The Philadelphia Flyers were unable to collect their third 3-game winning streak of the season after dropping a 3-2 contest in the shootout against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Bobby Brink opened the scoring just under 4 minutes into the game before Zach Werenski’s first tally of the night evened things up at the midway mark of the period. Owen Tippett then reclaimed the lead in the third period just for Werenski to tie things up again late in the third.
Overtime solved nothing as both clubs headed to the shootout, where Kent Johnson opened the scoring before Kirill Marchenko iced the game in the third round after misses from Travis Konecny and Matvei Michkov.
Ivan Fedotov made 27 saves en route to the loss while Daniil Tarasov earned his first win since late October as he stopped 23 shots.
Looking for their third straight win, the Flyers visited the Blue Jackets on the second leg of their back-to-back slate.
After a thrilling 4-3 win over the Florida Panthers on Monday and a 6-0 win over the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday, the Flyers have been playing some of their best hockey all season long. After two close affairs with the Toronto Maple Leafs, they dropped a dud against Dallas but have held their own ever since. John Tortorella kept the same lines and lineup intact which meant another game for Joel Farabee in the press box despite Olle Lycksell only seeing 8:21 of ice time on Monday.
Ivan Fedotov earned the start in goal as the Flyers gave Samuel Ersson the night off after earning the victory against Florida on home ice. Fedotov looked to not only improve on his 4-5-2 record, 3.40 GAA, and .874 SV% but was looking for his first win since November 29th – a stretch of 3 games considering his press box exile.
As for the Blue Jackets, they entered the game in the second Wild Card position in the East, riding a 4-game winning streak, and had 7 wins across their last 10 games. One of their three losses in that span came against the Flyers in overtime on the 21st of December when Philadelphia scored 4 goals in the third period to force extra-time.
Offensively they had been paced by Zach Werenski’s 35 assists and 48 points, Kirill Marchenko’s 18 goals and 47 points, and the injured Sean Monahan’s 41 points. Daniil Tarasov earned the start as he looked to improve on his 3-6-1 record, 4.23 GAA, and a .857 SV% and was on the hunt for his first win since October 22nd, a span of 6 games.
FIRST PERIOD
The Flyers opened the scoring after Bobby Brink broke his 20-game goalless drought at the 3:44 mark of the first period. Nick Seeler did a terrific job at holding the puck at the point before threading a perfect pass to Brink who went straight to the net for the deflection. Jamie Drysdale recorded the secondary assist, the goal represented Brink’s 5th of the season and Seeler’s assist had him one point shy of tying his career-high he set in 2022-23 across 73 games.
The Blue Jackets tied the game up with 9:33 remaining after the red-hot Zach Werenski finished off his breakaway blocker-side on Ivan Fedotov. The defenseman took advantage of a loose puck at the blue-line after Rasmus Ristolainen’s pass went into Noah Cates’ skates, which sprung his opportunity. The goal represented his league-leading 14th amongst defensemen and his 49th point on the season.
The period came to a close with both clubs tied at 1-apiece and the Flyers holding a slight edge in shots at 9-8.
SECOND PERIOD
1:50 into the second period, Dante Fabbro was called for the game’s first penalty as he was called for a high-sticking minor against Brink with the Flyers pressing offensively. They created a couple of chances but it wasn’t an overly dangerous first attempt with the extra skater after coming into tonight’s game with 4 power play goals over their last 2 contests.
With 8:21 remaining in the period, tempers flared after Mathieu Olivier ran Travis Sanheim over deep in the Flyers’ end. Travis Konecny didn’t take too kindly to the hit or the fact that Olivier was goading Sanheim into a fight, which eventually resulted in coincidental roughing minors and an extra interference penalty against Konecny, sending the Jackets onto the power play.
With 19 seconds remaining, the Blue Jackets came within inches of taking a lead into the third period after Werenski’s point shot defected off of Cam York and hit the post. The Flyers survived the late scare as both teams headed into the intermission still tied at 1 on the scoreboard and tied at 17 shots apiece on the shot-clock.
THIRD PERIOD
During a relatively slow and quiet third period, Fedotov came up with a huge save as he robbed Damon Severson who snuck in behind the defense and had a lot of net to shoot at. The hulking goaltender used his size advantage to close in at the last second with a key stop to keep the game tied with about 13 minutes left to play.
Coming out of the commercial break and 1:13 after the Fedotov save, Owen Tippett broke the deadlock with a seemingly harmless shot from distance that managed to beat Tarasov through the five-hole. Tippett used Fabbro as a screen as he recorded his 13th of the season on a shot that Tarasov certainly would want to have back.
Zach Aston-Reese was nailed for a high-sticking minor with 7:50 remaining, sending the Flyers onto their second power play of the night. It was a very similar showing to their first attempt, which didn’t result in anything dangerous at a critical point in the game.
With momentum from the late penalty kill, Werenski scored his second goal of the night after finishing off the one-timer from a great feed by Kirill Marchenko. Scott Laughton was stripped off the puck by Werenski before they jettisoned onto an odd-man rush that resulted in the game-tying goal with 4:37 remaining.
The final period came to a close with a frantic sequence after the Flyers iced the puck with about 6 seconds remaining. The Jackets won the draw before Severson was denied by Fedotov once again as his shot from the slot was stopped by the goaltender with force.
A very even game was sent to overtime with both clubs tied at 2-apiece and the Jackets holding a 25-24 edge in shots.
THIRD PERIOD
Fedotov came up with an even bigger stop in the early portion of overtime after Werenski jumped on a breakaway attempt at the behest of Matvei Michkov. Going for his hat trick goal, Werenski tried to sneak one through Fedotov’s five-hole but was quickly denied.
Overtime solved nothing with the Flyers recording just one shot on goal to the Blue Jackets’ 3.
SHOOTOUT
Round 1
Kent Johnson: GOAL
Travis Konecny: Miss
Round 2
Adam Fantilli: Miss
Matvei Michkov: Miss
Round 3
Kirill Marchenko: GOAL
Marchenko impressively one-handed the puck through Fedotov’s five-hole to lift the Blue Jackets to a comeback win over the Flyers, 3-2, in the shootout.
UP NEXT
The Flyers head to UBS Arena on Thursday to take on the New York Islanders for the first time this season (7:30pm; NBCSP).
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