NEWARK, N.J. _ Maybe the Flyers won't make the playoffs. Maybe their torrid late-season push will fall short.
But at least they are making things interesting.
James van Riemsdyk scored two first-period goals Friday as the Flyers defeated injury-riddled New Jersey, 6-3, at the Prudential Center, improving to 15-3-2 in their last 20 games.
Goalie Cam Talbot, making his first appearance in 20 nights, stopped 30 shots in his Flyers debut. He was acquired from Edmonton for Anthony Stolarz on Feb. 15.
Talbot became the eighth goalie to play for the Flyers this season, giving them an unwanted NHL record.
Travis Konecny (two goals) finished the Flyers' scoring with an empty-net tally.
Van Riemsdyk and Jake Voracek (three assists) each had three points for the Flyers, who have 17 games left. They started the night six points out of the final wild-card spot. What once was a 16-point deficit has been reduced to a manageable number, though there is little margin for error.
The Flyers took a 3-2 lead on a bizarre goal by hustling right winger Konecny with 30 seconds left in the second period.
New Jersey goalie Cory Schneider tried to poke the puck away from the on-charging Konecny, but the puck bounced off the skate of Devils center Kevin Rooney and into the net.
Just 27 seconds into the third period, Sean Couturier padded the lead to 4-2. Taking a feed from Claude Giroux, he weaved around traffic and scored from the left circle for his 26th goal.
With 6:33 left in regulation, defenseman Ivan Provorov, of all people, tipped in Travis Sanheim's drive to make it 5-2.
The Flyers' power play did little after Kurtis Gabriel was assessed a five-minute for boarding Nolan Patrick with 14:58 left in the first. In fact, they were outshot by a 4-2 margin during that span, including a short-handed breakaway by Blake Coleman that Talbot turned aside. (Later in the game, Patrick went after Gabriel, and there were several scrums as the Flyers sought retribution.)
But the Flyers regrouped. Van Riemsdyk took a pass from Giroux and whipped a left-circle shot past Schneider on the Flyers' next power play, putting the Flyers ahead, 1-0, with 7:07 remaining in the first.
Just 1:23 later, Ryan Hartman went behind the net and dropped a slick pass in front that van Riemsdyk converted into his 19th goal _ and sixth in the last nine games.
"Both those plays were super-great passes and I was just trying to find that soft spot," van Riemsdyk said.
The Devils tied it on second-period goals by Damon Severson and Jesper Bratt as both scored on fat rebounds allowed by Talbot.
Because of injuries, the Devils were missing seven regular forwards, including Kyle Palmieri (team-high 26 goals) and Taylor Hall, the league's MVP last season.
