Atkinson’s hat trick lifts Columbus over Flyers, 5-3
PHILADELPHIA » Cam Atkinson scored a hat trick to lead the surging Columbus Blue Jackets to their sixth straight victory, 5-3 over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night.
Oliver Bjorkstand and Boone Jenner also scored for the Blue Jackets, who tied Philadelphia for third place in the Metropolitan Division.
Claude Giroux, Andrew MacDonald and Shayne Gostisbehere scored for the slumping Flyers, who dropped their seventh in the last eight games. Philadelphia and Columbus are one point ahead of idle New Jersey, which holds a wild-card spot.
If the playoffs began on Friday, the Flyers would finish third in the division based on tiebreakers while the Blue Jackets would get the first wild card. Both teams have 11 games remaining.
Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovsky made 27 saves, including some big stops early in the third. He denied Nolan Patrick from close range with a good glove save 1½ minutes into the period and used his pad to stop Sean Couturier a minute later.
Atkinson scored into an empty net with 0.8 seconds remaining for this third goal.
Most of the scoring happened in the first two periods.
Gostisbehere scored just 14 seconds into the second on a power play when his wrist shot from the right circle went under Bobrovsky’s right arm to pull Philadelphia to 3-2.
Atkinson responded with his second of the game, a slap shot from a sharp angle on a 2-on-1 break that would turn out to be the game-winner, to put the Blue Jackets back up by two goals with 16:37 left in the second. That was the last straw for Flyers coach Dave Hakstol, who pulled Petr Mrazek after the goalie allowed four goals on 10 shots. He was replaced by Alex Lyon.
MacDonald pulled Philadelphia to 4-3 with 7:37 left in the second when his slap shot from the slot went off both posts and in.
There were offensive fireworks in the first period, too.
Columbus produced the first goal with 10:19 left when Bjorkstand scored a highlight-reel goal from his right knee.