In Columbus, the Philadelphia Flyers scored three times in the middle frame, and Martin Jones made 26 saves in 4-1 win over the Blue Jackets on Thursday night..
“One of the things we talked about before the game was we had to be better in the neutral zone,” Philadelphia coach Mike Yeo said. “I thought we did a good job of that, whether it’s executing and finding a way to get into the offensive zone and playing in the offensive zone, or whether it’s tracking and not allowing those teams to get to their game. I thought that was a big factor in the second.”
The Blue Jackets’ Eric Robinson opened the scoring in the first period for a 1-0 lead to the home side.
“Weird game,” Robinson said. “From the start not a lot of energy it felt like from either team. That was our biggest issue, we needed to play with more energy.”
The Flyers moved to 23-37-11.
The Flyers’ Kevin Connauton scored in the middle frame to tie the game, 1-1, it was his first goal in three years.
Philadelphia’s Owen Tippett and Noah Cates also scored in the second period for a 3-1 lead.
“When you get chances and they don’t go in, it’s easy to get frustrated, but I think when you’re not getting chances is when you should be frustrated,” Tippett said. “When you’re getting chances you know one’s coming, and when one goes in and squeaks in tonight, it’s a good feeling.”
The Blue Jackets dropped to 33-33-6
“We were lifeless tonight,” Columbus coach Brad Larsen said. “All the way through. I didn’t like us at all. No excuses tonight. We were not engaged in that game at all. We were nowhere near where we needed to be.”
Travis Konecny scored with just over 17 minutes left in the final frame for the 4-1 final.
“It felt like there was no energy for both teams,” Columbus’ Zach Werenski said. “We had chances to score. A few of our mistakes, a few bad bounces and they are up 3-1. Neither team played that great but they found a way to win.”
Elvis Merzlikins made 27 saves in the Columbus loss.
You must be logged in to post a comment.