Surging Flyers look to continue success against Sharks
The Philadelphia Flyers look to continue their late-season surge on Saturday afternoon when they complete their California road trip against Macklin Celebrini and the San Jose Sharks.
The Flyers extended their point streak to five games (4-0-1) after following up a 3-2 overtime victory in Anaheim on Wednesday with a 4-3 shootout win in Los Angeles on Thursday.
Noah Cates scored in overtime against the Ducks and added a goal and an assist versus the Kings. He has cobbled together 11 points (four goals, seven assists) in the 12 games since the Olympic break.
"Could have folded, could have (gone), ‘Oh, it's a back-to-back (set),' but stayed with it," Cates said. "We knew they were two huge points and we got it done, so it's awesome. Huge testament to this group, and we're having a ton of fun."
Cates, whose 14 goals this season are two shy of his career high set in 2024-25, also scored in Philadelphia's 4-1 victory over San Jose on Dec. 9.
Travis Konecny, who collected a goal and an assist in that game, scored his team-leading 25th goal on Thursday.
Defenseman Travis Sanheim also tallied for the Flyers (33-23-12, 78 points), who reside six points behind Detroit and Boston for the wild-card spots in the Eastern Conference.
Philadelphia is riding a season-best six-game road winning streak, with all six games being decided past regulation.
"It's not like we're doing anything that much different than we've been doing the whole year," Konecny said. "Sometimes it's just a bounce here and there, and we're just playing hard and sticking to it. There's nothing else we can do than win games right now."
Matvei Michkov notched two assists for the Flyers, who were forced to get creative with their lines on Thursday. Captain Sean Couturier (upper body) and fellow forwards Luke Glendening (lower body) and Denver Barkey (upper body) were not available for the game.
"Huge win for us, really proud of the guys," Philadelphia coach Rick Tocchet said. "Dug in, asked some guys to play some positions they're not used to and kill some penalties, so it was a good effort."
The Sharks (32-29-6, 70 points) are in need of a good effort after losing three in a row and six of their last eight games (2-4-2).
San Jose fell behind 3-0 after surrendering three goals in a 103-second stretch of the second period of Thursday's 5-0 loss to the Buffalo Sabres.
"We had a good first period. I thought (we) came out pretty well, and then, yeah, it was kind of a snowball effect after their first goal," Sharks defenseman Mario Ferraro said.
San Jose head coach Ryan Warsofsky saw a number of glaring issues in the loss that his team needs to address.
"Just some details in our game," Warsofsky said. "Some line-change stuff, playing the defensive side of pucks, really, in all three zones. ... Those would be the main areas (of improvement).
Celebrini, who leads the team in goals (35), assists (60) and points (95), has been held off the scoresheet in consecutive contests following a nine-game point streak (seven goals, seven assists).
The top overall pick of the 2024 NHL Draft did not record a point in the first meeting between the teams in Philadelphia.