PHILADELPHIA — Goaltending has been a focal point when it comes to the Philadelphia Flyers for, oh, about half a century now. So naturally it has been again this season, particularly as the team went from being relatively comfortable in playoff position a month ago to now fighting for their lives to get in. Entering Saturday, the Flyers sat dead last in the league with just an .883 team save percentage.

Samuel Ersson was only supposed to play about 18 to 20 games, according to coach John Tortorella, as the No. 2 to Carter Hart. But because of Hart’s departure, and subpar play from everyone else in the system, Ersson got in his 50th game on Saturday against the Devils.

He stopped all 19 shots he saw, Travis Konecny scored a short-handed goal in the second period, and the Flyers prevailed in a must-win game, 1-0. Their playoff hopes are still alive, although they’ll need the teams around them to squander some points, while also beating the Capitals on Tuesday in their season finale, if they are to qualify.

What a way to notch career point No. 400, Travis Konecny! 👏 pic.twitter.com/HlTmnn93cc

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It was the second straight standout performance from Ersson, who recorded his first shutout since Jan. 13 in Winnipeg. Along with his 24-save performance on 25 shots at Madison Square Garden on Thursday, he has the Flyers once again hoping they can sneak into the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

Despite Ersson’s significant struggles throughout the team’s eight-game losing streak, in which he was 0-4-1 with a .787 save percentage in six games, Tortorella has been nothing but complimentary of the 24-year-old Sweden native all season. He has admitted that he overplayed Ersson, who has now seen action in 31 of the last 37 games, but after Saturday’s game remarked that he’s “not apologizing to anybody” for doing it.

Ersson’s reestablishing himself late in the season to keep the Flyers in the mix is “what I love about him,” said the coach.

“He was battling. He has found something here,” Tortorella said. “That isn’t a physical skill, that’s a mental skill. Every time we talk about Ers, what do I talk about? His mental toughness. I’m thrilled for him that he’s been able to keep us afloat. A couple huge games. Low-event game, very hard for goalies. Stood in there. I’m so happy for him. This is a great process for him.”

That Saturday’s game was “low event” was perhaps an understatement from Tortorella, as the game was dreadfully dull for long stretches. Sure, there were some scoring chances — the Flyers squandered a two-man advantage for 1:13 early in the game, while Ersson made impressive stops on Graeme Clarke about eight minutes into the first period, and then denied Timo Meier cutting to the net all alone with three and a half minutes to go in the opening frame — but neither team was able to generate much through the neutral zone.

That was fine with the Flyers, who had lost their defensive structure and their composure late in their losing streak, particularly in ugly losses to the Blue Jackets and Canadiens.

“When you’re struggling to score, sometimes you might look for a play that you normally wouldn’t, and I think we were kind of gripping our sticks too tight and looking for the perfect play at times,” said Erik Johnson. “We’ve been playing a little more direct, a little simpler, and I think it’s just led to us spending less time in our zone and more time in theirs.”

Regardless of whether the Flyers get in, it’s at least encouraging for them that they’ve been able to rebound from looking positively lost just a week ago. Tortorella and everyone else in the organization have spoken about how valuable this experience of playing meaningful games late in the season is for the group. Gaining knowledge about which players are thriving, and which might not be, will influence their offseason decisions to come.

One of those decisions will be whether to re-sign Konecny — something that could be inevitable at this point, as, like Ersson, he’s found his game again after looking off a week ago.

Konecny’s short-handed goal was his league-leading sixth of the season, but first since Jan. 6. On the play, Scott Laughton headed up the ice a bit early, but an alert Nick Seeler poked him the puck allowing Laughton to flip a lead pass to Konecny who was charging the other way with a head of steam. He beat Kaapo Kahkonen with a low shot to the glove side at 10:50 of the second.

“When we’re all connected there it works pretty well,” Konecny said. “Thank God (Seeler) was thinking what me and Laughty were thinking because I don’t know what would have happened the other way.”

“That play could blow up on us,” Tortorella said. “A backhand through the middle of the ice to T.K. going down, it gets through. If it doesn’t it could be in the back of our net. (Assistant coach Brad Shaw) runs it that way, he wants them to go for it. They’ve had a connection with this all year long. T.K. is a guy, there was some struggles with him prior to these couple of games. He’s played so well to give us a chance here. That’s one guy we talk about learning to play in these games. He certainly has taken a huge step in trying to help us stay alive.”

Konecny spoke after the game in New York about the Flyers’ pregame meeting that day helping to reset their focus. The gist of it seems to be that they knew they had lost control of their own fortune, but they weren’t dead and at least wanted to go down fighting.

The way they wanted to approach the final three games of the regular season, according to Konecny, was: “As long as we go home after the last three and say we gave it our best shot, that’s all you can do. You can feel it in the room right now. Guys want to prove that we should be in the spot we’re at.”

The building came alive late in regulation, as the Devils pulled Kahkonen with a little more than two minutes to play. Ersson needed to make just one save — from close range on Meier in front of the net — while his teammates did the rest, blocking shots and clearing the zone multiple times to kill the clock.

It wasn’t quite a playoff atmosphere, according to Tortorella. But he, and everyone else, are still hopeful that could be on the horizon, with a little luck.

“That’s what I want them to taste,” Tortorella said, “is playoff atmosphere.”

(Photo: Kyle Ross / USA Today)