Flyers clinch a playoff spot with a 3-2 shootout win over the Carolina Hurricanes

The roars started when the Flyers came out onto the ice. They continued when the starting lineup was announced and when the puck was dropped.

They dipped and dropped and rose again across 65 minutes of heart-racing action as the Flyers trailed 2-0, rallied to tie the game, and traded chances in overtime, with the Carolina Hurricanes’ Jackson Blake hitting the pipe and Matvei Michkov failing to convert on a breakaway.

And they became deafening when Tyson Foerster, the fourth shooter for the Flyers, found the back of the net in the shootout to give the Flyers the lead. The winger, who missed 49 games with an upper-body injury and was not expected to return this season, said he’d been practicing the snap shot against Dan Vladař that he used to beat Hurricanes goalie Brandon Bussi.

But the roar in the building was nowhere as loud as when Vladař stoned defenseman Alexander Nikishin, with Christian Dvorak calling it “electric.” The Czech netminder, who came to Philly just wanting a chance to prove himself, raised his hands in the air as the bench emptied, the coaches hugged, and teenager Porter Martone jumped into his arms first.

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At the start of the season, many didn’t expect this moment. They didn’t expect it when the team posted a .367 winning percentage in January or when the Olympic break hit. And they certainly didn’t expect it on March 10 when the Flyers were nine points out of a playoff spot.

Yet, here we are.

With a 3-2 shootout win over the Hurricanes, the Flyers clinched the third seed in the Metropolitan Division and will face the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The Flyers are the first team in NHL history to make the playoffs after facing at least a nine-point deficit through 60 or more games played in a season.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” said an emotional Owen Tippett. “These guys in this room love each other. All the doubters all year, we believed right from the start, right from training camp. It’s going to be a blast, and we’re going to soak it all in, but jobs not done.”

Philly came out firing on all cylinders, and before Carolina got its first shot on goal more than eight minutes into the game, the hometown team had six shots stopped by Bussi, in addition to six other shot attempts.

But on the Hurricanes’ second shot of the game, Bradly Nadeau found the back of the net. Former Flyers defenseman Sean Walker sent a dump-in around the boards, and Nikolaj Ehlers got there before Travis Konecny. He carried it low and fed Nadeau as he crashed down the middle untouched.

Later in the period, Dvorak was called for holding when he bear-hugged Blake. On the ensuing power play, the Hurricanes took a 2-0 lead when Ehlers banked the puck in off Vladař from the goal line. Logan Stankoven tried to find Blake in the middle, but his pass went off the skate of Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim and right to an open Ehlers.

Vladař allowed two goals on six shots, and things started to look bleak as the fans booed the team off the ice when the period ended.

“Just to relax,” coach Rick Tocchet said of his message to the team after the first period. “The first five, 10 minutes, we had all these chances, and then, boom, they scored two goals. I just didn’t want us to get tight.

“Forty minutes left, a lot of time so, it was just more relax. I didn’t say much, a couple of technical things, but just stick with it, stick with the game plan.”

Of course, in this game, the 81st of the season, they came back and won after trailing 1-0 for the 50th time. It was apropos.

“It was a rollercoaster,” Dvorak told The Inquirer about the high-stakes game. “A lot of thoughts could go through your head, but you just got to think about your next shift and sticking to the game plan. You can’t try to do too much. Just got to play a team game. That’s what got us in this position, and I think we did that for the most part.”

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Reminder, these are the “never-say-die” Flyers and, while they outplayed the Hurricanes for the most part in the opening frame, they put two past Bussi on five shots in the second.

Michkov, who had his legs going from the puck drop, got the comeback started with his 19th goal of the season. Martone smartly went to the bench as the Flyers controlled the puck along the right wing boards, with Noah Cates and Denver Barkey doing the work.

Michkov came on for Martone, glided with his stick on the ice into the left circle, and got a cross-ice pass from Barkey on the tape. He then snapped it past the blocker of Bussi, who catches with his right hand, and the Xfinity Mobile Arena roared.

The Russian winger now has six goals and 19 points since the Olympic break and three goals and eight points in his past six games. Only Cates, who got an assist to up his total to 21 points (eight goals, 13 assists), has more than him on the Flyers since the break.

Less than three minutes later, and with the crowd still buzzing, Trevor Zegras drew a penalty, and he ended up tying things up on the ensuing power play.

Skating on the second unit with Martone, Cates, Jamie Drysdale, and Foerster, Zegras found himself all alone at the right post after the puck went around to the left boards, along with the attention of all four Hurricanes penalty killers.

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Foerster chipped the puck down to Martone, who got the puck and quickly moved it across the ice to the open Zegras. The crafty center caught it, moved to the middle, and buried it five-hole past Bussi.

Zegras now has 26 goals and 67 points, while Martone continues his point-per-game pace. In eight games, the rookie has eight points (three goals, five assists) and extended his point streak to five games (seven points).

When the second period ended, the boos had been swapped for cheers.

“It’s just a lot of fun,” said Zegras, who has spoken often about playing meaningful games for the first time in his NHL career.

“When you don’t do it for so long, you forget what it feels like. For an athlete, you thrive on that kind of environment, and that’s what you want. To do it with this group of guys is awesome, because we’re obviously so close and love each other so much. It’s been good.”

After 819 regular-season games, Rasmus Ristolainen will play his first playoff game. He holds the longest drought of any active player. … Vladař stopped the 20 shots he faced after the first period. … Forwards Alex Bump, Carl Grundström, Garrett Wilson, and defensemen Noah Juulsen and David Jiříček, who was recalled Sunday, were healthy scratches. … Flyers prospect Jack Berglund, who made his pro debut in North America with Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League on Saturday, watched the game from the press box. Selected in the second round of the 2024 draft, Berglund signed his entry-level contract, which starts next season, and a professional tryout agreement with Lehigh Valley for the rest of this season, on April 9. … Lauren Hart sang “God Bless America,” again to kickstart the night. … Of course, this game went beyond regulation. In each of the previous three meetings, the two teams went to one overtime and two shootouts, with Carolina winning the three prior meetings. It was the 28th time this season the Flyers went beyond 60 minutes.

The Flyers finish the regular season on Tuesday against the Montreal Canadiens (7 p.m., NBCSP).