after being acquired from Chicago at the trade deadline. Fleury earned the win with 32 saves on 33 shots. Sixteen of the saves came in the third period.
The Flyers went 1-for-4 on the power play. The Wild went 1-for-3.
Noah Cates made his NHL debut in this game. He logged 14:52 of ice time including 1:13 of penalty killing duties. He was credited with three takeaways, three hits and three shots on goal. In the third period, it took a spectacular save by Fleury to deny Cates his first NHL goal.
For more, see the Postgame 5 on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com
The Flyers will have an off-day on Wednesday after returning from Minnesota. They will practice Thursday and Friday before hosting the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday evening.