Gud night, Gud hockey for Flyers in blanking of Blue Jackets
The dejection of Thursday night's lackluster loss to the Oilers turned back into jubilation on Saturday.
And when the star of the game is Radko Gudas, then it means a pretty good night of hockey.
Gudas picked up his first two goals as a Flyer in a four-point night that helped the Flyers get back in the playoff race by gaining two points on the Penguins, who lost earlier in the day, with a 6-0 drubbing of the Columbus Blue Jackets.
"You know what’s going on, you know where the standings sit, you know what other results are and obviously it’s a small opportunity there," head coach Dave Hakstol said, "so you have to go out and take advantage of it though and that’s what we did tonight, we took advantage of the opportunity."
"I think we all knew what we needed to do to win this game," Gudas said. "We had our mindset on the right things tonight. I’m glad we turned it around that fast. I’m glad we got the two points and the guys did a great job today."
With 19 games remaining on the schedule, they are all must-win games for the Flyers. But with the Calgary Flames providing some assistance with their win over Pittsburgh, it became absolutely urgent for the Flyers to earn two points.
Michael Raffl's goal at 3:40 was an excellent start for a team that couldn't buy a goal against the Oilers two night ago.
But when Gudas tallied for the first time at 11:45, from center ice no less, a team that was already feeling good about their first-period performance had to feel any of the pressure disappear.
The game had officially turned goofy. The Blue Jackets were rattled.
"There was pretty good energy in the building tonight and that raised the level of energy even a little higher," Hakstol said. "It allowed us to continue momentum that I thought we carried from the drop of the puck in the first period, which again a team that played last night, traveled last night, that’s a key start for us."
Despite that, the second period was closer than the scoreboard indicated. For 17 minutes, the Flyers were still holding onto the two-goal lead. In 10 seconds, Sam Gagner and Claude Giroux turned out the lights on the Blue Jackets for good.
So when Nick Cousins got into the act and Gudas capped off an incredible night with his second goal of the game, the Flyers had the perfect answer to adversity from Thursday, a dominant win.
"It wasn’t pro that’s for sure. It’s the first time in the NHL," Gudas said. "Probably in juniors. Probably one of the first games as a junior. Obviously it’s something I haven’t done before so it’s a great feeling."
"He played one hell of a game back there," Cousins said. "He brings sort of physical element back there towards our core and he is one of those guys you want on your team and we’re happy to have him."
The fourth win for the Flyers on the homestand puts them at eight points out of a possible 10. With one game to go, a win for the Flyers would be huge, but in reality, they need points in any form to make it a success.
A 4-1-1 or 5-1-0 record would be the statement the Flyers need to announce their presence in the race, just as the schedule starts to turn to tougher opponents. The Flyers may get the toughest in a long while coming on Monday.
"Good teams don’t lose two in a row, so that was kind of our mantra going into this one," Gagner said. "I thought we played good from start to finish. I thought we did a lot of good things. You’ve got to park it and move onto the next one."
The Tampa Bay Lightning are the last to pay a visit to the Flyers at Wells Fargo Center on this six-game homestand and they have a nine-game winning streak. It will easily be the Flyers biggest test so far this season and all of the games to follow will only prove to be bigger tests.
"When you have a game like tonight, you’ve got to make sure you stay on it and doing the same things," Gagner said. "So it’s a lesson for our team. We’re at the point in the season where we can’t really have any letdowns. We’ve got to keep pushing forward. Tonight’s a big win for us and we got to keep pushing forward."
Kevin Durso is managing editor for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.
