Road warrior Flyers pull away from the Sharks to sweep their West Coast trip

Jackie Spiegel, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Mar 21, 2026

Published in Hockey

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SAN JOSE, Calif. ― The Philadelphia Flyers are California dreamin’.

On Monday, they headed west to face three teams, the Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks in four nights. They capped a sweep of the trip with a 4-1 win over the Sharks on Saturday.

They have now won 9 of 12 and earned a point in six straight. The Flyers’ road winning streak is now at seven games, tying the second-longest run in franchise history (2017-18 and 1985-86). The longest is eight games set in 1982-83.

The Flyers had a few opportunities to take the lead in the first period, notably when an Owen Tippett shorthanded chance missed the net, went off the end boards, the skate of goalie Alex Nedeljkovic, and into the crease. Sharks forward Kiefer Sherwood knocked it away as it was heading for the goal line.

But Tippett made good in the second period with his fifth goal in the past eight games.

The play started when Noah Juulsen scooped up the puck in the defensive zone and fed it up to Trevor Zegras, who was curling toward the boards. After he curled around, he sent a sharp pass toward Tippett down the left wing.

It was almost a bad pass as Sharks defenseman Nick Leddy got a stick on the puck, but Tippett picked it up, went around the 35-year-old journeyman, and scored glove side to make it 1-0.

During the Flyers’ recent 8-2-1 stretch, special teams have haunted them. On Saturday, the ghosts remained.

The penalty kill has been inconsistent, allowing at least one power-play goal in eight of the past eight games. On Saturday, they allowed one on three opportunities, with defenseman Dmitry Orlov sneaking down into the bumper position and scoring off a pass from William Eklund.

But they finally broke through on the power play after going 0 for 3 with 16 shot attempts, including five shots on goal and eight scoring chances, to start while using new units. One unit featured Zegras, Noah Cates, Travis Konecny, Matvei Michkov and Rasmus Ristolainen, while the other had Alex Bump, Christian Dvorak, Tippett, Travis Sanheim and Jamie Drysdale.

The Flyers got an early power-play chance in the third period when Garnet Hathaway, skating with Konecny and Dvorak, got a hard shot on goal down the left wing and then trucked Macklin Celebrini in the corner as the star moved the puck. Sharks’ defenseman Mario Ferraro went to the defense of Celebrini and got a minor for roughing.

On the ensuing man advantage, Zegras dished to Michkov at the San Jose blue line, and he carried it down to the half wall before sending it to Konecny.

The winger received the pass in the left circle, stopped, and turned to feed Dvorak — on in place of Cates, who still was in the box for dropping his gloves with Barclay Goodrow in defense of his awkward hit on Zegras — as he crept in down the right side.

Dvorak quickly put it on goal for the Flyers’ first power-play goal since March 9 against the New York Rangers; they were 0 for 16 in the last five games. The centerman now has 14 goals on the season and 40 points. Michkov’s assist gave him 100 points in 148 NHL games, and he has four assists across a three-game point streak.

Breakaways

Sanheim and Cates added empty-netters to seal the win. Sanheim has five points in his past six games. … Konecny now has hit the 60-point mark for the fourth straight season. … Sean Couturier (upper-body injury), Denver Barkey (upper-body injury) and Luke Glendening (lower-body injury) missed their second straight game. Barkey did take warmups but was unable to go, and Tocchet said pregame he was day-to-day. … Forward Garrett Wilson dropped the gloves with noted enforcer Ryan Reaves early in the first period. Wilson’s last NHL fight was on March 7, 2019, against Nick Foligno, then of the Columbus Blue Jackets when he played for the Pittsburgh Penguins. … Dvorak was wearing an “A” with Couturier out. … Cates earned his second fighting major of the season. He previously dropped the gloves with Anaheim Ducks forward Jansen Harkins in defense of Bobby Brink in January.

Up next

A critical stretch of games begins Tuesday with the Columbus Blue Jackets visiting Xfinity Mobile Arena.