By Mary Cunningham
The Flyers come home tonight to face the Minnesota Wild and they are five points out of the last wild card playoff spot in the Eastern conference.
The Flyers (26-22-11) opened the season series with a 4-3 overtime win in Minnesota on Jan. 7 for their fifth victory in the last seven meetings. They are returning home from a 2-2-1 trip that ended with Tuesday’s 3-1 loss to Carolina, despite putting 37 shots on net. The Flyers have outshot their last three opponents by 9.7 per game.
“We played a good hockey game, a real good hockey game, really in almost every area,” coach Dave Hakstol told the team’s official website. “Their goaltender was the difference. You walk away from this one and we didn’t get the two points, and that’s all that really matters at this time of year. But we did play a hell of a hockey game. So we’ve got to carry that play and that mentality into a home game in two days, and we’ll do that.”
The Flyers, however, have gone 2-3-3 at home since a six-game winning streak there ended in mid-January.
Shayne Gostisbehere’s 15-game point streak was one of the casualties of Tuesday’s loss, something the rookie defenseman isn’t overly sad to see go.
“It was a special streak,” Gostisbehere said. “I really can’t thank my teammates and coaches (enough). They helped me along the way, not letting me think about it too much, and the biggest thing, not getting a big head about it. It was a fun thing. I’m personally happy it’s over and we don’t have to talk about it anymore.”
Steve Mason figures to be back in net after Michal Neuvirth faced the Hurricanes and replaced Mason in Saturday’s 5-4 overtime win in Toronto. Mason has posted a 1.98 goals-against average and .934 save percentage over a 3-1-0 span against Minnesota, whereas likely counterpart Devan Dubnyk has lost both his career games in Philadelphia with a 3.57 GAA and .883 save percentage.
The Wild placed forward Jason Zucker on injured reserve Wednesday because of a concussion suffered in Sunday’s 6-1 win over Chicago. Zucker is tied for fourth on the team with 12 goals.
