PHILADELPHIA- The Flyers and Minnesota Wild chased each other for 60 minutes to no avail on Thursday night.
“We weren’t very good,” Minnesota coach Dean Evason said. “They were good. We knew they were playing well, they played well tonight. We were loose, we were not firm, turnovers. It didn’t look like our hockey club.”
It took a marker from James van Riemsdyk on penalties for a 5-4 win for the Flyers.
“I remember him even from his first training camp [in 2020], just his smarts,” van Riemsdyk said. “You could tell even back then, obviously he was a little more raw than I think now, but you can tell he’s developed and gotten much more confident, comfortable and just gotten the reps. … And obviously his shot probably is going to be his calling card and what drives a lot of his success. You’ve seen a couple instances where he really fires it. He can beat goalies clean from a distance, which is pretty impressive.”
Despite the loss, the Wild pushed their active point streak to 10 games.
Carter Hart made 20 saves in the Flyers win.
Philadelphia moved to 27-32-12.
“Pucks are going in for us,” Flyers coach John Tortorella said. “We’re scoring some goals obviously. When we were losing some games, we weren’t playing that bad, we just couldn’t find the net. … Now pucks have been going for us.”
The Flyers’ Scott Laughton, and the Wild’s Oskar Sundqvist exchanged first period goals for a 1-1 tie headed to the third.
In the middle frame, Joel Farabee put the Flyers up, 2-1.
“He’s been around the net, does it again tonight,” Tortorella said. “You just want certain players that have had some struggles to find their way here a little bit so they can have a good mindset when they leave and get ready for next year.”
The Wild replied with a pair of markers coming from Matt Boldy, his first of two on the night, and Marcus Foligno for a 3-2 advantage.
Minnesota dropped to 41-22-9, and are 7-0-3 in their streak.
Rasmus Ristolainen tied the game, 3-3, with 23 seconds left in the second period on a power play goal.
Boldy hit his double at 13:32 to give Minnesota a 4-3 lead.
“They’ve got nothing to lose and you’re trying to climb the standings,” Foligno said. “I’ve been on teams like that and you can beat some teams late. It’s got to come down to character and leadership and understand that we have to play the right way no matter what the circumstances are.”
The Flyers responded less than a later on a strike by Tyson Foerster for a 4-4 tie to force extra time and the skills portion of the evening’s affairs.
Marc-Andre Fleury made 30 saves in the Wild loss.
 
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