March 05, 2016
What a difference 48 hours makes for the Philadelphia Flyers, who followed up one of their worst performances of the season with one of their best. The Orange and Black dominated the lowly Columbus Blue Jackets in every facet of the game en route to a 6-0 win.
(And oh yeah, Pittsburgh lost to Calgary at home. The wild-card gap is back down to three points.)
In the first period, the Flyers jumped right on Columbus by dominating the neutral zone and getting their forecheck going down low. They were rewarded with a couple of goals.
Flyers up, 2-0, after the first period. Shot attempts: Flyers 28 (17 on goal), Columbus 12 (6 on goal).
— Jeff Neiburg (@Jeff_Neiburg) March 6, 2016
In the second period, the game slowed down but the Flyers made a boring brand of hockey effective. It took 11:46 for the Blue Jackets to record a shot on goal in the period, while Sam Gagner and Claude Giroux broke the game open late with a couple of tallies.
The game's major surprise was Radko Gudas, who submitted a four-point (2G, 2A) night. In his first 57 games of the season, Gudas only managed a total of six points (and no goals).
Steve Mason, in goal after five consecutive starts for Michal Neuvirth, was sharp when called upon. The 27-year-old netminder turned away every one of the 19 shots he faced.
1-0 Flyers, Michael Raffl (3:40 1P). Nice pass by Radko Gudas after the Blue Jackets forgot all about Raffl:
2-0 Flyers, Radko Gudas (11:45 1P). This one was a howler (soccer term for y’all) from Curtis McElhinney:
3-0 Flyers, Sam Gagner (17:13 2P). Gagner says “Look what I found!” and fires a laser into the top right corner:
4-0 Flyers, Claude Giroux (17:23 2P). Just ten seconds after Gagner’s goal, the captain directed a bouncing puck past McElhinney:
5-0 Flyers, Nick Cousins (10:03 3P). From a possession standpoint, the Flyers' third line was dominant. The 22-year-old center capitalized off a Columbus mistake here:
6-0 Flyers, Radko Gudas (10:29 3P). Another one from the night's first star:
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
