In a battle of the basement dwellers of the Metropolitan Division, the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-3thanks to strong performances by the top line of Morgan Frost, Owen Tippett, and James van Riemsdyk, 2 goals from Travis Konecny, and they were backstopped by Carter Hart who made 30 saves.
Konecny scored the game’s opening goal as well as the game winner on two very skilled moves, Tippett regathered the lead late in the second period as well as finishing off the empty net opportunity, and Frost scored the game-tying goal after the Blue Jackets quickly took the lead early in the second period.
Things got a little testy in the third period after the Flyers went without a shot for 7 minutes and the Jackets scored a goal to cut the deficit in half but Carter Hart stood tall and made 12 saves in the period to nail down his 10th win of the season. The 5 goals tonight also tied a season-high in goals for the Flyers in a game.
The Flyers welcomed back Wade Allison to the lineup after being reactivated from IR, Kevin Hayes returned to the lineup after being scratched on Saturday, and Tony DeAngelo was paired up with Travis Sanheim for this game – the first time we’ve seen that duo on the ice for an extended period of time. The top line remained the same with James van Riemsdyk, Owen Tippett, and Morgan Frost. Noah Cates returned down the middle between Travis Konecny and Joel Farabee, Hayes was placed on the wing on the third line with Scott Laughton and Zack MacEwen, and Allison was on the fourth line with Nicolas Deslauriers and Patrick Brown. Justin Braun was paired up with Cam York as the top pair – something John Tortorella is staying away from claiming – remained the same with Ivan Provorov and Rasmus Ristolainen.
As for the Blue Jackets, they were without Jakub Voracek, Boone Jenner, Joonas Korpisalo, Zack Werenski, Jake Bean, Adam Boqvist, Elvis Merzlikins, Cole Sillinger, Justin Danforth, and Nick Blankenburg. Daniil Tarasov, who got the nod with both starting goaltenders on the mend, looked to gather the Blue Jackets’ third win against the Flyers this season after previously having won 5-2 on the 10th of November and 5-4 in overtime on the 15th of November.
FIRST PERIOD
The bottom 2 teams within the Metropolitan Division stayed true to their anemic offensive ways as the game started at a near snail pace with not many chances coming from either side. There was a lull of about 4-5 minutes where neither team registered a shot on goal but then Flyers seemingly found their footing with a 8-3 advantage heading into the second commercial break.
With 7:02 remaining in the first period, Rasmus Ristolainen was called for a hooking minor against Johnny Gaudreau, sending the 30th-ranked power play unit on the ice early in a tied game. However, 50 seconds into the man advantage, Travis Konecny put the Flyers ahead with a beautiful shorthanded goal after being set up by a bumper pass by Scott Laughton.
Laughton broke up a pass in the defensive zone and then sent it off the boards to Konecny, who used his speed to beat out Marcus Bjork and then made an even better move on the rookie defenseman as he finished the play off by getting the puck through the wickets of Tarasov. The goal represented Konecny’s 13th of the season and 6th in his last 10 games.
The Flyers ended the first period up 1-0 on the board, 14-8 shot advantage, and finished the period with a dangerous offensive zone shift after retreating in the final 4-5 minutes, allowing Columbus to enter the zone, garner several scoring chances, and gather momentum and confidence.
SECOND PERIOD
The Flyers’ top line had several strong shifts to start the second period with Owen Tippett and Morgan Frost showcasing their skill but Tarasov had the answer for each opportunity. That allowed the Columbus Blue Jackets to buy time and eventually get a puck past Carter Hart after Kirill Marchenko deflected a shot from the point by Jake Christiansen for his 3rd goal in 9 games, 5:58 into the second period.
The Blue Jackets kept coming in waves after the Flyers’ sloppy play was finally coming home to roost, and a turnover in the neutral zone allowed Columbus to hop on an odd-man rush with Kent Johnson ripping a snap-shot glove-side on Hart for his 8th of the season just 2:43 after Marchenko’s goal.
1:25 after Kent Johnson took the lead for Columbus, that top line of the Flyers struck again – enough can’t be said about this trio – as Morgan Frost was given so much time and ice on the left faceoff circle and he walked in and fired a snap-shot glove-side of his own on Tarasov for his 6th of the year.
Cam York did a great job at the point in setting up Frost and James van Riemsdyk did an even better job at being the net front presence and taking away any resistance for Frost who was allowed to walk in untouched with 9:56 remaining in the period.
2 minutes later, Vladislav Gavrikov was called for a holding minor, the first Columbus penalty in 2 games. After the penalty expired and with the second unit still in the offensive zone, Owen Tippett made a move at the point, played pitch and catch with Joel Farabee with the former firing a puck through the five-hole of Tarasov who got a piece of the puck, but not enough to keep it out, for his 9th of the season.
The Blue Jackets had several scoring chances in the latter third of the period, including a goal-front chance where Carter Hart just got his pad to the post in time and then an odd-man rush that was taken away by a sprawling Tony DeAngelo. The Flyers took a 3-2 lead into the third period, held a 26-20 shot advantage after 40 minutes and a slight 13-12 edge in the second period itself.
THIRD PERIOD
2:45 into the third period, Travis Konecny pulled another rabbit out of his hat as went end to end after Carter Hart made a big blocker save on the other end to double the Flyers lead. The rebound was corralled by Konecny who then went off to the races with Patrick Brown opposite him. Brown seemingly used himself as a decoy as he went straight into traffic, which allowed Konecny to make a move towards the middle of the ice, another move on a white jersey, and then backhanded the puck top shelf past Tarasov for his second of the game and 14th of the season.
Even though the Flyers didn’t necessarily sit back with a 2-goal lead, there was a little bit of a lull that the Blue Jackets were able to pounce on. Andrew Peeke made a swift move on Justin Braun as he entered the offensive zone and then fired a shot that was rifled for the top corner over Hart’s shoulder with 8:49 remaining in regulation, cutting the deficit in half.
On the very next shift, the Blue Jackets came roaring back into the offensive zone and tried jamming away at a loose puck in the blue paint, courtesy of Mathieu Olivier. Over 7 minutes later, with 3:02 remaining on the clock, Joel Farabee recorded the first Flyers shot in over 7 minutes after the Blue Jackets really turned the tide.
With 1:59 left on the clock, Tarasov was pulled for an extra attacker and the Flyers iced the game with an empty-netter 40 seconds later after a hustle play from Owen Tippett, who pounced on a bad pass from Columbus in the offensive zone.
The puck left the zone, Tippett skated hard to retrieve the puck and finished off the shot from the neutral zone for his second of the game and 10th of the season.
The Philadelphia Flyers finished off a strong game with a 5-3 victory, they outshot the Columbus Blue Jackets 39-33, but in the final seconds of the game Carter Hart made a save in a delicate region of his body and took some time to get up and receive the head bumps from his teammates to celebrate the victory.
UP NEXT
The Flyers embark on a five-game road trip that begins on Thursday when they take on the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena in the Maple Leafs’ Next Gen Game.
