The Flyers dominated the Penguins in a 6-1 win Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center.
The Flyers kept their offense humming Tuesday night as they blew out the Penguins, 6-1, at the Wells Fargo Center.
Noah Cates' line did damage. Bobby Brink put up a four-point performance (one goal, three assists), while Cates (two goals, one assist) and Tyson Foerster (one goal, two assists) had three points apiece.
The trio produced two goals in 10 seconds to hand the Flyers a commanding 5-1 lead at second intermission. The back-to-back markers came in the final minute-plus of the middle stanza, eliciting a standing ovation from the fans when the buzzer sounded.
Rasmus Ristolainen and Owen Tippett also found the back of the net for the Flyers, who have won their first two games out of the 4 Nations Face-Off break by a combined score of 12-4.
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"We knew if we pieced a few together and just kind of keep rolling in February and into March, we'll put ourselves in a good spot," Cates said. "Every night's huge coming down the stretch here."
The Flyers (26-26-7) have won three games in a row for a fourth time this season. They haven't won more than three straight in a little over a calendar year. The last time they did was Feb. 6-12 of last season, when they won four in a row.
"We've got a good group in here," Brink said. "We're getting healthy and getting some key pieces to our lineup back. It's showing in some results. I'm not going to get ahead of ourselves, we're just going to take it one game at a time."
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John Tortorella's club entered Tuesday five points back of the Eastern Conference's second wild-card spot. However, six teams were ahead of the Flyers and just the Penguins and Sabres were below them.
"You win a few games, you're right in the hunt," Tortorella said at morning skate. "You lose a few games, you're in the cellar. That's where the standings are, but we're still in it.
"We are in a mindset of trying to chase down a playoff spot and I'm going to act accordingly."
The Flyers held Pittsburgh's future Hall of Famers Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin scoreless.
"I think the key is trying to play on top of them, trying to keep them out of our end zone," Tortorella said. ... "They're too good of players to give them room and for tonight's game, we did a pretty good job."
The Flyers are 2-1-0 against the Penguins (23-28-9). The clubs wrap up their regular-season series in two days.
• When Cates' line is having that kind of game, the Flyers are so much deeper. The team got a huge day from Sean Couturier's line in its 6-3 win over the Oilers last Saturday afternoon.
This time, it was Cates' line driving the offense.
"The other [day], it was Coots' line," Tortorella said. "Tonight, this line kind of surged for us at an important time in the second period."
Travis Konecny hasn't had to carry things and that's a real positive for the Flyers.
• Samuel Ersson was rock solid again, converting 23 saves on 24 shots.
The 25-year-old is 11-4-1 with a 2.23 goals-against average and .919 save percentage since the holiday break.
"I think he just knows that he has to take it and carry that position," Tortorella said. "I just think he's so strong mentally. He'll have some dips I'm sure as we play the rest of these games, but I'm just so confident in how he approaches the game."
Pittsburgh netminder Alex Nedeljkovic gave up the six goals on 38 shots.
• Not long after Ristolainen opened the scoring just 3:56 minutes into the game, the defenseman saved a goal for the Flyers with a heads-up defensive play right by the crease.
On Ristolainen's goal, Matvei Michkov picked up his 40th point of the season with an assist. He recorded his 41st point with a second helper on Tippett's third-period goal.
"After the break, there's more energy, more power in the body, so I feel a lot better," Michkov said through translator Slava Kuznetsov, a Flyers consultant. "When the team is winning, it helps not just me, but the team, as well."
• Jakob Pelletier, playing his second game with his new team, notched his first point as a Flyer by assisting Cates' first goal. It sent the Flyers into first intermission with a 2-0 lead.
• The Flyers and Penguins are back at it Thursday with a matchup in Pittsburgh (7:30 p.m. ET/ESPN+, Hulu).
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