5 THINGS: Flyers @ Wild

Wrapping up a five-game road trip, interim head coach Mike Yeo's Philadelphia Flyers (21-34-11) are in St. Paul on Tuesday to take on Dean Evason's Minnesota Wild (40-20-4). Game time at the xCel Energy Center is 8:00 p.m. EDT (NBCSP+, 93.3 WMMR).

This is the second and final meeting of the season between the teams, and the lone game in Minnesota. On March 3 at the Wells Fargo Center, the Flyers held four separate one-goal leads but came away with nothing but a galling regulation loss.
Philadelphia had a 4-3 lead midway through the third period until they gave up goals to Matthew Boldy and Jonas Brodin at 12:16 and 12:41 to go down to a 5-4 defeat. After the game, Yeo publicly laced into his team.
The Flyers enter this game coming off a 5-4 road loss to the Nashville Predators that played out somewhat like the March 3 loss to the Wild. Philadelphia held a 2-0 at the end of the first period and a 3-1 edge in the second period. However, amid a four-goal barrage by Minnesota, it took a late-period tying tally for the Flyers to get the game to the third period tied at 4-4. The final stanza was up for grabs before a Tanner Jeannot deflection goal with 1:19 left in regulation won the game for the Predators.
Travis Sanheim (6th goal of the season), Joel Farabee (15th), Max Willman (4th, breakaway) and James van Riemsdyk (17th) scored in a losing cause for the Flyers. Morgan Frost, who assisted on the Sanheim goal, played one of his best all-around games in the NHL this season. Martin Jones (30 saves of 35 shots) played better than his final stats would suggest, and gave his team a chance to win.
For the Flyers, Tuesday's road trip final is the team's fifth game in eight nights across three time zones. Energy management, a reaffirmation of five-man-unit structure and decision-making with and without the puck will be critical if the team is to come away with a second win from the trip.
For Minnesota, Tuesday's game is the eighth game of a nine-game homestand (March 13 to 31). So far, the Wild are 6-1-0 on the homestand and have won six in a row after dropping the first game to Nashville. Tuesday's game is the Wild's third game in four nights.
The Wild are coming off an emotional and exciting 3-2 overtime win against the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday. Cam Talbot made 40 saves, Ryan Hartman (27th goal of the season) forced overtime with a tying goal at 14:33 of the third period, and Kevin Fiala (22nd) won the game on the opening shift of sudden death. Earlier, Kirill Kaprisov (power play, 36th) broke a scoreless deadlock with a late second-period goal.
Here are five things to watch in Tuesday's game:
1. Noah Cates' NHL Debut
One day after graduating University of Minnesota Duluth senior forward Noah Cates' team was eliminated in the NCAA's West Regional Finals in the Frozen Four tournament, the 23-year-old Cates signed a two-year entry-level contract with the Flyers. The deal was announced on Sunday afternoon. On Tuesday, Cates will make his NHL debut for the Flyers.
A standout high school player in his native Stillwater, Minnesota, Cates was drafted by the Flyers in the fifth round (137th overall) of the 2017 NHL Entry Draft. He went on to have a successful collegiate career at UMD, including winning the 2018-19 NCAA championship. Internationally, Cates played for Team USA at the 2018-19 World Junior Championships and the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Noah Cates' older brother, Jackson, is also a member of the Flyers' organization. Signed as a free agent on April 13, 2021, Jackson dressed in four games for the Flyers (0g, 1a) late last season. In 2021-22, the older Cates brother has appeared in 11 NHL games for the Flyers this season (1g, 0a, 9:05 TOI) along with 37 games in the AHL with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms (2 shorthanded goals, 8 assists, 10 points).
Noah Cates is considered to be a versatile, two-way forward who can be plugged in various different spots in the lineup as needed and is comfortable playing either center or wing. At the NHL level, he projects as primarily a bottom six forward but brings some skill to the table as well as the potential to be moved up periodically.
Cates will wear No. 49 for the Flyers.
2. Hodgson and Willman
With Travis Konecny returning to the Flyers' lineup on Sunday after missing the previous game in Colorado due to a lower-body injury, the Flyers were able to dress 12 forwards for the first time during the road trip.
In order to continue looking at 26-year-old rookie Hayden Hodgson on the NHL team, the Flyers had to turn the player's emergency recall from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms into an official recall. The positive side of the move was that Hodgson was able to stay on the NHL active roster.The downside is that it burned the third of the Flyers' four allotted non-emergency recalls permitted by the NHL for the remainder of the regular season after the trade deadline.
Over his first three games with the Flyers, Hodgson has had one goal (NHL debut in St. Louis), one assist, one fight, eight shots on goal (six in the Colorado game) and an average 15:15 of ice time.
With Noah Cates joining the Flyers in Minnesota, the team will have 13 forwards. Who will be scratched? Max Willman is one possibility. However, he has scored goals in back-to-back games and contributed positively on the forecheck during the road trip.
Oskar Lindblom, who is "banged up" per Yeo and missed one game during the trip, may sit out this game depending on how he's feeling after the last two games. Lindblom, who scored a goal in the Detroit game that started the trip but rested during the St. Louis game, skated 15:36 in Colorado across 24 shifts and then 12:39 in Nashville across 20 shifts.
Veteran 4th line center Nate Thompson has recovered from shoulder surgery and could get back in the Flyers' lineup soon.
3. Inside the Numbers: March Trends
The Wild's comeback win in Philadelphia on March 3 marked the start of the team emerging from a swoon that saw them win just three of their 10 previous games and yield 42 goals (while scoring 30) in that span. Evason's team seemed to gain momentum from the 5-4 win over the Flyers after trailing by scores of 1-0, 2-1, 3-2, and 4-3.
This time around, the Wild will face the Flyers bringing an 8-1-1 record over their 10 games. Minnesota enters with a six-game winning streak.
Here's a look at what they have done over the course of the month: 9-4-1 record, 3.29 goals per game, 3.14 team goals against average, 21.6 percent power play, 64.9 percent penalty kill (24-for-37), +7 at 5-on-5 (29 GF - 22 GA), 34.3 Shots/GP, 30.6 SA/GP, 46.1 percent on faceoffs.
The Flyers in March: 5-8-1 record, 2.86 goals per game, 3.71 GAA, 10.0 percent power play (4-for-40), 73.0 percent PK (27-for-37), -1 at 5-on-5 (34 GF - 35 GA), 30.4 Shots/GP, 35.5 SA/GP, 49.5 percent on faceoffs.
In terms of the Flyers and Wild's comparative full-season team stats and ranking, see below:

4. Behind Enemy Lines: Minnesota Wild
With 18 games remaining on their regular season schedule, the Wild are in the driver's seat in the battle for a guaranteed home-ice playoff spot by virtue of finishing in second place in the Central Division. The Wild (84 points) have a four-point edge plus two games in hand over Nashville (80 points, 16 games remaining) and a five-point lead over St. Louis (79 points, 18 games remaining).
Entering Tuesday's game, Kaprisov leads the Wild in scoring by far, with 81 points (36g, 45a) in 63 games played. Veteran playmaking winger Mats Zuccarello (19 goals, 48 assists, 67 points) is two helpers away from attaining the first 50-assist season of his NHL career.
The overtime hero against Colorado, Swiss winger Fiala, is third on the Wild with 22 goals and 59 points this season. He's followed by Hartman (27g, 50 points), Joel Eriksson Ek (19 goals, 35 points) and veteran Marcus Foligno (19g, 33 points, 105 PIM).
On the blueline, the Wild were missing Matt Dumba (24 points, 23:27 TOI) from the lineup during the previous game against the Flyers but the 27-year-old has since returned. Veteran Jared Spurgeon (6g, 28 points, +21) still pulls down 21:12 of ice time per game, while Brodin (23:36 TOI, 25 points, 100 blocked shots, 23:36 TOI) remains a model of consistency. Veteran Alex Goligoski (28 points) leads the squad with a traditional +34 rating while playing an average 18:59 per game. Dmitry Kulikov (19 points, 17:43 TOI) and Jon Merrill (17:15 TOI, 100 blocks) round out the group with Jacob Middleton (48 GP, 18:52 TOI, 99 hits, 92 blocks) capable of stepping in as needed.
In net, Talbot brings a 27-12-1 record, 2.80 GAA, .911 save percentage and two shutouts. Acquired amid much hoopla from Chicago at the trade deadline at the cost of a conditional 2022 first-round Draft pick, Marc-Andre Fleury made his Wild debut in Saturday's win against Columbus. Fleury turned back 23 of 25 shots in the victory. For the season, the 37-year-old netminder has an overall 20-21-5 record, 2.93 GAA, .908 save percentage and four shutouts.
5. Players to Watch: JVR and Kaprisov
The 2021-22 season has been a rough campaign overall for James van Riemsdyk, but the veteran Flyers winger (17 goals, 30 points, -28 in 66 games played) has surged lately. He brings a four-game point streak in this game with five points (3g, 2a) in that recent span. In the meantime, Joel Farabee (who has been playing center during the current road trip) enters with a five-game point streak. Farabee has posted three goals and seven points over his last five games.
Kaprisov enters this game on a three-game point streak. He's posted four goals and five points over the team's last three games.