The Flyers four-game winning streak came to an end at the hands of the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Orange and Black were badly outplayed, falling to the Blue Jackets, 4-1, on Saturday night at Wells Fargo Center.
In the first period, Columbus came out in the first five minutes with sustained pressure against the Flyers. A breakaway pass that slightly eluded Brandon Saad was poked away by Steve Mason, denying a great scoring chance.
At 8:55, Columbus got on the board with a Nick Foligno rocket from Alexander Wennberg and Scott Hartnell. A turnover along the right boards provided Columbus two quick passes to set up Foligno who beat Mason just inside the stick side post.
Later in the first, a wraparound clearing attempt was kept in by Jack Johnson of the Blue Jackets. He gathered and fired to the net. It changed directions in front of Mason off of Flyer Scott Laughton and beat him stick side for a 2-0 Columbus lead.
Being outplayed and outshot in the first, 13-4, Columbus looked the fresher of the two teams although both teams played on Friday night.
In the second, the Flyers had fantastic chance to cut the lead in half just 90 seconds in, as a long lead pass found Michael Raffl, but he was stoned by Sergei Bobrovsky, keeping the Flyers off the board.
Raffl got another chance off of a line rush as Shayne Gostisbehere fed Raffl through the middle, who led a streaking Brayden Schenn down the right wing. He slammed on the brakes and fed a pillow soft pass back to Raffl at the far post. The tap-in goal cut the Columbus lead in half at 2-1 at 4:19.
Just over four minutes later, Columbus would get their lead back to two. A long pass from Hartnell to Foligno connected. Coming down the off wing, his wrist shot high to the blocker side beat Mason just inside the post at 8:46.
After a couple of good chances by Claude Giroux and Evgeny Medvedev were denied by Bobrovsky, the Blue Jackets picked up their second power play when Nick Schultz clipped Saad by the side of the net with a high stick. The Flyers would need to kill another power play to keep the game in reach with less than six minutes to go in the second.
Columbus entered the game going 0 for their last 23 on the power play, but Hartnell would change that. His tap-in goal to the right of Mason on the power play, set up by Foligno and Wennberg would make the score 4-1 Blue Jackets at 15:17. They would go 1-for-2 on the power play in the period and take a commanding three-goal lead into the third.
In the third, the Blue Jackets were content with a dump and chase style for the first six minutes. After a keep in along the blue line, Michael Del Zotto had a great scoring chance and the rebound squibbed by Matt Read in front, missing a golden opportunity to cut it to 4-2.
At 10:19, the Flyers finally earned a power play, as Cam Atkinson was whistled for tripping. Columbus clamped down on the Flyers, not allowing any time to set up. Another power play almost immediately after the first was also thwarted by the Blue Jackets penalty kill.
With just 1:21 remaining, and the four-game winning evidently coming to an end, Brayden Schenn and Columbus' Michael Chaput got together at center ice dropped the gloves. With a few good rights by both, they tumbled to the ice and each got five for fighting.
That was the most fight of any of the Flyers for the third period.
The 4-1 final was all Columbus as they outplayed the Flyers from the opening drop of the puck. They outshot the Flyers 34-28.
The Flyers return to action on Tuesday night as they host the New York Islanders at 7 p.m.
Mike Watson is a contributing writer for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @mwats_99.
