PHILADELPHIA — James van Riemsdyk scored the only goal in a shootout, and the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Minnesota Wild, 5-4, on Thursday night for coach John Tortorella’s 700th career victory.
Tortorella is 700-573-181 in 1,454 games as an NHL head coach. His 700 wins rank 12th in NHL history, and his career games rank ninth in NHL history. He led Tampa Bay to the Stanley Cup in 2004 and is in his first season coaching the Flyers. Tortorella joined Peter Laviolette as the second American-born coach to win 700 games.
Scott Laughton, Joel Farabee, Rasmus Ristolainen and Tyson Foerster scored for the Flyers.
Matt Boldy had two goals for the Wild, and Oskar Sundqvist and Marcus Foligno also scored.
The Flyers and Wild were tied 1-1 at the end of the first period, 3-3 at the end of the second and 4-4 headed into OT.
The rebuilding Flyers have been plucky of late. They had won two of three coming into the game, with the lone loss in overtime. They showed some of that grit in the final two periods, scoring late tying goals.
“It’s a credit to their group, to their coaching staff, that they’ve got them playing the right way,” Wild coach Dean Evason said.
Boldy poked a backhander past Carter Hart with 6:28 left for a 4-3 lead. The Flyers tied the score on Foerster’s second goal of the season.
Farabee tipped in Cam York’s shot early in the second for a 2-1 lead.
The Wild got going when Boldy ripped one top shelf past Hart for his 24th goal of the season that tied the score 2-all. Foligno scored his seventh goal for the 3-2 lead.
Ristolainen buried a hard slapper from the blue line on the power play for the tying goal with 23 seconds left in the second.
“Some things are a little bit different than they would be maybe if this was a team, you know two teams battling for the same position, but it’s still an NHL hockey game. We’re playing real well of late,” Flyers defenseman Tony DeAngelo said. “I think it’s good to try to lay this foundation, kind of get ready for next year. You see guys getting confidence.”
The Flyers only played ahead in the first period.
Laughton scored off the rush for his 17th goal of the season and a 1-0 lead. Sundqvist celebrated his birthday with a deflection for the tying goal with 3:24 left in the period.
