You don’t often see a two-on-zero rush in the NHL. It happened twice for the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday, and it allowed them to escape with a 4-3 overtime win after a wild night in Philadelphia.
Adam Fantilli and Kent Johnson perfectly executed their two-man advantage on Flyers goaltender Dan Vladař at 2:22 of OT, with Fantilli forcing Vladař to commit to him before feeding Johnson for the easy finish, his second goal of the game.
“Kind of a funky game,” said Johnson, who now has five points (2-3-5) in his last two games. “(Flyers defenseman Cam) York was trying to crash the net and I was able to poke it away, and we were off to the races. Great pass from Fants. He gave me the whole net to look at.”
Only 48 seconds earlier, Cole Sillinger and Zach Werenski had a two-on-one that ended with Vladař making an excellent glove save on Werenski.
At that point, you had to wonder if the Blue Jackets just weren’t meant to win, especially after they dominated the first period and took a 3-0 lead — only to spend the final two periods chasing the game.
“Such a dominant first period, and that’s how we want to play,” Blue Jackets coach Rick Bowness said. “We knew they were going to come at us in the second, and we just didn’t handle it well. You take your foot off the gas … We just didn’t handle it as well as I thought we would. We’re better than that, obviously. We found a way to win. We got two points. We’ll get ready for Thursday (vs. Carolina).”
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