VOORHEES, N.J. — If the Flyers want to make a comeback in this best-of-seven second-round playoff matchup, they’ll have to do it without Noah Cates.

The all-situation center will miss the remainder of the series with a lower-body injury.

The Flyers trail the Hurricanes 2-0 as the series shifts to Philadelphia for Game 3 on Thursday night.

In the Flyers’ 3-2 overtime loss Monday night, Cates played 20:53 minutes. He blocked a shot from K’Andre Miller with 8:24 minutes left in the first period, but didn’t miss any time.

After the game, Cates was seen sitting on an equipment box and being wheeled to the locker room by head athletic trainer Tommy Alva. Cates wasn’t writhing in pain, but the Flyers clearly didn’t want him to put pressure on one of his legs.

This is undoubtedly a big loss for the Flyers against the Eastern Conference’s top seed. Cates is arguably the team’s top defensive forward. The 27-year-old posted a career year in the regular season with 18 goals and 47 points. The Flyers went 28-6-2 when he recorded a point. He also had a team-best plus-26 mark.

“He was Mr. Consistency all year,” Rick Tocchet said Wednesday after practice. “He does a lot of things for us. But it’s no different than other teams, next man up. You’ve heard the drill before.”

In the playoffs, Cates hasn’t committed a penalty. He has recorded a goal, three assists and a minus-2 mark in 16:20 minutes per game.

“One of our most reliable guys,” Travis Konecny said. … “He can play on the first line all the way to the fourth. He can do everything. I would say he’s one of our main pieces to this team. An excellent player, for sure.”

The Flyers will move forward with Christian Dvorak, Sean Couturier, Trevor Zegras and Denver Barkey as their centers. Dvorak has been banged up in the playoffs and didn’t practice Wednesday, but Tocchet said there’s a “good possibility” the 30-year-old will play Thursday night. Dvorak has not missed a game in these playoffs.

Tocchet expressed faith in his team’s depth.

“Everybody’s going to get a little bit more ice time and more opportunity,” the head coach said. “Seize the moment type of thing.”

Barkey, a 21-year-old rookie, has impressed in his recent move to the middle. Before being taken by the Flyers in the third round of the 2023 draft, Barkey had played some center with the OHL’s London Knights. But he was always projected to be a winger at the pro level and that’s the position he played coming up as a prospect.

(More coming…)