Another slow start against Columbus but this time a fast finish.
Back on Oct. 27, the Flyers dropped behind the Blue Jackets by a 3-0 score in Philadelphia, rallied for a tie but wound up losing by a 4-3 score in overtime.
On Saturday night in Columbus, the Flyers once again fell behind early by a 2-0 count, went ahead 3-2 and eventually took a 4-3 win at Nationwide Arena.
With the score tied at 3-3 in the third period, Denver Barkey scored his second goal of the game at 11:54 off a nice feed from Noel Acciari. It was the first two-goal game of Barkey’s NHL career.
The victory gave the Flyers a 2-1-2 record for their five-game road trip.
Barkey is beginning to hit his stride since coming back from an injury.
This was only the Flyers’ second win in 10 one-goal games.
“I think we stuck with it,” he said. “All month I think we’ve been getting better. Keeping our consistency and nice to see us get rewarded tonight as a team. Ending the road trip the right way.”
Barkey’s power-play goal gave the Flyers a goal with the man advantage in 11 of their last 13 games.
“We’ve been playing together, building a lot of chemistry,” he said. “Little plays, finding each other in the middle. It’s been nice to connect on a few.”
Putting Barkey on the power play was a show of faith by coach Rick Tocchet.
“We put him in the middle there because he comes up with loose pucks,” Tocchet said. “If you analyze the game, he’s quick on pucks. Power plays are about retrievals. He’s really supplied that for us.”
Barkey is starting to make a big impression on this team.
“Just the trajectory of his play,” Tocchet said. “You just look at his maturity and his growth. What I like about these young guys, they are developing really well. And Barkey’s one of those poster childs for that.”
After falling behind by a pair of early Columbus goals, the Flyers came back with three straight goals, including two early in the second period. Columbus later tied the score.
Down 2-1 after one, the Flyers picked up the tying goal on a breakaway by Matvei Michkov. It was his team-leading 11th goal. Michkov skated in, then flipped a shot over Jet Greaves’ left pad at 1:21.
Michkov has 14 points in his last 14 games.
It was a rather emotional week for Michkov, with the little shouting match on the Flyer bench and answering questions about whether he’s happy in Philadelphia.
“Today we win and I’m so happy,” he said. As for the emotional stuff, he added, “All the guys are happy, too.” When asked if he had spoken to GM Danny Briere about his future, he politely declined to answer, indicating the talk was private.
Said Tocchet: “That (breakaway) is a high-level play. He’s played really well. I thought Vancouver he played a really good game and Edmonton he played a ton. That’s a big goal (at Columbus). Columbus up 2-nothing, we need some kind of spark. And ‘Mich’ gave us a spark with that goal.”
The Flyers took the lead at 2:21 on a power play, with Barkey connecting from close range, putting a shot just under the crossbar.
Columbus then tied the score at 3-3 on a goal by Adam Fantilli at 5:44 with a blocker-side shot past Joseph Woll.
As was the case when the teams met in Philadelphia, the Blue Jackets jumped off to that early lead.
This time it was a two-goal edge before Philadelphia was able to respond.
The Blue Jackets broke through on a goal by Dmitri Voronkov and then picked up another from Matthew Knies before Trevor Zegras responded for the Flyers.
At 4:19, Voronkov was in the right place at the right time (on the left side) to finish off a rebound off the end boards. Woll simply couldn’t get over in time.
Exactly one minute later, it was Knies unloading from the top of the right circle. This time Woll simply could not get a glove on the puck.
On the Zegras goal at 16:06, Tyson Foerster blocked Ivan Provorov’s clearing attempt, then whipped a pass to his teammate in the slot. That broke a seven-game goal drought for Zegras.
What was the message on the bench after Columbus got off to the fast start?
“Just keep working,” Zegras said in a televised first intermission interview. “Obviously a couple things we have to tighten up. I think as the period went along we got better.”
Zegras said Foerster’s game continues to come around after a slow start to the season.
“Yeah, he’s been great for us the last couple weeks,” Zegras said. “He made a heck of a pass. I didn’t know if he saw me but he put it right in the wheelhouse.”
Tocchet liked the way his team responded after 10 days on the road.
“We were a little tired,” he admitted. “A little sluggish. But we grinded it. Got some big plays out of some big players. And we just grinded out the win. It was a long trip. There was a lot of resilience. I just thought they stuck together.”
>Short shots
Owen Tippett got into it with the Blue Jackets’ Dante Fabbro in a second period skirmish. Both players received five-minute majors. It was the first official fight of Tippett’s NHL career, including his stint with the Florida Panthers. Tocchet always enjoys a good scrap. “That was great for ‘Tip,’ sometimes those things break you out of whatever (he’s stuck on two goals). It’s good to get emotion and mix it up. It gave the team a little bit of a jolt. Kind of woke up our team a little bit. He’s a strong guy.”
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