𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

PHILADELPHIA — Trevor Zegras called it the “worst two minutes of my life.”

Late in regulation in a 1-1 game with the Dallas Stars at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Sunday night, the Philadelphia Flyers forward somehow got his stick caught in the opening between Adam Erne’s boot and skate blade, tipping Erne over. It was a legitimate tripping penalty, to be sure, but it was also incredibly unlucky for Zegras and the Flyers, who were facing one of the league’s best teams while fighting for their playoff lives.

But the Flyers stiffened their backs against the league’s second-best power play. Sam Ersson, whose game has been resurrected after the Olympic break, made a phenomenal pad stop on 40-goal scorer Wyatt Johnston with 1:18 to go, forcing overtime.

That allowed Zegras to play hero, as he zipped in a wrist shot at 3:27 of the extra session, earning the Flyers 2 points and inching them up a bit further in the Eastern Conference standings.

“I don’t know how my stick got in his skate like that,” Zegras said. “The (second) best power play in the league, and to kill one off with 2:48 left in a game we needed 2 points … it was amazing.”

There is a growing excitement now around the Flyers: 8-1-1 in their last 10 games, and just 2 points behind the Columbus Blue Jackets for the second wild-card with a game in hand. Looking further up the Metropolitan Division, they’re only 2 points back of the Pittsburgh Penguins and 3 back of the New York Islanders (with a game in hand on New York, whom they face on the road Friday).

Just nine games remain in the regular season. The possibility of a playoff berth for the first time since 2020 is now a real one. That seemed unfathomable last month.

But whether they qualify or ultimately fall short, it’s been a positive stretch for an organization that desperately needed a momentum shift. It wasn’t that long ago they were fumbling their way through January and entering the Olympic break with myriad issues, leading to concerns over whether this whole rebuild was indeed on the right track.

Considering the way things have been going lately, there’s much more reason for hope than anxiety.

It starts with what’s happening on the ice, of course. The Flyers have been a defensively stingy team for most of the season — other than that awful January — but lately, they’ve been one of the league’s best. Since the season resumed in late February, the Flyers’ 2.24 goals-against per game is the second-best mark in the NHL.

Dan Vladar has been his usual steady self as the No. 1 goalie, and now the team is getting better-than-reliable netminding from Ersson, who improved to a sterling 5-0-0 with a .933 save percentage and 1.46 goals-against average in his last six games after the Olympics, with 17 saves against Dallas.

“Lately we’re tighter defensively, we’re not giving up a whole lot of goals,” Sean Couturier said. “Credit to our goalies, and the way we play.”

And now the offense is coming around, too. Sunday was not the best example, as the Flyers got just one power-play goal and another during three-on-three overtime, but with both teams playing on the second half of a back-to-back, the game was generally sloppy on each side.

Still, the Flyers had the better of the chances; Natural Stat Trick had them with a 3.05-2.5 edge in expected goals in all situations, and the Flyers outshot the Stars 30-18. Casey DeSmith was just as strong as Ersson in net, making key stops on Rasmus Ristolainen’s drive to the blue paint on the game’s first shift, Christian Dvorak’s partial breakaway early in the second and Matvei Michkov’s point-blank power-play opportunity late in the second just before a short-handed goal by Arttu Hyry tied the score. Through regulation, DeSmith only allowed Travis Konecny to curl the puck inside the far post at 9:48 of the second with Mikko Rantanen in the box for high-sticking.

But the Flyers were coming off back-to-back five-goal games in wins over the Chicago Blackhawks and the Detroit Red Wings earlier in the week. In their last 10 games, the Flyers have scored at least three goals in seven, for a 3.10 average — 11th in the league over that span. Zegras is on a five-game point streak, and other players such as Noah Cates (9 points in 10 games), Owen Tippett (12 points in 12 games) and Michkov (seven assists in seven games) have taken their games to a new level offensively. Even the fourth line with Couturier, Luke Glendening and Garnet Hathaway seems to be getting at least a couple of good chances nightly, and young defensemen such as Jamie Drysdale and the top defense pair of Ristolainen and Travis Sanheim are helping fuel the Flyers’ uptick in offensive-zone time and scoring chances.

Asked about the improving offense, Zegras said: “Obviously, went through that tough little month, and I think we’re right back on track to where we were at the beginning of the year. I think that kind of happens with a young team.”

Not every young team can collectively improve, though. The Flyers seem to be doing that under first-year coach Rick Tocchet.

But there was other big news Sunday than just the win, and it should benefit the Flyers in the short- and long term. Top prospect Porter Martone signed a three-year entry-level deal less than 24 hours after his college team, Michigan State, was eliminated from the NCAA Tournament on Saturday.

To be clear, there never seemed to be much doubt Martone was eventually going to join the Flyers as soon as Michigan State was done. Daniel Briere had been dropping hints for some time.

But from an optics standpoint, getting Martone to sign so quickly was vital, whether Briere or anyone else wanted to admit it or not. There is still some lingering irritation from some corners of the fan base when it comes to former prospect Cutter Gauthier, who’s in the midst of a breakthrough season with the Anaheim Ducks, leading them in scoring with 37 goals and 64 points in 72 games. Any delay in inking Martone might have sparked a here-we-go-again sort of worry, even if it was unwarranted.

For his part, Briere denied that what happened with Gauthier influenced how quickly they got Martone to officially become a Flyer.

“It had nothing to do with that at all,” Briere said. “I wasn’t the GM with Cutter. But with Porter and our development staff, we were in constant communication, and it was just kind of an understanding that when the season was done that he was going to join the team, and it’s nothing about rushing it. It had nothing to do with what happened in the past.”

That seems like a pretty direct message from Briere: It’s time to move on and look forward. Considering the steam the organization seems to be gaining lately, doing so should be a little easier.