The streak continues as the suddenly white-hot Philadelphia Flyers have now won 5 consecutive games, swept their back-to-back series, and earned their 10th victory of the season after dispatching Columbus by a score of 5-2. The loss represented the Blue Jackets’ 9th straight and 13th in 14 games.
After defeating the Vegas Golden Knights yesterday, the Flyers continued their winning ways against Columbus for the 2nd time this season after another solid 60-minute effort.
Joel Farabee opened the scoring – as per usual – Bobby Brink scored a power play in his first game back from the press box, Ryan Poehling’s shorthanded goal turned out to be the game-winner, and then Travis Konecny added the all-important insurance goal late in their third before Cam York’s empty-netter sealed the deal.
Samuel Ersson made 20 saves for his 3rd win of the season and the Flyers get to rest up with a 5-game winning streak on hand before they suit up again on Wednesday night when they face off against the New York Islanders.
Looking to extend their winning streak to 5 games, the Flyers welcomed the Blue Jackets into the confines of the Wells Fargo Center, looking for a similar result as their season opener when they won 4-2. Since it was the back-end of a back-to-back set, Samuel Ersson made his way into the crease after Carter Hart backstopped the Flyers to a huge 4-3 overtime victory yesterday against the reigning Stanley Cup champions.
Bobby Brink made his way into the lineup in lieu of Morgan Frost and Marc Staal remained out of the lineup. Some of the lines remained the same with Sean Couturier centering Tyson Foerster and Travis Konecny, Scott Laughton jumped up to the second line with Cam Atkinson and Owen Tippett on his wings, Ryan Poehling was on the third line with Joel Farabee and Bobby Brink, and Noah Cates was centering Nicolas Deslauriers and Garnet Hathaway.
As for the Blue Jackets, they entered tonight’s game with a 4-10-4 record and searching for answers. They decided to scratch Patrik Laine, they previously scratched Johnny Gaudreau earlier this week, and defensemen Ivan Provorov and Zach Werenski paced the team with just 11 points on the season. Spencer Martin got the nod tonight with a 1-4-1 record, a 3.26 GAA, and a .905 SV%.
FIRST PERIOD
The Philadelphia Flyers success in the first period is awe-inspiring considering how bad they used to be for years on end in the opening 20 minutes. With a 5-1 shot advantage in the first 5 minutes, Joel Farabee scored the game’s opening goal at the 5:11 mark.
Owen Tippett and Scott Laughton were at the end of a shift in the neutral zone with the puck before dropping it back to Cam York inside his own blue-line. As York waited for the reinforcements, he made a pass to Ryan Poehling who tried to dump it in. The puck bounced off a Blue Jackets skater and into the offensive zone where a streaking Farabee picked it up, controlled it, and roofed a backhander under duress past Spencer Martin.
It was Farabee’s 7th goal of the season, 4th to open a game, and 6th to open the scoring for the Flyers.
With 9:40 remaining in the opening period, Yegor Chinakhov was called for a slashing minor, sending a Flyers power play that had just broken out of it’s slump yesterday onto the ice looking for an early 2-0 lead. There was offensive zone time and pressure but outside of an Owen Tippett scoring chance in the slot, not much was happening.
With a delayed penalty that was going against Philadelphia, Columbus was able to tie the game after Alexandre Texier ripped a hard shot through the legs of Nick Seeler and past Samuel Ersson with 4:58 left to play. Sean Kuraly was tripped up by Tyson Foerster but he was able to quickly gather himself, retain the puck, and find Texier in the slot.
With 3:01 left to play, Nicolas Deslauriers dropped the gloves with Mathieu Olivier. Haymakers were attempted, punches were landed, but in the end a gentlemen’s draw was awarded.
After a strong start to the game, the Flyers regressed with tired legs as the Blue Jackets not only tied the game before the intermission but also caught up in shots as they finished the period on an 8-3 run.
SECOND PERIOD
1:05 into the middle frame, Kirill Marchenko was called for a tripping minor and all it took the Flyers power play was 6 seconds for them to strike.n Laughton won the draw, Farabee dropped the pass to Sean Walker out of the scrum, and then he fed it to Brink along the wall before rifling one past Martin for his 4th goal of the season.
4 minutes later the Flyers were whistled down for a too many men on the ice minor. Near the end of the penalty kill, the Flyers jumped on a 2-on-0 rush with Poehling and Hathaway barreling in on Martin after Walker did a fantastic job to force a turnover at the blue-line to set up the opportunity.
Poehling took the shot, flubbed it a little, but it looked to have crossed the line. The referees conferred to see if it had completely crossed the line and after a long review they confirmed the call on and the ice and Poehling was awarded his 2nd goal of the season and potted the Flyers’ 5th shorthanded goal of the season.
Looking for revenge against Hathaway for his collision from opening night that injured Werenski, Olivier went after the pesky forward, drove him into the boards, and didn’t stop pushing and shoving even when the referees convened. Olivier was awarded a double minor, while Deslauriers, who came in at the end of the scrum, received a roughing minor as well – much to the chagrin of the Blue Jackets’ broadcasting crew who thought it should’ve been evened out.
At the start of this ensuing play, it seemed like Boone Jenner interfered with Cam York a few times, and even threw a cross-check for good measure. Apparently the referees were a-okay with it and the play continued on as the Jackets were cycling things around. On a very broken play in front of the net and with a mass of bodies around Ersson, Provorov was able squeak the puck over the goal-line with just over 2 minutes remaining for his 2nd of the season.
Gaudreau put on a clinic behind the net, zig-zagging around Sanheim three times before throwing a pass into the blue paint. Jenner corralled the puck as he was standing in the blue paint and passed it behind himself to Provorov who streaked in and threw a bouncing puck past Ersson. Boone Jenner would later be credited with the goal.
A few seconds later and with 1:58 left on the clock, Foerster was called for a holding the stick minor that the Flyers were able to kill off. Philadelphia held an 11-7 shot advantage in the 2nd period as well as a 22-16 lead through 40 minutes.
THIRD PERIOD
Uncharacteristically, Sean Walker mismanaged the puck completely in his own zone, turned it over, and then was forced into taking a slashing minor, 4:01 into the final frame of regulation. Fortunately the Flyers survived with the Jackets swarming on their 3rd power play attempt.
The Flyers registered their first shot of the third period almost 12 minutes deep but not for a lack of effort. Their 2nd shot came off the stick of Travis Konecny and he was able to roof it past Martin for his 11th of the season and registering a very important goal with 7:20 left to play in regulation.
The Blue Jackets were caught on a bad line change, Konecny was able to chase down the puck, gather it, hold and wait for the right play, before being given the opportunity to walk in and rifle a shot past Martin.
On the next shift, Justin Danforth jumped on a breakaway but had his shot go high and wide. The silver lining from that play was that Brink was given a very ticky-tacky retaliatory slashing minor, sending the Jackets back on the power play with 6:08 remaining.
For their 4th consecutive man advantage tonight, the Jackets went without a shot and continued their streak of being held without a goal in their last 19 attempts. Shortly after the kill, Jenner was called for a hooking minor against Foerster with 3:33 left.
The Flyers power play lasted 26 seconds after Sanheim was called for an even more ticky-tacky holding the stick minor that the referees didn’t call until Kuraly continued to complain. So with that, the Blue Jackets pulled Martin for the extra attacker with 3:07 left.
Coming out of the commercial break, Poehling won the faceoff cleanly to York who rimmed it off the boards, got it past Werenski, and then got a favourable bounce off the boards and towards the empty net with 2:26 left for his 2nd of the season.
UP NEXT
The Flyers will visit the New York Islanders on Wednesday night (7:30pm ET, NBCSP) at UBS Arena as they look to continue their winning ways.
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