ST. PAUL, Minn. _ Two nights after their goalie criticized their effort in a lethargic loss, the Flyers regrouped and put together their best road performance in two months, defeating Minnesota, 3-1, at the Xcel Energy Center on Thursday night.
Steve Mason's words, following a 3-1 loss in Winnipeg, seemed to wake up the Flyers as they ended a four-game road losing streak. It was just their fifth win in their last 23 road games (5-15-3).
Sean Couturier, Matt Read and Jake Voracek scored goals, and Mason (24 saves) overcame an early mistake and played solidly, enabling the Flyers to inch within six points of fading (again) Boston in the race for the last Eastern Conference wild-card spot.
Voracek's goal, an empty-netter, secured the victory with 44.7 seconds remaining.
The Flyers have a game in hand on Boston, but they would have to pass four teams to get into the playoffs.
The Flyers have nine games left, including difficult back-to-back matchups in Columbus on Saturday and in Pittsburgh on Sunday.
In the third period, the Flyers kept the high-scoring Wild on the perimeter and allowed just four shots over the final 20 minutes.
Overall, the Flyers won a majority of the board battles, took about 60 percent of the faceoffs, and handed Minnesota its sixth loss in the last seven games.
Minnesota would have clinched its fifth straight playoff spot with a victory.
Left winger Read, who played college hockey about four hours away at Bemidji State, celebrated his promotion to the top line by giving the Flyers a 2-1 lead 21 seconds into the second period.
Read took the puck away from defenseman Matt Dumba in front of the net and scored his 10th goal and third in the last nine games. For the first time in his career, he was on a line with Claude Giroux and Jake Voracek.
"I was lucky to be right there and their D-man stopped and I just swung at it," said Read, who lives in Minneapolis in the offseason.
The Flyers maintained the lead as Mason stopped Mikael Granlund's doorstep attempt with 9:30 to go in the second. Three minutes later, his glove save denied Jared Spurgeon on his ticketed right-circle blast while the Wild were on a power play.
With 2:01 left in the first period, the Flyers knotted the score at 1-1 on the sizzling Couturier's 12th goal of the season.
Taking a pass from Brayden Schenn, Couturier put a point-blank backhander through the legs of goalie Devan Dubnyk. It gave him three goals and 10 points in his last 10 games.
That hot streak started one game after the Flyers acquired second-line center Valtteri Filppula from Tampa Bay.
The sequence that produced Couturier's goal started with defenseman Brandon Manning's making a patient pass to Dale Weise, who chipped the puck ahead to Schenn.
"Schenner made a nice play to put the puck in an area where I was able to put it on net," Couturier said.
Minnesota had taken an early 1-0 lead on a gift goal. Thanks you, Zach Parise said.
Mason was down on one knee trying to cover a long dump-in by defenseman Gustav Olofsson. Mason couldn't handle the slow-moving shot, and Eric Staal knocked it loose before Parise deposited the rebound for his 17th goal.
"They got a lucky bounce at the start, but we didn't let it bother us and we continued to play hard," Couturier said.
After the gaffe, Mason settled into a groove. He stopped 20 of 21 shots in the first 40 minutes.
The Flyers' four-game road trip started with a listless 3-1 loss in Winnipeg on Tuesday. Afterward, Mason criticized the team's effort and said the Flyers didn't play with enough desperation.
"We had too many spurts in that game," Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said before Thursday's opening faceoff. " ... We need to be able to do the simple things for a full 60 minutes."
They then went out and, showing energy that was missing in two of the previous three games, did just that.
