PHILADELPHIA – The Columbus Blue Jackets continued their late season push for the Stanley Cup Playoffs in a 3-0 shutout of the Flyers on Tuesday night.
Goalie Jet Greaves #73 and Erik Gudbranson #44 of the Columbus Blue Jackets and Jakob Pelletier #22 of the Philadelphia Flyers look for the shot from the point.
The Blue Jackets are chasing the suddenly cold Montreal Canadiens who need one point to punch their ticket.
The race comes down to the final game of the season for the two teams.
“We knew a lot of things had to happen for us to make the playoffs, and we’re just trying to do our part, and we’re doing a great job of it,” Blue Jackets forward Adam Fantilli said. “We’ve had great goaltending stepping up. Everybody’s been playing great, so it’s really good to see.”
Jet Greaves made 29 saves for the shutout win.
“I think the guys are just playing great,” Greaves said. “They’re doing a great job in front of me, making my job pretty simple. I think it’s been a team effort. Obviously, it’s an important time of the year. These games matter a lot, but I think all the guys have been doing a great job.”
The Flyers have one game left on their schedule.
“I thought our start was good,” Flyers coach Brad Shaw said. “I thought we started a lot like we have the other games recently. I just didn’t think we had the resilience. I don’t think we had the ability to stay with it and thought they sort of pulled away the second half of the game.”
After a scoreless first period, the Blue Jackets’ Dante Fabbro, put home the only goal they would need early in the middle frame, for a 1-0 advantage.
“[Werenski] and I actually talked in between the first and second about some space we had saw coming off the draw and allow him to walk and kind of make a read and I’d just kind of slipped in behind him,” Fabbro said. “He made the read to pass it over to me and I stepped in a couple feet and was able to shoot it.”
Kent Johnson hit off the power play at 17:01 of the second for a 2-0 lead to Columbus.
Fantilli potted his 30th of the campaign at 13:26 of the third for the 3-0 final count.
“Yesterday I flew back to Toronto and buried my grandfather,” Fantilli said. “His favorite team was Philly. It’s going to sound like I’m joking when I say that, but I swear his favorite team was Philly. And coming back, I’m pretty sure that one was him just giving me a lucky bounce there.”
Samuel Ersson made 31 saves in the loss.
“I think there were some chances, we just didn’t finish,” Flyers forward Sean Couturier said. “I think we’re trying to play a little too skilled, we were a lot of one-and-done’s. We get pucks there but there’s not much traffic or we’re trying to be on the outside and trying to make plays. Sometimes we’ve got to simplify it and get some dirty goals. We can’t always expect to make highlight reel goals.”
Samuel Ersson #33 of the Philadelphia Flyers looks around Boone Jenner #38 of the Columbus Blue Jackets
Philadelphia Flyers coach Brad Shaw
Travis Sanheim #6 of the Philadelphia Flyers takes a puck to the knee in front of Flyers goalie Samuel Ersson #33 as
Boone Jenner #38 of the Columbus Blue Jackets looks to deflect the puck.
Samuel Ersson #33 of the Philadelphia Flyers collects the puck in his midsection.
Samuel Ersson #33 of the Philadelphia Flyers
Garnet Hathaway #19 of the Philadelphia Flyers checks Denton Mateychuk #5 of the Columbus Blue Jackets into the boards in front of the Flyers bench
Matvei Michkov #39 of the Philadelphia Flyers battles
Denton Mateychuk #5 of the Columbus Blue Jackets in front of goalie Jet Greaves #73
Emil Andrae #36 and Samuel Ersson #33 of the Philadelphia Flyers and Zach Aston-Reese #27 of the Columbus Blue Jackets
Jet Greaves #73 of the Columbus Blue Jackets
