Fresh off signing his entry-level contract, Noah Cates will debut in his home state of Minnesota as the Flyers take on the Wild to wrap up this five-game road trip. Philadelphia will be looking to earn their second win of the trip, having lost to Nashville, Detroit and Colorado along the way. Their only win came against the Blues last Thursday.
This is the second time this month that Philadelphia and Minnesota will face off. The Wild earned a 5-4 victory on March 3rd back at the Wells Fargo Center. The Flyers entered the third period with the lead before two goals in 25 seconds put the Wild ahead with about eight minutes to go.
Philadelphia Flyers
Record: 21-34-11 (53 points, 7th in Metro)
With a loss against the Wild this evening, the Flyers would be eliminated from playoff contention. That fact has been well known for more than a few weeks now, but it would be official with a regulation loss. Washington had a chance to eliminate Philadelphia last night, but the Hurricanes cruised to a 6-1 victory instead.
Cates will be yet another Flyers’ prospect to make his debut this season. After his collegiate career came to an end this past weekend, he put pen to paper almost immediately on a two-year contract. Beginning this season, we’ll see Cates finish out the season in Philadelphia. Ronnie Attard will be right behind him as he signed his own ELC on Tuesday morning.
Attard will join the team when they return home on Thursday and has a chance to make his own debut this upcoming weekend. That’s what it will be all about for the Flyers as we should see plenty of younger players and prospects get extended looks at the NHL level. With Hayden Hodgson’s emergency recall being converted into a regular recall, the team only has one recall left that they can make for the rest of the season.
So while we may not see callups from the Phantoms, some of the Flyers’ collegiate prospects are getting an immediate chance to see what they can do. With a team that has been all but officially eliminated, those are some of the positives that can be taken away from this season.
Projected Lineup
van Riemsdyk – Farabee – Atkinson
Lindblom – Hayes – Konecny
Cates – Frost – Tippett
Hodgson – Brown – MacEwen
Provorov – York
Sanheim – Ristolainen
Yandle – Seeler
Jones
Minnesota Wild
Record: 40-20-4 (84 points, 2nd in Central)
The Wild are in the thick of the playoff race in the Central Division. Right now they are in second place in the division, but the Blues are just three points behind them. So earning a win this evening is exactly what Minnesota is hoping for.
And they are coming in red-hot with six wins in a row. Aside from a shutout victory over Vegas, the Wild have earned narrow one-goal victories in each of those games. The Flyers are well known for playing in one-goal games, though they don’t typically finish on the winning side of those.
Overall, Minnesota is 8-1-1 in their last 10 games and goaltender Cam Talbot has played a big part in that. Talbot was recently named the NHL’s First Star of the Week after going 3-0-0 last week and posting a 1.33 GAA and a .959 SV%. But, Philadelphia may get lucky in avoiding him as newcomer Marc-Andre Fleury is expected to start. It’ll be his second start with the Wild.
Minnesota is unsurprisingly led by Kirill Kaprisov who has 36 goals and 81 points, shattering his career highs from his rookie season. He also four goals and six points in his last five games. Mats Zuccarello has also been hot, posting six points in his last five games.
Projected Lineup
Kaprizov – Hartman – Zuccarello
Greenway – Eriksson Ek – Foligno
Fiala – Gaudreau – Boldy
Duhaime – Jost – Deslauriers
Middleton – Spurgeon
Brodin – Dumba
Merrill – Kulikov
Fleury
When, Where, & How to Watch
Time: 8:00 pm EST
Where: Xcel Energy Arena
TV Broadcast: NBCSP+
Radio Broadcast: 93.3 WMMR
Live Stream: Fubo TV
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