Flyers takeaways: Sam Ersson is ‘unreal’ and penalty kill clicks against the Devils

The Flyers got back on track Monday night with a commanding 4-2 win against the New Jersey Devils.

Before these teams face off again Wednesday at the Prudential Center (7 p.m., TNT, truTV, Max), here are four reasons this win was important:

Once again, a healthy Sam Ersson is showing just how good he can be. Since the holiday break, he has eight wins in 10 starts with the sixth-best goals-against average (1.96) and eighth-best save percentage (.925) in the NHL among goalies who have played at least seven games.

Monday probably was his best game to date in terms of being the technical goalie he is known to be. He moved and tracked the puck well, read plays, and was in such good position it seemed as if every shot hit the Flyers logo on his chest. Of course, if needed, he made pad saves and smartly directed them into the corner and away from any rebound attempts. He finished with 31 saves on 33 shots.

“I thought Erss was unreal tonight,” Joel Farabee said. “He made all the stops we needed him to make, so credit to him.”

Ersson’s biggest save came in the second period when he stopped Jack Hughes on an odd-man rush. It probably didn’t hurt that, according to Natural Stat Trick, he had only one high-danger chance at five-on-five.

“Both teams had a lot of scoring chances,” coach John Tortorella said. “I thought he made some big saves in control.”

It’s been a while since the Flyers penalty kill has clicked. But on Monday, it went 3-for-3, with a critical four-minute kill in the first eight minutes of the game against the No. 2 power play in the NHL.

It set the tone.

» READ MORE: Flyers’ Scott Laughton seals win over New Jersey Devils, snaps two-game skid

“Sometimes when you take those early double minors, it can go either way; they score two, the whole momentum changes,” Farabee said. “But I think us shutting the door there got our legs going and got the guys into the game.”

Aside from putting pressure on the Devils as they tried to enter the zone and showcasing a diamond penalty kill when they did get set up, the Flyers held them to just three shot attempts, including two shots on the double minor.

They then killed a delay-of-game penalty on Ersson in the third period.

“Yeah, you know, you’ve got to kind of kill that one off,” Ersson said with a chuckle. “Otherwise it looks pretty bad.”

He had to make a pair of saves during that penalty kill.

Speaking of getting their legs going, Tortorella said before the team’s optional morning skate that he wanted his team to be better down the middle of the ice and see more consistent play from the third man.

The Flyers did just that.

“I thought we had our high man,” Tortorella said postgame. “I thought Jersey was very good at checking forward tonight. It’s the best I’ve seen them check forward, and we were doing the same thing. It was one of those games where if you don’t get it done, if you missed the puck or guy, it could be odd-man rushes. But I thought we did a good job of being on our toes.”

It’s still too early to look intensely at the playoff picture, but the win did move the Flyers (23-22-6) three points back of the second wild card. The Tampa Bay Lightning hold that spot at 55 points, and, while the Flyers have 52 now, there are four teams between them.

The Flyers are close to finishing an eight-out-of-nine-games trip through the Metropolitan Division. After they play the Devils, they’ll host the New York Islanders on Thursday. As Scott Laughton said Monday after the Flyers’ morning skate, losses feel like six-point deficits, but “we start collecting points here and see what happens.”

Points obviously are critical, but getting another regulation win is key for the Flyers. The win was No. 14 in regulation for the Orange and Black, tying them for the third-fewest in the NHL. While they have 23 total wins, regulation wins are the first tiebreaker in determining playoff berths.