Depleted Flyers muscle out a 4-3 shootout win at the Los Angeles Kings

LOS ANGELES — No Sean Couturier. No Denver Barkey. No Luke Glendening. Emil Andrae playing center. And the Flyers were closing out a back-to-back Southern California set against a rested Los Angeles Kings squad.

This could have gone bad. Real bad. Instead, the Flyers skated away with a 4-3 shootout victory. It was their fourth straight game and 25th of the season that went beyond regulation. Trevor Zegras and Matvei Michkov scored, and Sam Ersson stopped the two shots he faced during the shootout, including flashing the leather on an Artemi Panarin chance.

The Flyers have now won eight of their past 11 and narrowed the gap to five points on the Columbus Blue Jackets, who pulled ahead of the New York Islanders for the third spot in the Metropolitan Division. They remain six points back of the Detroit Red Wings and Boston Bruins for the wild cards in the Eastern Conference with both teams winning on Thursday.

The Kings struck first with Quinton Byfield snapping a shot past Ersson with 29 seconds left in the opening period. Byfield and Alex Laferriere, a Chatham, N.J. native, worked the puck around the boards in the Flyers’ zone. Defenseman Cam York couldn’t corral the puck, and it ended up on Trevor Moore’s stick in the right corner.

» READ MORE: Sean Couturier will miss Flyers’ game at the Kings with an upper-body injury

Moore patiently waited, and Byfield, after spinning away from Garnet Hathaway, cut through the slot and got the puck on the inside hashmarks of the right circle. He turned quickly and scored to put the Flyers in a 1-0 hole for the 46th time this season. They have played 68 games.

The Flyers allowed 23 shot attempts by the Kings, and had just 10 themselves in the first period. They didn’t get their first shot on goal until there were 6 minutes, 29 seconds left — but found themselves not just back in the fight in the second period, but in the lead.

Just 26 seconds into the middle frame, Travis Konecny tied things up at 1-1 with his 25th of the season.

Rasmus Ristolainen got bodied off the puck by Laferriere behind the Flyers’ net, and the Kings forward put the puck in front. However, Christian Dvorak scooped it up and carried it up the left wing before sending it across the ice to Konecny.

The alternate captain tapped it to Alex Bump as the Flyers moved up the ice, and the rookie sent it to Ristolainen, who joined the rush. Ristolainen then dropped it to Konecny, who turned and fired a wrister past Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper.

But an unlucky 21 seconds later, Kings captain Anže Kopitar helped the Kings regain the lead. Los Angeles got the puck deep and went to work against the Zegras, Owen Tippett, and Nikita Grebenkin line. Eventually, Brandt Clarke sent a shot wide of the right post, and Kopitar knocked the bank shot at the left post to put Los Angeles ahead, 2-1.

Kopitar was there after skating through above the top of the crease and getting open despite Jamie Drysdale and Zegras surrounding him. During the first TV timeout, Kopitar was honored for previously passing Marcel Dionne as the Kings’ all-time points leader.

The Flyers tied the game at 2-2 on a Noah Cates goal and then took the lead as the center got the primary assist on Travis Sanheim’s goal to put them ahead 3-2. Cates now has 11 points (four goals, seven assists) in the 12 games since the Olympic break.

» READ MORE: The Flyers have won 7 of their last 10. Here are three players behind their surge.

After he won an offensive-zone faceoff, Cates spun off former Flyer Scott Laughton — he was acquired at the NHL deadline from the Toronto Maple Leafs — to the front of the net. He then outmuscled Laughton to get his stick free and poked in the loose puck behind Kuemper off a shot by Michkov.

Cates now has 14 goals on the season, two shy of his career high set last season.

Under three minutes later, the Flyers had the lead on a shot by Sanheim.

The play started when Cates knocked the puck away from Moore as he tried to get out of the Kings’ zone and ended up with a chance in front, off a setup by Michkov. The puck went wide, and Michkov tried to score from the goal line, but defenseman Cody Ceci blocked the attempt.

Michkov then battled through Ceci and fought through a check by Laferriere as he carried the puck up the boards before dishing it up to Cates. He came off the left boards and fed Sanheim for a quick shot as Carl Grundström and Kings defenseman Brian Dumoulin were screening the goalie.

But the Kings are also fighting for a playoff spot — they entered the night tied in points for the Western Conference’s final wild card with the Seattle Kraken — and battled back to tie the game in the third period.

Michkov was in the box for a questionable hooking call, and Artemi Panarin, who was acquired by the Kings from the New York Rangers in February, found the back of the net. Ersson appeared to be screened by Nick Seeler and Moore.

Couturier and Barkey did not play due to upper-body injuries. Glendening has a lower-body injury. Glendening and Barkey are day-to-day. ... Forward Garrett Wilson played his first NHL game since he skated in a playoff game on April 16, 2019, for the Pittsburgh Penguins. ... Bump has four points in seven games. ... The Flyers’ power play went 0-for-2 and the penalty kill went 3-for-4.

The Flyers are off on Friday before finishing the West Coast road trip against Macklin Celebrini and the San Jose Sharks on Saturday (4 p.m., NBCSP).