The Philadelphia Flyers are winning so consistently that they feel confident about the wins piling up no matter the final score.
Coming off their third shutout win of the season, the Flyers attempt to run their season-high points streak to nine games Tuesday when they head to Newark, N.J., for a visit with the inconsistent New Jersey Devils.
Projected to continue experiencing growing pains with a rebuild, the Flyers are dueling with the surging New York Islanders for second and third place, respectively, in the Metropolitan Division. Since dropping two games below .500 after a 2-1 loss at San Jose, Philadelphia is 12-3-2 in its past 17 contests with all six of their one-goal victories coming in that span.
The Flyers improved to 6-0-2 in their past eight games with a 1-0 triumph over the Detroit Red Wings on home ice Saturday night. Samuel Ersson got his seventh win and Cam York scored 6:21 into the opening period.
“I feel like we’re a team that can win 6-5 or 1-0,” York said. “That’s something that’s really important to be able to do and it’s something we didn’t do great last year.”
Ersson is 7-1-1 with a 1.84 goals-against average and a .930 save percentage in his past nine starts and could be in goal again if Carter Hart (illness) misses a fourth straight game.
“(Errson’s) played unbelievable for us,” York said. “I played with him in (the American Hockey League) for a little bit there and saw what he can really do, and he’s doing the same thing up here. If he continues to play like that, we’re going to win a lot of hockey games.”
Travis Sanheim sat out Saturday with an illness but is expected to play after netting two goals in his previous five contests. Sean Couturier also sat out practice Monday but is expected to suit up.
While Philadelphia’s goalies are combining for a 2.55 GAA and a .909 save percentage this year, New Jersey’s goalie tandem of Akira Schmid and Vitek Vanecek own a combined 3.55 GAA and an .889 save percentage as the Devils have allowed 104 goals — the second-most among Metropolitan Division teams entering Monday.
The Devils are 8-3-0 in their last 11 games following last month’s 2-7-0 slide and have allowed at least five goals three times in this stretch.
The latest instance occurred Sunday when Schmid allowed four goals in a 5-1 loss to the visiting Anaheim Ducks. The Devils allowed the Ducks to get a second win in 14 games one night after Jack Hughes notched a hat trick in a 6-3 win at Columbus.
It was the seventh time the Devils allowed at least five goals and their seventh defeat by at least three goals.
“I didn’t think our execution was very good,” Devils coach Lindy Ruff said. “We fanned on some good opportunities and then just a couple of bonehead defensive plays. We fell down, we missed plays. It wasn’t a good performance.”
The Devils took the first meeting Nov. 30 in Philadelphia when Luke Hughes scored 28 seconds into overtime of a 4-3 victory. New Jersey has won five of its last six home games against the Flyers.
–Field Level Media
