Philadelphia Flyers lose 6-3 to the Columbus Blue Jackets
The Philadelphia Flyers entered this game hoping to earn their fourth win of the season.
After defeating the Florida Panthers 6-5 in a shootout in their last outing, the Philadelphia Flyers took a trip to Columbus to take on the Blue Jackets in their seventh game of the year.
Corban Knight was inserted in the lineup for rookie Mikhail Vorobyev and played in his first NHL game since the 2015-16 season. Knight was placed on the fourth line with Jori Lehtera and Dale Weise.
Calvin Pickard got the start opposing Sergei Bobrovsky. Pickard got the win in Tuesday’s victory over Florida, and boasted a 2-0-0 record coming into the game.
The Flyers received the game’s first power-play opportunity early on to start the first period after a delay-of-game penalty was taken by Columbus. The top power-play unit had their chances, posting five shots on goal during the opportunity, but Bobrovsky stood tall with some help from the goal post. The game wasn’t scoreless for long, as Travis Konecny netted his first goal of the 2018-19 season and gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead. Robert Hagg and Claude Giroux assisted on the tally.
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The Blue Jackets provided pressure soon after and it eventually lead to an Ivan Provorov tripping penalty, putting Columbus on a power-play of their own. They couldn’t capitalize on the man advantage, as the Flyers killed off the penalty. Columbus did tie the game up at one on an admittedly beautiful goal from Anthony Duclair. Sean Couturier regained the lead and the Flyers ended the first period up 2-1. Provorov finally notched his first point of the season assisting with Giroux on Couturier’s goal.
Columbus tied the game up early in the second period on a goal from Cam Atkinson, his third for the year. Moments later, Atkinson netted his second tally of the game and gave the Blue Jackets a quick 3-2 lead. Nick Foligno went on to score the third straight goal for Columbus and the Flyers found themselves down by two to end the second. They did possess the shots-on-goal advantage, leading 27-22.
Oskar Lindblom brought the Flyers within one to begin the third, scoring on a nice feed from Konecny. Riley Nash took a slashing penalty not long after, but the Flyers couldn’t tie the game up at four. Columbus sat back to try and protect their lead while the Flyers applied pressure in their zone, but Bobrovsky stood his ground. Jordan Weal took a costly slashing penalty with 7:54 to go in the period, giving the Blue Jackets a prime chance to add to their lead. The Flyers killed it off, but Christian Folin committed a horrible turnover in his own zone seconds later and Columbus took a two goal lead thanks to Josh Anderson. Sonny Milano shut the door, and the Blue Jackets won 6-3.
Pickard struggled in-net, allowing six goals on 28 shots on goal. Michal Neuvirth will be returning from injury soon, and it’s looking more likely that the Flyers will just move on from Pickard given his shaky performances.
Konecny and Giroux both had two points on the night, which lead the team. It was nice to see Konecny net his first goal of the season, as well as Provorov getting his first point too.
Next. Giroux off to a good start in 2018-19. dark
The Flyers are now 3-4-0 on the season and will play the New Jersey Devils in a matinee on Saturday.