ANAHEIM, California — The decision was an easy one. In a tie game entering the third period on the road on the first of a five-game road trip against a weaker opponent, coach John Tortorella turned to what has been his best line for several weeks now to try and create a spark.
Neither Noah Cates, Tyson Foerster nor Bobby Brink scored a goal in the first minute of that final frame — it was Morgan Frost a little later who got a fortunate bounce off of goalie Lukas Dostal’s stick for the game winner in the Philadelphia Flyers’ 3-1 triumph on Saturday afternoon — but they still set a tone. Cates won the faceoff and Travis Sanheim got the puck deep. Cates and Brink then hounded it in the corner, with Cates stealing it from Robby Fabbri and getting it to the front of the net. The three of them kept close while supporting one another with help from Sanheim and Cam York, helping the Flyers retain possession before Sanheim’s errant pass forced them to retreat.
“I feel like we’ve done that a couple times in games,” Cates said afterward. “Just the territory battle, I feel like we’re winning that and kind of playing a half-ice game on these teams, and getting in on our forecheck and setting up other lines for success, too. … Start of a period, especially 1-1 after a (Christmas) break, was big for us.”
The goal came earlier, staking the Flyers a 1-0 second-period lead a little more than four minutes after the intermission. After another lengthy stretch in the offensive zone, Brink shimmied behind the net and spotted Cates in the slot. With goalie Dostal already perpendicular to the ice surface because of Brink’s fakery, Cates easily zipped in the pass from his linemate, extending his goal streak to five games.
Noah Cates opens the scoring in Anaheim! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/tylMO8cCa7
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) December 28, 2024
Cates, in particular, has emerged as a vital player during a time when the Flyers as a team have been inconsistent. In his last eight games, he has six goals and two assists. Remember, Cates didn’t play in four of the Flyers’ first five games of the season, and his stock was way down after what he called an “identity crisis” last season when he was unable to create more offense while maintaining the strong defensive game he came to be known for in 2022-23 when he received a handful of down-ballot Selke Trophy votes.
The surprise of rookie Jett Luchanko making the opening-night roster was the primary move that pushed Cates out of the lineup. But he wasn’t doing a whole lot to contribute when he was in, either, with no goals and two assists in his first 15 games.
Said Cates: “Coming into this year, kind of saw that things were happening early on in the year. Stuck with it, and, you know, it’s such a long year. The first month or however many games you can’t really look too much into. Just got to keep working on your game and building if you are playing, or if you’re not playing.”
Tortorella was downright gushing over Cates on Friday after the Flyers’ practice at Honda Center. He seemed to understand what Cates’ “identity crisis” was all about, and gave him full marks for fighting through it.
“It’s comfortable for players to rely on their strengths, right? Anybody. Any job, any athlete, whatever it may be,” Tortorella said. “You always feel comfortable doing the things you know you do well. I think it took a little while for him to step out of that.
“Now, I feel like he feels confident and (is) maybe stepping outside of himself and trying to develop more of a personality as a player. … Be hell-bent to show me someone that’s as strong on the puck as Catesy’s been here for the past month. I think he’s kind of surprised himself. You never know when it clicks in players. I’m proud of him. Very quiet kid, and out of the lineup at the beginning of the year. He takes it and he just gets himself ready, and I think has established himself as a really good player offensively and defensively for us right now.”
Getting put on a line with Foerster and Brink on Nov. 25, and remaining there ever since, was a turning point, from Cates’ perspective.
The three of them have combined for 25 points in the 15 games they’ve been together. It’s not a massive total, but it’s a respectable number and has been ticking up lately. Some of the underlying numbers probably speak better to their effectiveness — according to Natural Stat Trick, they’ve controlled 56.7 percent of the shot attempts, and a sizable 64.6 of the expected goals in more than 132 minutes together five-on-five.
“I think once that line got together, maybe it wasn’t going in right away for us but (we just built) confidence,” Cates said. “We’re always talking, that’s the biggest thing. We’re having fun, building, learning from each other. Maybe it wasn’t going in, but I was liking our looks and offensive zone time. For the coaches to stick with it has been huge for the team, and us.”
Saturday’s win reflected that, once again.
Just as important as the performance of Cates and his linemates on Saturday was the play of Samuel Ersson, who was all out of sorts going into the Christmas break. The Flyers’ No. 1 goalie finished with 31 saves in his best performance since Halloween night in a 2-1 win over the Blues.
A mental break, Ersson admitted, did him some good. He allowed only a Troy Terry shot in the second period to get past him on a puck that Terry skillfully shot through the legs of Sanheim.
“Just felt a little bit more calm in the net,” Ersson said. “I think I trusted my reads a little bit better and that gave me more time in situations. Just overall a better performance from me today than as of late.”
The game also featured the first meeting between the Flyers and former prospect Cutter Gauthier, who said on Friday that he had the game “circled on my calendar.” Gauthier was scoreless with two shots in just 13:19 of ice time, and on the opening shift of the game, was the recipient of a few light cross-checks from Sanheim behind the play. In the third, Travis Konecny was seen yapping at Gauthier in front of the Flyers’ net after a whistle, too.
Sanheim was asked after the game if there was a little message-sending going on in that early sequence.
“I think maybe a little, knowing who it was,” said the defenseman. “Like I said before, we’re not worried about guys that don’t want to be in this organization. We get treated first class here and happy with the roster that we have.”
Gauthier wasn’t the only notable young player in the game, of course. Matvei Michkov entered on a six-game scoring drought, and didn’t play at all in the third period. It seems possible, if not likely, that he’ll come out of the lineup on Sunday when the Flyers visit the Kings in the second of their back-to-back in Southern California.
“It’s just been a struggle,” Tortorella said of Michkov’s play lately. “His energy. Everything about his game right now. I think the schedule has kind of caught up with him. It’s going to happen.”
Tortorella continued: “We’re going to try to help him. If I have to take him out, or miss some time in periods, he’s going to. In the big picture, we just want to try to help him get his energy back.”
(Photo: Kiyoshi Mio / Imagn Images)
