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Published 9:48 pm ET Oct. 18, 2018 |
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – The Columbus Blue Jackets were made by Tampa Bay on the road last weekend. In the first period against Philadelphia on Thursday night, they did not look much better.
But the Blue Jackets shook off the malaise and used a three-goal flurry in the second period to speed the Flyers on the way to a 6-3 victory on Thursday night.
Cam Atkinson had back-to-back goals in the second for Columbus, both set up with sweet cross-ice passes from Artemi Panarin.
"We talked about it between periods," Atkinson said. "Our first period just was not good enough and competitive enough.
Sergei Bobrovsky, who had been absorbed by the Lightning on Saturday, had 32 saves against Philadelphia (3-4).
Anthony Duclair, Nick Foligno, Josh Anderson and Sonny Milano also scored for the Blue Jackets (3-3).
Travis Konecny had a goal and an assist, and Oskar Lindblom and Sean Courturier scored for the Flyers. Backup goalie Calvin Pickard, in a scheduled start ahead of Brian Elliott, stopped 22 shots.
Konecny got credit for his first goal of the year when he redirected a shot from Robert Hagg's halfway through the first period.
Duclair answered late in the period with what was the most impressive goal of the game. He fell with the puck in front of the Flyers' goal, he was still on his way, still off-balance, whacked it between Pickard's pads.
"I thought it was pretty lucky," Duclair said.
The Flyers took a 2-1 lead with 50 second left in the first period when the court bail lifted a shot over Bobrovsky's shoulder from the top of the right circle.
The Blue Jackets tied it again early in the second when Atkinson, skating hard to the blue paint, tipped in a Panarin pass.
Atkinson buried his second of the night three minutes later, winning a one-on-one battle with Hagg.
"I thought we were a little lackluster in the first period, quite honestly, through a lot of the game, and (Atkinson) gave us a little spark in the second period to grab the lead," Columbus coach John Tortorella said.
"At that point, we had a momentum shift," Courturier said, "and we could not get it back."
Foligno made it 4-2, snapping a shot past Pickard 's stick side 8:34 into the second.
Lindblom got a wrap-around goal for the Flyers early in the third period to pull it to 4-3, but Anderson got another one for Columbus with five minutes left in the game when he grabbed the puck away from a falling Christian Folin in front of the Philadelphia net and capitalized. Milano got the sixth with 2:12 left off in the corner by Oliver Bjorkstrand.
"We hit two early posts, created a lot of chances," lamented broker. "Even at the start of the second we created some chances and those two goals, we got too hungry to get some offense going when we should just get stuck to the plan and refocused."
NOTES: Corban Knight made his season debut after being out with an upper-body injury. He replaced Mikhail Vorobyev, who was scratched. … Tortorella said injured defenseman Seth Jones (Kneeling) is skating again. He is expected to be several more weeks. … Philadelphia C Patrick Nolan missed his third game with an upper-body injury.
UP NEXT
Philadelphia: Hosts New Jersey on Saturday.
Columbus: Hosts Chicago on Saturday.
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