Amid some chaotic scheduling, the Philadelphia Flyers return home Saturday to host the Columbus Blue Jackets in a matchup of two teams looking to make a postseason push.
Philadelphia faced the Washington Capitals at home on Wednesday and won 4-1 before taking a late-night flight to Minnesota. The team arrived in town well past midnight but still pushed through Thursday night to earn a 3-2 shootout victory against a skilled Wild team.
“No negative (comments) from me tonight,” said Philadelphia coach Rick Tocchet, whose team has won six of its last eight games (6-2-0). “The guys got in at 3 in the morning. The guys (were) resilient, so (that was a) hell of a job. That’s a tough team to get two points against.”
Owen Tippett’s short-handed blast with 12:02 remaining in the third period drew the Flyers even at 2-2 before Travis Konecny went on to deposit the decisive shootout tally. Tippett has three short-handed goals this season and has scored in three of his last four games overall.
“Huge goal for us,” Philadelphia forward Noah Cates said. “I think he’s got a couple shorties now, and obviously his skill, his speed is so dangerous. … He’s been big for us all year.”
After the game, the Flyers flew back to Philadelphia, where they will face Columbus on Saturday before heading west for a three-game trip to California. Despite the travel chaos, the Flyers must perform at their best, as they are five points behind the Boston Bruins for the second and final wild-card spot.
“I thought we hung in there. I thought our energy was great,” Tippett said after the win over Minnesota. “Any time you can push and get an extra point, an extra two, that’s huge right now.”
Columbus sits four points in front of Philadelphia and one behind Boston. The Blue Jackets have recorded at least one point in eight straight games, although they are just 4-0-4 in that stretch.
Most recently, the Blue Jackets split their two-game visit to the Sunshine State. They defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 before falling to the Florida Panthers 2-1 in overtime. Adam Fantilli scored the team’s only goal against Florida in a game where Columbus players acknowledged that Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky was simply a one-man show, making 30 saves.
“Very happy with the way we played,” said Columbus coach Rick Bowness, who is 14-2-4 since taking over for Dean Evason on Jan. 12. “We gave up 16 shots on net for 60 minutes. We dominated the game. Give (Bobrovsky) credit — he was the difference in the game, simple as that. … But overall, for 60 minutes, very happy with what we saw. Sometimes the goalie is better than your shooters. That’s the case tonight.”
With 19 goals, Fantilli is one shy of joining Kirill Marchenko (24) and Zach Werenski (20) as 20-goal scorers for the Blue Jackets this season. Fantilli has four goals in seven games this month as Columbus makes its playoff push.
“We dominated for the most part,” Fantilli said. “You’re happy to get a point, but … eventually, it’s not good enough. We need two to get into the playoffs. We just have to bear down on our chances.”
This is the second of three matchups between the teams this season. The Blue Jackets defeated the visiting Flyers 5-3 on Jan. 28 despite a hat trick by Konecny.
