Flyers lose Cates to injury for rest of second-round series vs. Hurricanes

VOORHEES, N.J. — If the Flyers want to make a comeback in this best-of-seven second-round playoff matchup, they’ll have to do it without Noah Cates.

The all-situation center will miss the remainder of the series with a lower-body injury.

The Flyers trail the Hurricanes 2-0 as the series shifts to Philadelphia for Game 3 on Thursday night.

In the Flyers’ 3-2 overtime loss Monday night, Cates played 20:53 minutes. After the game, he was seen sitting on an equipment box and being wheeled to the locker room by head athletic trainer Tommy Alva. Cates wasn’t writhing in pain, but the Flyers clearly didn’t want him to put pressure on one of his legs.

This is undoubtedly a big loss for the Flyers against the Eastern Conference’s top seed. Cates is arguably the team’s top defensive forward. He posted a career year in the regular season with 18 goals and 47 points. He also had a team-best plus-26 mark.

“He was Mr. Consistency all year,” Rick Tocchet said Wednesday after practice. “He does a lot of things for us. But it’s no different than other teams, next man up. You’ve heard the drill before.”

In the playoffs, Cates hasn’t committed a penalty. He has recorded a goal, three assists and a minus-2 mark in 16:20 minutes per game.

(More coming…)