Flyers Rally for 5 in 3rd to Beat Blue Jackets

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

The Flyers had already erased a two-goal deficit in the third when Sean Couturier took a tripping penalty with 5:57 left, opening the door for the Columbus Blue Jackets to take the lead again and make the Flyers comeback efforts all for naught.

Instead, the newest Flyers forward scored the team's first shorthanded goal of the season.

Kevin Hayes forced a turnover and scored on a breakaway to give the Flyers a 5-4 lead with 5:36 remaining in the third. An empty-net goal and power-play goal in the final minute followed, and the Flyers scored five goals in the third period to claim a 7-4 win over the Blue Jackets on Saturday night at Wells Fargo Center for their third straight win.

Both teams had limited chances early as penalties and tight checking dominated the contest. The Flyers finally broke through at 14:51.

Jake Voracek turned and fired a shot on goal that went under the arm of Joonas Korpisalo to make it 1-0.

Columbus answered back late in the period with a goal by Boone Jenner. Jenner's shot from below the goal line hit the stick of Ivan Provorov and deflected off the back of Brian Elliott and in to tie the game.

After 20 minutes, shots were 11-9 Flyers.

Columbus got another early power play in the second. They did not score during the two minutes, but as the penalty expired, they were able to cash in. Pierre-Luc Dubois got space in front and had his shot beat Elliott to the blocker side. 

The Flyers had several quality chances to score from there, including a pair of breakaways that were stopped by Korpisalo. On a power play late in the period, the Flyers finally got the game tied.

A shot by Voracek was deflected in by James van Riemsdyk to even the score at two with 2:21 left in the period.

But just 25 seconds later, the Blue Jackets re-gained the lead. Jenner was there again to knock in a rebound that Elliott was unable to cover to make it 3-2 Columbus.

Through two periods, the Flyers had a 29-21 lead in shots. 

Just 2:15 into the third, Columbus scored again. A shot by Dean Kukan went wide but took a perfect bounce off the end boards to Josh Anderson, who buried the chance to make it 4-2.

Midway through the period, the Flyers appeared to be heading to a power play, but took a too many men on the ice penalty on the delayed call. During the 4-on-4, they were finally able to get the goal to cut the lead back to one.

Shayne Gostisbehere fired a blast from the high slot and beat Korpisalo to make it 4-3 with 9:08 remaining in the third for his first goal of the season.

Less than two minutes later, the Flyers got the game tied. Off a face-off, Provorov carried the puck up the left side and centered, getting a deflection from van Riemsdyk for his second of the game to even things up at four with 7:23 to play.

Moments later, Couturier took a tripping penalty to put the Flyers shorthanded. That's when Hayes created a turnover and moved ahead on a breakaway, putting a move on Korpisalo and finishing to give the Flyers the lead.

The Flyers completed the penalty kill after the shorthanded tally and then got an empty-net goal from Michael Raffl to essentially ice the game.

For good measure, on a late power play, Travis Konecny scored to cap the scoring with his fifth goal of the season.

Hayes, Voracek and van Riemsdyk each had three-point games for the Flyers. Gostisbehere and Provorov each finished with two points. Anderson, Jenner and Milano each had two points for the Blue Jackets.

Elliott finished the game with 22 saves on 26 shots. Korpisalo stopped 39 of 45 shots faced.

Scott Laughton left the game in the second period and did not return. The Flyers announced after the game that Laughton suffered a broken finger and will miss approximately four weeks.

The Flyers will get right back in action on Sunday night as they face the New York Islanders. Game time is at 7 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• PHI Jake Voracek (3) (James van Riemsdyk) 14:51
• CBJ Boone Jenner (2) (Sonny Milano, Zach Werenski) 17:26

2nd Period

• CBJ Pierre-Luc Dubois (5) (Seth Jones, Gustav Nyquist) 2:28
• PHI James van Riemsdyk (2) PP (Jake Voracek, Shayne Gostisbehere) 17:39
• CBJ Jenner (3) (Josh Anderson, Milano) 18:04

3rd Period

• CBJ Anderson (1) (Dean Kukan, Vladislav Gavrikov) 2:15
• PHI Gostisbehere (1) (Claude Giroux, Kevin Hayes) 10:52
• PHI van Riemsdyk (3) (Ivan Provorov, Voracek) 12:37
• PHI Hayes (4) SH (Unassisted) 14:24
• PHI Michael Raffl (3) EN (Hayes) 18:21
• PHI Travis Konecny (5) PP (Matt Niskanen, Provorov) 19:46

Game Statistics