Flyers gift us a shootout loss for the holidays, falling 2-1 to Blue Jackets

Philadelphia Flyers

Claude Giroux – Sean Couturier – Travis Konecny

Michael Raffl – Nolan Patrick – Jakub Voracek

Dale Weise – Valterri Filppula – Wayne Simmonds

Jori Lehtera – Scott Laughton – Taylor Leier

Ivan Provorov – Shayne Gosisbehere

Robert Hagg – Andrew MacDonald

Travis Sanheim – Radko Gudas

Brian Elliott

Alex Lyon

Columbus Blue Jackets

Panarin – Pierre-Luc Dubois – Josh Anderson

Oliver Bjorkstrand – Boone Jenner – Cam Atkinson

Tyler Motte – Nick Foligno – Jordan Schroeder

Matt Calvert – Lukas Sedlak – Markus Hannikainen

Markus Nutivaara – Seth Jones

Jack Johnson – David Savard

Scott Harrington – Gabriel Carlsson

Sergei Bobrovsky

Joonas Korpisalo

1st Period Notes:

Both teams come out at a swift pace to start this game. Taylor Leier takes a puck up high just 3 minutes in but remains on the bench. Tough kid.

The new-look top line looked good from the start of this game. They find themselves on a 2-on-1 early with Giroux carrying the puck into the zone. Travis Konecny crashes the net and Giroux elects to take the shot. Konecny snags the rebound and throws it back out front to Giroux. Bobrovsky stands tall on both shots.

Elliott looks to be majorly on his game tonight. He’s flashed the glove a lot early and finds himself facing a canon from Carlsson from the high slot with 7 minutes left in the period. Elliott rips the puck out of mid-air for a beautiful glove save.

Calvert is gifted a clear breakaway with three minutes left after the Flyers were called for too many men on the ice. Calvert can’t finish though as he rings iron, Columbus is flying though.

With 2:52 remaining, Seth Jones ricochets a puck off of Provorov and past Elliott. Unlucky bounce.

1-0 Columbus after the 1st.

SCORING

CBJ 17:08 – Seth Jones (Panarin, Bjorkstrand)

PENALTIES

CBJ 14:34 – Johnson (Tripping – Giroux)

PHI 16:37 – Too Many Men on the Ice (Served by Dale Weiss)

SHOTS

Philadelphia 10

Columbus 9

2nd Period Notes:

Both teams come out as they did in the 1st, hard and fast. Columbus finds themselves on a 2-on-1 just 3 minutes into the period but Dubois and Panarin can’t get the job done. Elliott’s been phenomenal.

Provorov receives a beautiful drop pass from Giroux and blasts it home from the point. Konecny and Couturier provided traffic in front. Tied at 1.

Flyers start buzzing after their goal. Control play for the majority of the rest of the 2nd. With 11 minutes remaining in the period, Giroux finds himself on all alone on a breakaway, Bobrovsky saves it. Laughton, with 7 minutes left in the period, creates some space for himself and drives the net hard. Bobrovsky stuffs him but that’s the type of plays the Flyers want to see from Laughton.

With 1:40 left in the period, Taylor Leier deflects a Voracek shot past Bobrovsky and into the net. His stick was above the crossbar though so the goal is eventually waved off.

1-1 after the 2nd. Philadelphia controlled that period.

SCORING

PHI 3:56 – Provorov (Giroux, Couturier)

PENALTIES

CBJ 10:04 – Anderson (Interference – Gostisbehere)

SHOTS

Philadelphia 11 (21)

Columbus 11 (20)

3rd Period Notes:

The Blue Jackets take over the 3rd early on. 1:30 into the period, Josh Anderson has the puck pop out to him in front of the net. He turns and fires a hard shot towards the net but Elliott is up to the task.

Flyers look gassed in their second game of a back to back. Both teams are given penalties early on resulting in a short 4-on-4, both goaltenders stand tall as they have all game. Back and forth hockey ensues with the Blue Jackets getting the majority of the scoring chances throughout the 3rd.

With 20 seconds remaining, Couturier walks into the Columbus zone and dances around a couple of defenders. He fires a quick shot past Bobrovsky but rings the puck off the post. The 3rd ends in bitter fashion.

Tied 1-1 after the 3rd.

SCORING

None

PENALTIES

PHI 4:09 – Patrick (Hooking – Nutivaara)

CBJ 5:29 – Panarin (Roughing – Hagg)

PHI 15:24 – Patrick (High-sticking – Johnson)

SHOTS

Philadelphia 6 (27)

Columbus 15 (35)

Overtime Notes:

Just over 1 minute into the OT period, Couturier finds himself with another great opportunity as he drives into the crease with a defender on his back. He looks to have beaten Bobrovsky but fires the puck wide of the net.

The final minute of OT sees the Flyers make a huge push. Both Gostisbehere and Voracek had great chances to end this one but just couldn’t solve Bobrovsky. Both goaltenders were unbelievable and they single-handedly secured both their teams a point in this one. It heads to a shootout.

SCORING

None

PENALTIES

None

SHOTS

Philadelphia 4 (31)

Columbus 1 (36)

Shootout Results

1. CBJ: ANDERSON –SAVE

2. PHI: COUTURIER – SAVE

3. CBJ: PANARIN – MISS

4. PHI: GIROUX – SAVE

5. CBJ: DUBOIS – GOAL

6. PHI: VORACEK – SAVE

FINAL: COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS 2-1 (SO)

A hard fought effort for both teams ends in appropriate fashion, a battle of the goaltenders. A loss is a loss but the Flyers never expected to leave this game with a point let alone 2. Brian Elliott was phenomenal and the new top 6 looked like it could, given some time to build chemistry, flourish into a very productive group. The Flyers are off until December 28th for the holidays and should come back rested and ready to make a playoff push. All-in-all, they’ve looked great after their 10-game losing streak and should build on that moving forward.