The Philadelphia Flyers’ power play is trending in the right direction — and the Columbus Blue Jackets hope their man advantage can follow suit Tuesday when they visit the Flyers.
Philadelphia has had the worst power-play percentage in the NHL in four of the last five seasons. This season got off to a similarly poor start, but the team has begun to turn things around with power-play goals in four straight games, including two in Saturday’s 5-4 loss to the Anaheim Ducks.
“Not every (power-play shot) is going to go in,” said winger Porter Martone, who scored with the extra skater against Anaheim. “I like our tenacity, I like us retrieving pucks, our entries. Hopefully, (we can) capitalize on the next important one.”
Matvei Michkov also scored a power-play goal against the Ducks — one of his two tallies on the night — as the talented Russian raised his season goal total to a team-leading eight. Tyson Foerster scored the other goal for the Flyers, who had won their previous three games.
“There’s lots to like about our game, but the (failure) to win this game, it stings because I thought this was a game we should have won, I think,” Philadelphia coach Rick Tocchet said. “But we let them off the hook.”
Michkov has tallied six times in the last five games. He has been rewarded with more ice time in the last two contests after playing less than 15 minutes in each of the previous five games.
Michkov’s improved play of late has helped Philadelphia rally to go 3-1-0 in its last four games following an 0-6-3 start to the campaign.
“He’s really helping us get out of that tough stretch to start the year and he’s been a key contributor for us, and he needs to keep going,” Flyers forward Noah Cates said.
Meanwhile, the Blue Jackets hope that their power play can carry over the late momentum from Saturday’s 2-1 win over the Vegas Golden Knights. Adam Fantilli scored a 4-on-3 goal 59 seconds into overtime to provide the decisive tally for Columbus, which had failed on its previous 22 attempts with the extra skater.
“(The power play) has obviously been a point of focus recently,” Fantilli said. “During the first 60 (minutes), we weren’t able to capitalize on the chances we had. We’re still going to get back to the drawing board and see how we can fix those things, but to be able to score at the end there on a power play, it was great.”
Denton Mateychuk scored the other goal for the Blue Jackets, while Kent Johnson registered two assists and Cam Talbot made 26 saves.
“Regardless of the outcome, we had to go out there and compete for 60 minutes, and we did that,” said Blue Jackets coach Rick Bowness, whose team had lost four of its previous five games. “Our lines and all that stuff, I’m not worried about that. We really wanted to see the effort and the compete and that battle, and we did (Saturday).”
Columbus won all three meetings with Philadelphia last season. Dan Vladar absorbed the loss in each matchup and is likely to get the start in net Tuesday, as the team has generally rotated netminders this season.