In a game where Travis Konecny recorded a hat trick and Dan Vladař stood on his head, leave it to the Philadelphia Flyers (24-19-9) to spoil everything. The Flyers dropped Wednesday night’s matchup 5-3 to the Columbus Blue Jackets (25-20-7) in a heartbreaking fashion at Nationwide Arena.
Philadelphia managed to comeback down two goals as Konecny led the charge. He scored his second and third goal of the contest in the final 20 minutes of play while Vladař turned aside Grade-A chances that would have iced the game had he not flashed the leather on multiple occasions. It was a gut-wrenching way to leave Columbus empty handed for the Flyers following a 4-0 snoozer and defeat to the New York Islanders on Monday.
“We battled hard, our defense battled hard. TK obviously had a great game. The game-winning goal is something that leaves a sour taste in your mouth. A couple of mistakes. That’s the one with three minutes left, if we hang tight there and get it to overtime, we can at least grab a point. That’s a tough one for us,” Rick Tocchet said.
These battles within the Metropolitan Division are vital if the Flyers want to be considered a playoff team. Going 0-5-3 against your own division in Philadelphia’s last eight showings doesn’t help their cause. Meanwhile with tonight’s win, the Blue Jackets are 6-1-0 under their recently hired head coach Rick Bowness and are now a part of the postseason mix.
The Flyers were bailed out by Vladař repeatedly that left the Blue Jackets stunned, but it didn’t start out that way. The Czech goaltender made his return in between the pipes after missing the previous six games with a lower body injury. Instead of letting their goalie settle into the contest, Trevor Zegras tried to clear the puck up the middle of the defensive zone that Zach Werenski picked off. A quick give-and-go between Werenski, Mathieu Olivier, and Charlie Coyle resulted in Coyle opening the scoring 38 seconds into the event.
The Flyers responded and generated offense following Coyle’s goal. Bobby Brink and Matvei Michkov had quality shots on Elvis Merzļikins. Philadelphia stayed on Columbus’ side of the ice to eventually breakthrough and even the score.
Zegras made up for his initial mistake to win a puck battle behind the net then connected with Noah Juulsen along the blue line. In the midst of the play developing, Konecny eluded his man and found himself with plenty of vacant ice in front. Cam York dished the puck to Konecny who fired one past Merzļikins at the top of the hashmarks.
Zegras nearly gave the Flyers the lead in the whining second of the first period. He walked around former Flyer Ivan Provorov to go mono-e-mono with Merzļikins but got turned aside. Zegras then hit iron while Philadelphia was on the man advantage. Just when the tide started to shift in favor of the Orange and Black, a too many men on the ice penalty wiped out their power play and momentum.
A controversial takedown by Werenski on Owen Tippett during 4-on-4 play allowed the potential Norris Trophy finalist to locate Kirill Marchenko across ice. Marchenko laced one through Vladař while Werenski picked up his second assist of the night. Werenski has 27 points in his last 18 games and 10 points over his six previous showings against the Flyers.
Columbus wasn’t done. As the second period got underway, Erik Gudbranson added his name to the scoresheet hammering a slapper off the faceoff drawl through traffic. Gudbranson’s first goal since April 6, 2024, which also came in a meeting with the Flyers, extended the Blue Jackets lead to 3-1.
“We just shot ourselves in the foot a few times and they capitalized on them. We just weren’t executing the way that we need to at this level and it cost us,” Sanheim said.
Both Vladař and Merzļikins spent the remainder of the middle stanza trading saves that kept the matchup at a two-goal differential which carried over into the final frame. Although Merzļikins had the lead, Vladař’s highway robbery on Adam Fantilli edged out any stoppage between the netminders.
Vladař doubled down to prevent Boone Jenner on yet another ten-bell glove save.
The save on Fantilli jolted the Flyers. As the Flyers power play expired, Jamie Drysdale pinched beneath the goal line to retrieve the puck and found Christian Dvorak. Dvorak sent a pass over to Konecny who cut the lead in half near the same location he pocketed his first goal of the night.
The Konecny takeover was capped off once the 10-year veteran recorded his third career hat trick that erased the Blue Jackets lead. Sanheim flung the puck to the far post side which Konecny redirected to become the first Flyer to reach the 20-goal plateau this season. Konecny has six tallies in his last six outings.
Unfortunately for Konecny and Vladař, it was a two-man show against a fully loaded Blue Jackets squad. Damon Severson threw a pass across ice to an unmarked Sean Monahan that put Columbus back in front 1:18 after Konecny tied the contest up. Olivier would score the dagger with Vladař pulled for the extra attacker.
The Flyers had a slew of opportunities but went 0-for-5 on the power play which corresponds to why Philadelphia are 2-7-2 of late.
“Not good enough, but learn from it, get better, stay positive,” Vladař said.
On top of the deficit, Rasmus Ristolainen left early on in the first period due to a lower body injury. He played 1:01 across two shifts. Philadelphia rotated five defensemen for over 50 minutes of play. It was Ristolainen’s second outing back from being sidelined six games with an upper body injury. Depending on the severity of the injury, Ristolainen is at jeopardy of missing yet another international tournament, this time on the Olympic stage where he is listed to represent Team Finland. He bowed out of the Four Nations Faceoff last year because of injuries too.
Konecny took a shot off the foot by Severson and wasn’t 100% despite picking up the hat trick. Tocchet mentioned Konecny might not play tomorrow in Boston and had no update on Ristolainen.
The Flyers have to shake this off since they return to competition to take on the Bruins (31-20-3). Philadelphia is 3-14-3 in the second game of the back-to-back since the start of the 2024 season. The puck is scheduled to drop at 7:00 p.m. ET.
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