Flyers Fall to Blue Jackets in Shootout

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

It was a lackluster effort that did the Flyers in on Friday night in Buffalo. On Saturday night, it wasn't a lack of effort, but execution, that proved to be their downfall.

The Flyers played a hard-fought game against the Columbus Blue Jackets through 65 minutes, before ultimately dropping the game in the shootout by a score of 2-1.

The Flyers got off to a better start in the first period than the previous night, but it couldn't prevent them from eventually falling behind.

The Flyers got the game's first power play chance and didn't do anything with it. The best chance of the Flyers man advantage was a shorthanded breakaway for Matt Calvert that beat Brian Elliott but hit the post.

The Blue Jackets got a power play moments later and made quick work of the Flyers penalty kill. A point shot by Seth Jones hit off of Ivan Provorov and beat Elliott to give Columbus the lead with 2:52 left in the period.

Shots were 10-9 Flyers after the first.

The Flyers did manage to get on the board early in the second off a nice rush by the new-look top line. Travis Konecny led the entry into the Columbus zone. The puck was worked from Konecny to Sean Couturier to Claude Giroux and dropped back to Provorov. Provorov fired and scored through a screen to tie the game at 3:56 of the second period.

The Flyers had another power play and were unable to score on that despite a great chance at the side of the net for Wayne Simmonds. There was several other close calls for the Flyers in the period.

The closest came in the final two minutes, when the Flyers appeared to have scored as Jake Voracek's shot was deflected in by Taylor Leier. But Leier had tipped the puck with a high stick and it was correctly ruled no goal, keeping the game tied.

Shots were 21-20 Flyers through 40 minutes.

The Blue Jackets dominated play for much of the third period, outshooting the Flyers 15-6 in the final 20 minutes. Elliott stood tall, making all 16 saves required in the period.

While the Blue Jackets came close to scoring a couple times, the Flyers best chance came in the final minute of play, as Couturier cut in and fired a shot off the post with under 30 seconds to play.

The game went to overtime as a result of the scoreless frame.

The Flyers had the better of possession and chances in the overtime, but neither team could score, forcing a shootout.

The Blue Jackets scored the only goal of the shootout, as Pierre-Luc Dubois solved Elliott in the third round. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped all three attempts by the Flyers to seal his ninth career win against his former team.

Bobrovsky made 30 saves in the 65 minutes prior to the shootout as well. While Elliott dropped his third game in the last four, he was excellent in goal making 35 saves on 36 shots in regulation and overtime.

The Flyers now head into the NHL's Christmas break, as the league will be off on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. They return to the ice on Thursday night as they face the Florida Panthers at 7:30 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• CBJ Seth Jones (7) PP (Oliver Bjorkstrand, Artemi Panarin) 17:08

2nd Period

• PHI Ivan Provorov (5) (Claude Giroux, Sean Couturier) 3:56

3rd Period

• No Scoring

Overtime

• No Scoring

Shootout

• CBJ Cam Atkinson – Save
• PHI – Sean Couturier – Save
• CBJ – Artemi Panarin – Save
• PHI – Claude Giroux – Save
• CBJ – Pierre-Luc Dubois – Goal
• PHI – Jake Voracek – Save

Game Statistics