Coming off the heels of another disappointing loss, the Philadelphia Flyers look to finish out their season-long five-game road trip as they look to square the season series with the Minnesota Wild. The two teams faced off earlier in the month in Philadelphia in a game the Flyers held four separate one-goal leads, but squandered it midway through the third with the Wild scoring the game-tying and go-ahead goals 25 seconds apart.
The Flyers are 1-3-0 on the road trip as they lost to Detroit, Colorado, and Nashville last week, while besting the St. Louis Blues. The Wild, on the other hand, come into the game on a six-game winning streak and swept their weekend back to back against Columbus and Colorado.
The Minnesota Wild as a whole come into this game second in the Central Division, third in the Western Conference, and 10th in the NHL. Offensively they are 4th in goals (3.63), 11th in shots on goal (32.8), 2nd in shooting percentage (11.1%), and have the 19th-best power play unit (20.3%). Defensively they are 19th in goals allowed (3.09), 17th in shots on goal allowed (31.8), and have the 23rd-best penalty killing unit (76.2%). Their bread and butter comes from their offense as the goaltending had struggled mightily up until the trade deadline. After acquiring Marc-Andre Fleury from the Chicago Blackhawks and then subsequently trading Kaapo Kahkonen to the San Jose Sharks for Jacob Middleton, Cam Talbot broke out of his funk and Fleury played brilliantly in his lone appearance.
The Flyers are 29th in goals (2.59), 18th in shots on goal (30.5), tied for 29th in shooting percentage (8.2%), and have the worst power play unit in the NHL (13.2%). Defensively they sit 25th in goals allowed (3.47), 29th in shots on goal allowed (34), and have the 25th-ranked penalty killing unit.
Kirill Kaprizov leads the Wild in goals and points with 36 and 81 respectively, Mats Zuccarello is second with 67 points in 8 less games, Kevin Fiala has 22 goals and 59 points, and Ryan Hartman has 27 goals and 50 points. Cam Atkinson leads the Flyers with 23 goals and 50 points, Travis Konecny leads the team with 31 assists, Joel Farabee has 32 points in 48 games, and Kevin Hayes has 21 points in 32 games.
Noah Cates is slated to make his NHL debut tonight on a line with Morgan Frost and Owen Tippett. Cates signed his two-year, entry-level deal with the Flyers on Sunday and immediately joined the big club in Minnesota, being where he played his collegiate hockey. Cates represents the 6th player to make their NHL debut this season with the Flyers, joining Max Willman, Linus Sandin, Felix Sandstrom, Isaac Ratcliffe, and Hayden Hodgson. The Flyers also signed Ronnie Attard to an entry-level deal earlier today but he is expected to make his debut sometime over the weekend.
PHI Record: 21-34-11, 53 pts, 7th in Metropolitan
MIN Record: 40-20-4, 84 pts, 2nd in Central
When: 8:00PM ET
Where: Xcel Energy Center, Saint Paul, MN
PHI Goalie: Martin Jones (8-13-3, .901 SV%, 3.38 GAA, 0 SO)
MIN Goalie: Marc-Andre Fleury (20-21-5, .908 SV%, 2.93 GAA, 4 SO)
PHI Projected Lineup
#25 James van Riemsdyk – #86 Joel Farabee – #89 Cam Atkinson
#23 Oskar Lindblom – #13 Kevin Hayes – #11 Travis Konecny
#49 Noah Cates – #48 Morgan Frost – #74 Owen Tippett
#42 Hayden Hodgson – #38 Patrick Brown – #17 Zack MacEwen
#9 Ivan Provorov – #45 Cam York
#6 Travis Sanheim – #70 Rasmus Ristolainen
#3 Keith Yandle – #24 Nick Seeler
#35 Martin Jones
#32 Felix Sandstrom
MIN Projected Lineup
#97 Kirill Kaprizov – #38 Ryan Hartman – #36 Mats Zuccarello
#22 Kevin Fiala – #89 Frederick Gaudreau – #12 Matthew Boldy
#18 Jordan Greenway – #14 Joel Eriksson Ek – #17 Marcus Foligno
#21 Brandon Duhaime – #10 Tyson Jost – #44 Nicolas Deslauriers
#5 Jacob Middleton – #46 Jared Spurgeon
#25 Jonas Brodin – #24 Matt Dumba
#4 Jon Merrill – #7 Dmitry Kulikov
#29 Marc-Andre Fleury
#33 Cam Talbot
Last Game PHI: 3/27/22, 5-4 L at Nashville
Last Game MIN: 3/27/22, 3-2 OTW vs Colorado
News and Notes
– This is the second and final meeting of the season between the two teams. The Wild bested the Flyers earlier in the month 5-4 at the Wells Fargo Center on the 3rd of March.
– This will be the 28th all-time meeting between the Flyers and the Wild, with Philadelphia owning a 16-9-1-1 advantage in the series.
– Kevin Hayes has points in 4 straight games and 12 points in 11 games since returning from injury, Travis Konecny has points in 4 straight games and 6 of his of his last 7, Joel Farabee has a 5-game point streak and has points in 7 of his last 8 games, and James van Riemsdyk has goals in 3 of his last 4 games while also carrying a 4-game point streak.
– This will be Martin Jones’ 23rd start against the Minnesota Wild and he carries a 10-9-2 record with a .895 SV% and a 2.92 GAA. Conversely, this will be Marc-Andre Fleury’s 58th career start against the Flyers as he carries a 30-19-2 record with a .900 SV% and 2.91 GAA.
– The Flyers signed Noah Cates to an entry-level deal on Monday after his season with University of Minnesota-Duluth had come to an end. He looks to make his NHL debut tonight as his wondrous year of 2022 continues after also representing and donning an “A” for the United States at the Winter Olympics in Beijing, China. In his stead, Max Willman comes out of the lineup.
– Carter Hart is out of the lineup with a “nagging injury”, per interim head coach Mike Yeo. Hart skated yesterday but was not on the ice at morning skate today.
Broadcast Info: NBC Sports Philadelphia+, ESPN+, 93.3 WMMR
Injuries:
PHI – Ryan Ellis (lower-body), Nate Thompson (shoulder), Sean Couturier (back), Scott Laughton (concussion)
MIN – none
