The Flyers show no sign of letting up, snapping a 3-game skid with an overtime win it appeared in the beginning NBC Sports Philadelphia
The Flyers rallied three times to earn a much-needed, 5-4 overtime win Saturday night over the Blue Jackets at the Wells Fargo Center.
They entered the third period trailing 2-0. Owen Tippett delivered the winner in OT.
“I’ve got to get him his ice time because I think he’s ready to go,” John Tortorella said. “He was very important to us tonight.”
Morgan Frost scored twice in the third period. His first was a 2-1 draw against the Flyers. The second one was tied at 3-3.
But Jake Christiansen scored on a long shot with 4:11 left to put Columbus ahead.
With their net cleared, the Flyers tied it again with 1:44 left on Tyson Foerster’s rebound.
Noah Cates scored another third-period marker for the Flyers to make it 2-2. The Blue Jackets responded quickly with a goal by Kirill Marchenko before Frost responded.
Tippett also finished with three assists as did Travis Konecny. Cates assisted Tippett’s winner.
“It will show the team we have here,” Tippett said. “We knew in the second half that we weren’t out yet. We had strength and confidence. We’re happy that we finished the job.”
For Frost, it was his first two-goal game of the season. The 25-year-old center has five points (three goals, two assists) in the last six games.
“It’s an iceman base that requires us to be an offensive center all the time,” Tortorella said. “He’s still going up and down. The next step he needs to take is just to keep up. Because you see some of the things he’s doing.
“That was a great line when we put them together, him, TK and Tip, it took off a little bit. Hopefully that will give him a little bit of confidence and he’ll be there. Not just one in three. Three games in three games and be consistent.
The Flyers (15-15-4) have lost three games in a row. They have an NHL-leading seven third-season comebacks. They went to OT for the umpteenth time.
“Especially after the last few games, obviously we didn’t want to give this one up,” said Frost. “I thought some minutes were good, some minutes were bad – it was just a stretch. We had to find a way to put the puck in the net.
“Sometimes it seems like we need to get down in the game to really pick it up. It’s good to have it in the bag, but maybe we’d like to play with a little lead.”
Tortorella’s club went 3-5-1 in December. Last season it went 8-2-3 in December.
The Flyers won 2-0-0 against the Blue Jackets (13-15-6) this season. The clubs have two more meetings to run.
More: The Gaudreau family was honored before the Flyers vs. Blue Jackets
• Samuel Ersson had 21 saves on 25 shots.
He wasn’t very sharp but he made some great saves late on.
“I brought in a few sh–ty, to be honest,” Ersson said. “The boys, they saved me, they scored a lot of big goals. … We saw the whole year, we never got out of it.
“It’s all about finding ways to win, that’s the way I see it. It’s better for us to win, get us back in the win column and get back to playing our game.”
Mikael Pyyhtia extended Columbus’ lead to 2-0 in the second period when Ersson found a turnover in the back of his net.
The Blue Jackets opened the scoring in the first half after Jamie Drysdale made a conversion that led to Mathieu Olivier scoring. Drysdale has a minus-6 mark in the last two games.
“I’m not going to blame the goalies for our little funk here, but they’re part of it,” Tortorella said. “We need more saves in important moments and we haven’t got them.
“Ers knows. I think that’s what will make him a better goalkeeper and faster: he checks himself well.”
Columbus netminder Elvis Merzlikins stopped 25 of 30 Flyers shots.
• Back from his bench for one gameCam York played a solid game. He made some things happen offensively, got an assist on Cates’ goal, and was solid defensively.
“It’s a little bit better, it’s still not perfect and it’s not where I want to be,” York said. “But I thought tonight was a step in the right direction.”
• With Sean Couturier unavailable for personal reasons, the Flyers called up Olle Lycksell from the AHL affiliate of Lehigh Valley.
The Phantom’s leading scorer (24 points in 25 games) had a goal disallowed in the second half by the Blue Jackets coach. The game was called offside and the Flyers were tied 2-0.
• The Flyers visit the Penguins on Monday (7pm ET/NBCSP+) for their final game before the NHL-sanctioned holiday break, which runs Tuesday through Thursday.
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