Kevin Hayes’ OT Winner Helps Flyers Complete Comeback vs Columbus

The Philadelphia Flyers forward’s OT game-winner helped the team defeat the Columbus Blue Jackets at the Nationwide Arena.

Looking to extend their winning streak to two after defeating the Columbus Blue Jackets by a score of 5-1, the Philadelphia Flyers hit the road to finish out the second half of their home-and-home series with the aforementioned Blue Jackets. Philly was also aiming to sweep the season series with their Metropolitan Division opponent, taking all of their previous three meetings coming into tonight. Brian Elliott got the nod from Head Coach Alain Vigneault in net and opposed Elvis Merzlikins on the other end of the rink. Meanwhile, the recently recalled Mark Friedman entered the lineup for Justin Braun, who was out with the flu.

This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise if you’ve watched the team this season, but the Flyers had a bad start. Oliver Bjorkstrand scored on the game’s first shot just 44 seconds in, somehow fitting the puck in an opening neat the net’s camera to give Columbus the early advantage. Though Bjorkstrand put the biscuit in a terrific spot, Elliott could’ve positioned himself slightly better on the play as he left a bit too much space up top on the angle.

Momentum once again shifted in the Blue Jackets’ favor when Nick Foligno doubled their lead, deking his way around Ivan Provorov and subsequently pantsing Elliott for his seventh tally of the season. I don’t mean to come off a bit rude there, but, uh, yeah, Foligno 100% made the Flyers look silly on that play. All looked bleak for the Orange and Black at that point up until a response from Travis Konecny, who had a Travis Sanheim shot deflect off of him and find its’ way into the back of the net to put the score at 2-1 following the opening 20. This was Konecny’s 21st goal of 2019-20, putting himself four tallies away from breaking his career-high of 24.

Columbus regained their two-goal lead just over three minutes into the second as Stefan Matteau redirected a shot from Boone Jenner by Elliott for his first NHL goal since 2015-16. The Fly Guys would storm back towards the end of the frame, scoring twice within less than two minutes of each other to tie everything up at three going into the third. Nicolas Aube-Kubel and Claude Giroux were responsible for the game-changing tallies, with each player earning a two and seven-point streak in the process.

After both sides failed to pull ahead during the final frame of regulation, the game headed to extras where Kevin Hayes potted the game-winner in overtime, beating Merzlikins top-shelf on his glove side to give the Flyers a 4-3 victory. This win was huge for Philadelphia for several reasons, increasing their lead at third in the Metro for the time being while holding a team in contention to just one point in their previous two games. It was also good to see the Flyers get a comeback W on the road, which isn’t an easy thing to do in any sport, let alone hockey.

Philadelphia’s now 34-20-7 on the year! Next game is Saturday against the Winnipeg Jets.