The Flyers’ front office had to be pleased with the club’s youth Tuesday night.
Led by a crop of players 25 years old or younger, the Flyers recorded a 5-3 win over the Blue Jackets at the Wells Fargo Center.
Travis Konecny buried a pair of pretty goals. Morgan Frost and Owen Tippett also found the back of the net for the Flyers, who entered scoring 2.41 goals per game, tied for the second fewest in the NHL.
Tippett’s second tally of the night was a game-sealing empty-netter.
Carter Hart gave the Flyers a good chance to win and got some overdue run support.
John Tortorella’s team has won two of its last three games, which is notable given it was 2-11-5 over its previous 18 games.
“Everybody wants results. You can’t minimize that,” Tortorella said. “We always are preparing to win a hockey game. Players, that’s all they want to do is win. I have to, as the head coach of the team, understand some of the situations that some guys are in and where maybe we get overwhelmed at times, I’ve got to make sure I keep patience as we’re building. Because we’re building.
“But as you’re building, when you approach each and every game, you want to win it. It’s my job and my coaching staff’s job to make sure we handle ourselves the right way. Players just want to play and win. We have to control circumstances in how we coach them when we’re not getting the results.”
The Flyers (11-15-7) have scored three or more goals in consecutive games for the first time since Oct. 27-29.
The Flyers are 1-1-1 against the Blue Jackets (10-20-2). They don’t see Columbus again until April 11, the Flyers’ final home game of the regular season.
• Here are the ages of the Flyers’ goal scorers Tuesday night:
- Konecny — 25
- Tippett — 23
- Frost — 23
Cam York, a 21-year-old and arguably the Flyers’ top defensive prospect, recorded two assists.
The 22-year-old Joel Farabee, who had one point (an assist) in his previous 10 games, recorded a helper and was a plus-3.
It all came against a hobbled Columbus team that played the night prior, but one that still has some pretty good players up front.
In a transitional season like this, the Flyers need to get a thorough read on their younger players. This was a good night for the organization.
“We have a young team, we’re relying on some pretty important young players,” Kevin Hayes said. “Tonight they were great.”
• Johnny Gaudreau, the local product who was interested in the Flyers during the offseason, has five points (one goal, four assists) against Tortorella’s club this season.
He had just one assist Tuesday night. The Flyers did a solid job against the top line of Gaudreau, Kent Johnson and Patrik Laine.
The trio combined for three points (one goal, two assists) but the Flyers limited the damage.
“I don’t think you stop Johnny Gaudreau,” Tortorella said Tuesday morning.
“You’ve got to be concentrated on him with just his speed and his quickness as far as beating you 1-on-1 or carrying it through the neutral zone. But when it gets in the offensive zone, you’ve got to worry about him, but also the other guys that he can utilize because he’s that good.
“That line, very good rush line. So we’ve got to be careful about the middle of the ice and looking for people that he’ll utilize.”
• Hart has made 107 saves on 115 shots over the last three games.
The 24-year-old converted 30 saves Tuesday night.
In a span of 2:43 minutes during the second period, Kirill Marchenko and Kent Johnson turned the Flyers’ 1-0 lead into a 2-1 deficit.
But Frost and Tippett countered.
Columbus was missing its Nos. 1 and 2 goalies Elvis Merzlikins (illness) and Joonas Korpisalo (lower body).
Daniil Tarasov, who was in net the night before (32 saves on 33 shots), stopped 34 of the Flyers’ 38 shots. The 23-year-old was making his 13th career NHL start.
“That’s the effort we’re looking for,” Konecny said. “I thought it was good, we got a lead, we went down, we battled back and then we…
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