Heroics from Owen Tippett lift the Flyers to a road win against the Detroit Red Wings

DETROIT ― Detroit may be known for Motown, but on Saturday night, on national television, it was Motownphilly.

Coming off a dominating win against the Chicago Blackhawks at home, the Flyers went into Little Caesars Arena, continued the trend, and handed the Detroit Red Wings a 5-3 loss.

The Flyers have won two straight, five of their past six, and 11 of the 16 games since the Olympic break. “It’s long overdue, but now Philly is slammin’,” as Boyz II Men sing.

Philly now has 84 points and moved three points back of the Columbus Blue Jackets, who lost to the San Jose Sharks on Saturday, for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference. The Flyers have a game in hand on Columbus.

They are also four points back of the Pittsburgh Penguins for the three-seed in the Metropolitan Division and five points behind the New York Islanders for the two-seed, with a game in hand on Pittsburgh and two on New York. On Saturday, Pittsburgh lost to the Dallas Stars, and New York jumped into second with a win against the Florida Panthers.

Detroit almost staged a comeback in the final seven minutes of the game, with Mason Appleton scoring off a long dump-in, Alex DeBrincat taking a pass in the right circle and shooting it quickly, and Lucas Raymond curling and scoring from the left circle during a six-on-five.

But Sean Couturier iced it with a goal in his third straight game as he sent the puck into the empty net with just over two minutes to go.

“I loved our game for 55 minutes,” coach Rick Tocchet said. “Obviously, the five-on-six, a couple of things happened that we have to shore up. When the pressure hit us, we ran out of position, but that’s for another day. It’s a big win for us.”

Owen Tippett started things off just over four minutes into the game with his first of three goals. Detroit defenseman Moritz Seider tried to dangle through the neutral zone but had the puck slide off his stick thanks to pressure from Denver Barkey. It went right to Trevor Zegras, who sent the pass up to Tippett, and away the speedster went. He skated in, blowing past Simon Edvinsson and scoring five-hole on John Gibson.

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In the second period, he extended the lead to 2-0 with another five-hole goal.

Barkey carried the puck through the neutral zone, pushing the Red Wings’ defense of Seider and Edvinsson back as he entered the zone. He dished it to Tippett on his left a few feet into the offensive zone and cut in front of Tippett as Edvinsson went down to one knee to try and block the shot. Instead, the puck went through the legs of Edvinsson and through Gibson.

“He did a really good job,” Tippett said of Barkey. “I don’t think I have that space if he doesn’t take the route he does and pick the guy he does. He does a great job wheeling it up the ice and grabbing middle and backing those two defenders off. ... He opened up that ice for me the whole way.”

Later in the middle frame, the Flyers’ power play collected for the third time in 12 games and 35 opportunities.

Noah Cates won the offensive-zone faceoff, and the Flyers got to work. Eventually, Travis Konecny threw the puck on goal, and it deflected off Matvei Michkov sitting near the left post, off the pad of Gibson, and popped in front.

Cates, who was sitting on the right post, jammed it in for his seventh goal and 15 points in the 16 games since the Olympic break. He leads the Flyers in points during that stretch and has also hit a career high in goals with his 17th of the season.

The Red Wings and Flyers then traded goals; however, each was wiped away by a coach’s challenge for offside. Seider thought he scored on a power play with under two minutes to go in the second period to make it 3-1 — Tocchet gave credit to his video coach, Dylan Crawford, who told him it was one of the easier ones to call — and Christian Dvorak thought he made it 4-0 early in the third; however, Alex Bump went in a little too early.

But Tippett put the game away and completed the hat trick later in the final frame with a beauty of a power-play goal. He got the puck in the Flyers’ end, skated through the neutral zone, appeared to pass it to himself to get around Ben Chiarot, before going bar down to make it a 2-for-2 night with the man advantage for Philly.

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Tippett has 27 goals on the season and 48 points — he added an assist on the Couturier goal — putting him one goal shy of his career high set in 2023-24. He has eight goals and 12 points in his past 11 games.

“He’s been an absolute game breaker for us,” said Jamie Drysdale, who had two assists and reached 100 career points. “He’s just someone that you do not want to go up against. You have to know where he is at all times on the ice, and even if you do, there’s a good chance he’s still going to burn you.”

And although he did give up three goals, Dan Vladař was once again masterful in net. In the first period, he stoned Patrick Kane, the holder of the record for the most points by a U.S.-born player in NHL history, with a left pad save off a cross-ice pass. Vladař stopped Justin Faulk and J.T. Compher on consecutive shots in the third period before the Red Wings tallied their three.

But he shut the door in the end, stopping a DeBrincat slap shot, a Dylan Larkin tip-in, and using the blocker to rob DeBrincat again after Couturier’s goal. Vladař made 30 saves and now has 24 wins on the season, almost doubling his previous career high of 14 set in 2022-23 with the Calgary Flames.

Defenseman Travis Sanheim made a big block on a one-timer by Raymond in the last minute of the second period during a Detroit power play. He went down in pain, stayed on until the horn, and then gingerly got off as his teammates came off the bench to check on him and tap him for the big play. Sanheim was back out there for the start of the third. ... Michkov now has 39 points with six assists coming in his last six games. Konecny had two assists to give him 62 points in 68 games. ... Gibson was pulled after Tippett’s third goal, and former Flyers goalie Cam Talbot entered the game. He made four saves. ... Defenseman Noah Juulsen and forward Garrett Wilson were healthy scratches. They watched from the press box alongside forward Tyson Foerster, who participated in morning skate. ... Defenseman Cam York played in his 300th NHL game. ... Flyers prospects Porter Martone, Shane Vansaghi, and Michigan State lost to Wisconsin in the regional final on Saturday. The expectation is that Martone will sign his entry-level contract in the coming days and could make his NHL debut Tuesday in Washington, D.C. against the Capitals.

The Flyers get right back to it at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Sunday, when they host the Dallas Stars (7 p.m., NBCSP). The Stars have already clinched a playoff spot.