In his first start in a Flyers sweater, the newly acquired Petr Mrazek upstaged former Flyers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.
Mrazek turned back 19 shots as the Flyers held off the Blue Jackets, 2-1, Thursday night at the Wells Fargo Center.
The Flyers came back to win after trailing entering the third period. They improved to 3-14-3 in that situation. They have earned a point in 10 straight games with a record of 8-0-2.
Claude Giroux broke the ice with his 21st goal of the game and Nolan Patrick scored the game-winner on the power play with 10:11 remaining in regulation.
Artemi Panarin scored the Blue Jackets' lone goal, an unassisted marker just as the Flyers' power play had expired.
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The Flyers had to make due without Travis Konecny. The top-line winger took pregame warmups, but was scratched with a foot injury he suffered in Tuesday's win over the Montreal Canadiens.
• Roughly a minute after Mrazek came up with a five-star save on a shorthanded breakaway, Panarin broke a scoreless tie. Panarin popped out of the box just in time to intercept Ivan Provorov's pass to Andrew MacDonald at the blue line, which led to a 2-on-1 the other way. The incredibly-skilled Panarin never looked at the net until the very last second and sniped a shot over Mrazek's blocker side shoulder that he had very little chance at stopping.
• Two goals on two spectacular snipes. Giroux matched Panarin's effort with a pinpoint effort that tied the game at 1-1. With Bobrovsky electing to drop into the butterfly, Giroux went high to Bobrovsky's glove with such a quick release. The play opened up as Sean Couturier caught the attention of three Blue Jacket defenders, which opened up a lane down the slot for Giroux to bury the shot.
🔥 The Captain ties the game! 🔥
Presented by @skiJFBB. pic.twitter.com/Y8yzRYv9lv— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) February 23, 2018
• Patrick seems to be fitting in quite well on that top power-play unit, filling the role occupied by Wayne Simmonds. Patrick was stationed down in front when he quickly backhanded Shayne Gostisbehere's point shot to give the Flyers a 2-1 lead.
Ghost with the shot and Nolan with the tap-in!
Flyers lead 2-1 in the third! pic.twitter.com/dikc1Bwbta— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) February 23, 2018
• An interesting sequence saw Couturier break out of the box and then skate with the puck into the Columbus zone, but for some reason the officials blew the whistle as the Blue Jackets were caught with too many men on the ice. Two minutes later, Panarin broke out of the box and scored.
• Thirty seconds into the game, Michael Raffl, who was playing on the top line, took a hooking penalty to give the Flyers an early power play. Playing Raffl on that top line seemed to be the obvious choice with Konecny unable to play. Raffl brings a different brand of game. While he doesn't possess Konecny's speed, Raffl makes the No. 1 line tougher to defend in the cycle game. That was a heavy line defensively for Columbus to contain.
• It was a tale of two first-period power plays. On their first opportunity, the Flyers committed unforced errors and never had a quality shot on net. In their second attempt, they were buzzing around the net. Giroux lasered a cross-ice pass to Jakub Voracek, who tried to score on a one-timer. Against 98 percent of the other goaltenders in the league, that shot gets through.
• Jordan Weal was whistled for interference with 5:19 remaining in the first period - the first penalty called against the Flyers since Feb. 13 against the Devils. That snapped the Flyers' streak of not having to kill a penalty at nearly 230 minutes. An underworked Flyers' PK did not allow Columbus a SOG in killing off the Jackets' power play.
• Defensively, the Flyers gave up very, very little. They held Columbus without a shot on net for 14:23 of the first period.
• Robert Hagg had a horrific turnover playing the puck from along the left boards in his own zone. Hagg's errant pass to the middle of ice was intercepted by fourth-line call-up Zac Dalpe, who got a shot on net. Had that been Panarin or one of the Jackets' skilled players, the Flyers could have easily trailed, 1-0, after the first period.
• Twenty-two seconds into the second period, Mrazek faced his first real shot from the slot as Zach Werenski cut in from the blue line. Early on, Mrazek was very quick at resetting himself and positioning his body to cut down the angle. In the first 25 minutes, Mrazek appeared locked in and focused.
