Cates' go-ahead goal propels Flyers past Predators

NASHVILLE – Noah Cates' go-ahead goal in the second period helped the Philadelphia Flyers to a 3-1 win against the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena on Thursday.

Travis Konecny had a goal and an assist, Cam York had two assists, and Dan Vladar made 23 saves for the Flyers (8-5-1), who have won consecutive games after losing their previous two.

“I just didn’t like our start,” Philadelphia coach Rick Tocchet said. “I thought the first 10 minutes they were all over us. It’s not even the box and one, it’s we didn’t close. I thought we were kind of standing around too much. You’ve got to close. Any good defensive system, you’ve got to close. But then we started to come. We got better, which is the key. Sometimes you don’t rebound from that tough start we had.”

Ryan O'Reilly scored for the Predators (5-7-4), who have lost three consecutive games (0-1-2). Juuse Saros made 23 saves.

“These games have been weird where we feel like we’re right in there, but then we make some mistakes and the puck ends up in our net,” Predators defenseman Nicolas Hague said. “It’s kind of the way it’s going right now. Those are kind of catastrophic, right? Especially when we can’t seem to put the puck in the net.”

O’Reilly gave the Predators a 1-0 lead at 1:44 of the first period. He deflected in a wrist shot from the slot by Filip Forsberg that first took a bounce off of Flyers defenseman Jamie Drysdale.

“Obviously, a chance to take full control of a game and we didn’t,” O’Reilly said. “We let them come back in, and they pushed back. Didn’t happen. I know for myself, No. 1 center, and I just turn the puck over everywhere and can’t make a six-foot pass to save my life. We’re not going to have much success if I’m playing pathetic like that. I don’t know the answer. I’ve had one good year in my career. I don’t have any answers, that’s for sure.”

Matvei Michkov tied it 1-1 at 4:43 of the second period on a one-timer from the slot off a pass from York.

“He’s been squeezing it a bit, but his game has been coming,” Tocchet said. “It’s nice to see him score.”

Cates then gave the Flyers a 2-1 lead on the rebound of Drysdale's shot at 17:37 of the second.

“The way [Cates] plays and he competes and he wins battles, it kind of creates offense for the line even if you’re not going right away,” Konecny said. “Our line started slow with letting in that goal right away. [Cates] and [Flyers forward Nikita Grebenkin] did their job coming right back and grinding out down low, giving us a couple of good opportunities. And that kind of kick-started the comeback.”

Konecny added an empty-net goal at 18:47 of the third period to make it 3-1.

“I think we just knew how terrible we started,” Konecny said. “It was just, 'We’ll worry about that on film tomorrow,' just get back to the way we had planned on starting and almost reset.”

NOTES: Vladar improved to 5-0-1 against the Predators in his career. … Konecny has eight points (four goals, four assists) in a six-game point streak. … O’Reilly had four shots on goal and went 9-for-16 on face-offs in 18:54 of ice time.