Flyers gain ground on Red Wings as Owen Tippett gets hat trick
Owen Tippett notched his third career hat trick and fourth career four-point night as the Philadelphia Flyers survived a late scare to beat the Detroit Red Wings 5-3 to match their franchise record with eight straight road wins.
Noah Cates and Sean Couturier also scored for the Flyers (35-24-12, 82 points), and Jamie Drysdale and Travis Konecny posted two assists each.
Dan Vladar stopped 30 shots to go to 4-1-1 in his last six starts.
Mason Appleton, Alex DeBrincat and Lucas Raymond scored for Detroit (39-25-8, 86 points), all within a span of 2:31 late in the third period as the Red Wings tried to dig out of a 4-0 hole. Moritz Seider assisted on two of them.
John Gibson made 17 saves on 21 shots for the Red Wings. Cam Talbot relieved Gibson and saved all four shots he faced.
Detroit had a chance to vault into the second Eastern Conference wild-card spot with a win. Instead, the Red Wings stayed tied with the Ottawa Senators, both a point back of the Columbus Blue Jackets, as the Flyers moved within four points with a game in hand.
The Flyers jumped ahead on their first shot of the game at 15:53. Tippett scored on a breakaway as Trevor Zegras found his teammate behind the Red Wings' defense.
Tippett got his second goal with 7:32 to go in the middle frame. Denver Barkey dropped the puck back to the winger, open in the high slot.
Cates made it 3-0 on a rare power-play goal for Philadelphia with 3:52 remaining in the second. The Flyers entered Saturday with the league's worst power play (14.5%) and only scored once in their last 27 chances.
Tippett got his third goal and chased Gibson on another power-play goal with 12:41 left in regulation.
The Flyers scored two power-play goals for just the sixth time this season.
It appeared Philadelphia had the game wrapped up, but Appleton ended Vladar's shutout hopes with 6:17 left in the game. DeBrincat followed with his 37th at 4:50.
Talbot was pulled 14 seconds later, and Raymond cut the Flyers' advantage to one with 3:46 remaining.
Couturier, though, ended any thought of Detroit positing its second four-goal comeback of the season with his empty-netter, assisted by Tippett, with 2:04 to go.
The 1982-83 Flyers also won eight straight road games.