The Flyers had to work overtime again Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
After the final result, they probably didn’t mind. They beat the Ducks, 3-2, at Honda Center as Noah Cates scored the winner in OT.<\/p>\n
It was the Flyers’ third straight overtime game and their 24th of the season.<\/p>\n
Rick Tocchet’s club has gone 7-2-1 over its last 10 games and 8-3-3 over its last 14.<\/p>\n
With 15 games left, the Flyers (32-23-12) have already matched their point total of 76 from last season, when they went 33-39-10<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Flyers swept the Ducks (37-27-4) in their two-game regular-season series. In January, they beat Anaheim, 5-2, at a lively Xfinity Mobile Arena<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNoah Cates scored the overtime winner in Anaheim against the Ducks on Wednesday night.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \u2022 Dan Vladar was excellent with 34 saves on 36 shots.<\/p>\n The 28-year-old surrendered two or fewer goals for the 27th time in 41 starts this season.<\/p>\n With 1:54 minutes left in regulation, the Ducks tied it at 2-2 when they emptied their net for the extra attacker. Leo Carlsson scored off a rebound after Vladar made a pair of saves.<\/p>\n Cutter Gauthier trimmed the Flyers’ lead to 2-1 with 38 seconds remaining in the second period. The former Flyers prospect made a great move in close just as some 4-on-4 action turned into an Anaheim power play.<\/p>\n But Vladar finished with his season high in saves. The Flyers needed all of them, especially when the Ducks \u2014 a very good team at coming from behind \u2014 made their push.<\/p>\n Anaheim netminder Lukas Dostal stopped 25 of the Flyers’ 28 shots.<\/p>\n Luke Glendening opened the scoring in the first period. It was the 36-year-old’s first goal with the Flyers.<\/p>\n Owen Tippett then cushioned the Flyers’ lead in the second period with his fourth goal over the last six games.<\/p>\n \u2022 Gauthier is having a big-time season. With 35 goals, he’s on pace to score over 40.<\/p>\n You can see why he was drafted fifth overall in 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n But he hasn’t beaten the Flyers since he turned them down and forced a trade in January 2024<\/a>. The Flyers have gone 4-0-0 against Gauthier and the Ducks, while outscoring them 17-5.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOwen Tippett and Noah Cates spoke on the importance of the Flyers’ win over the Ducks to kick off their west coast road trip on Wednesday night.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \u2022 The Flyers have continued to hang around in the playoff race.<\/p>\n They moved to within six points of both the Eastern Conference’s first and second wild-card spots.<\/p>\n “When you look at the season, I think if you can take out that kind of middle stretch where you lose a bunch of games, those are hard to get out of,” Travis Sanheim said last Saturday<\/a>. “Besides that, I’ve liked a lot of our play, we’ve played well against some good teams, have shown that we have a good hockey team and can play against anyone and win, really, any game.”<\/p>\n