Road warrior Flyers pull away from the San Jose Sharks to sweep their West Coast trip

SAN JOSE, Calif. ― The Flyers are California dreamin’.

On Monday, they headed west to face three teams, the Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings, and San Jose Sharks, across four days. They capped a sweep of the trip with a 4-1 win over the Sharks on Saturday.

Philly has now won four of five, nine of 12, and earned at least a point in six straight. The Flyers’ road winning streak is now at seven games, tying the second-longest run in franchise history (2017-18 and 1985-86). The longest is eight games set in 1982-83.

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The Flyers had a few opportunities to take the lead in the first period, notably when a shorthanded chance from Owen Tippett missed the net, went off the end boards, the skate of goalie Alex Nedeljkovic, and into the crease. Sharks forward Kiefer Sherwood knocked it away as it was heading for the goal line.

But Tippett made good in the second period with his fifth goal in the past eight games.

The play started when Noah Juulsen scooped up the puck in the defensive zone and fed it up to Trevor Zegras, who was curling toward the boards. After he curled around, he sent a sharp pass toward Tippett down the left wing.

It was almost a bad pass as Sharks defenseman Nick Leddy got a stick on the puck, but Tippett picked it up, went around the 35-year-old journeyman, and scored glove side to make it 1-0.

During the Flyers’ recent 8-2-1 stretch, special teams have haunted them. On Saturday, the ghosts slipped in and out.

The penalty kill has been inconsistent, allowing at least one power-play goal in eight of the past nine games. On Saturday, they allowed one in four opportunities, with defenseman Dmitry Orlov sneaking down into the bumper position and scoring off a pass from William Eklund.

But the Flyers finally broke through on the power play after starting 0-for-3 with 16 shot attempts, including five shots on goal and eight scoring chances, while using new units. One unit featured Zegras, Noah Cates, Travis Konecny, Matvei Michkov, and Rasmus Ristolainen, while the other had Alex Bump, Christian Dvorak, Tippett, Travis Sanheim, and Jamie Drysdale.

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The Flyers got an early power-play chance in the third period when Garnet Hathaway, skating with Konecny and Dvorak, got a hard shot on goal down the left wing and then trucked Macklin Celebrini in the corner as he was moving a pass up the boards. Sharks’ defenseman Mario Ferraro went to the defense of the star player and got a minor for roughing.

On the ensuing man advantage, Zegras dished to Michkov at the San Jose blue line, and he carried it down to the half wall before sending it to Konecny.

The winger received the pass in the left circle, stopped, and turned to feed Dvorak — on in place of Cates, who was still in the box for dropping his gloves with Barclay Goodrow after he put an awkward hit on Zegras late in the second period — as he crept in down the right side.

Dvorak quickly put it on goal for the Flyers’ first power-play goal since March 9 against the New York Rangers; they were 0-for-16 in the last five games. The centerman now has 14 goals on the season. Michkov’s assist gave him 100 points in 148 NHL games, and he has four assists across a three-game point streak.

The power play finished 1-for-5. ... Sanheim and Cates added empty-netters to seal the win. Sanheim has five points in his past six games. Cates has a three-game goal streak and four points in the past three games. … Konecny now has hit the 60-point mark for the fourth straight season. … Sean Couturier (upper-body injury), Denver Barkey (upper-body injury), and Luke Glendening (lower-body injury) missed their second straight game. Barkey did take warmups but was unable to go, and Tocchet said pregame he was day-to-day. … Forward Garrett Wilson dropped the gloves with noted enforcer Ryan Reaves early in the first period. Wilson’s last NHL fight was on March 7, 2019, against Nick Foligno, then of the Columbus Blue Jackets, when Wilson played for the Pittsburgh Penguins. … Dvorak was wearing an “A” with Couturier out and had an assist on Cates’ empty-netter, giving him 41 points in 68 games. … Cates earned his second fighting major of the season. He previously dropped the gloves with Anaheim Ducks forward Jansen Harkins in defense of then-Flyers forward Bobby Brink in January. ... Dan Vladař was once again fantastic in goal, stopping 24 of 25 shots, including 12 in the third period.

A critical stretch of games begins Tuesday with the Blue Jackets visiting Xfinity Mobile Arena (7 p.m., ESPN+, Hulu).