COLUMBUS, Ohio — Just when it appeared the Flyers were on the verge of leapfrogging the Detroit Red Wings in the points column in the continued fight for the final wild-card spot in the East, the Columbus Blue Jackets erased a two-goal deficit with 1:06 left in regulation before stealing the extra point in the shootout by a score of 3-2.
"It's frustrating," a disappointed Claude Giroux said after the loss to Columbus. "It wasn't our best game, but we were able to get a couple goals and that was ... was Mase's game."
Indeed it was Steve Mason's game, or so it appeared to be until Boone Jenner broke up the former Blue Jacket's bid for a second straight shutout against his old squad. Less than a minute later, with the extra attacker on, Cam Atkinson buried the equalizer to spoil Mason's spectacular performance and send the fans who remained at Nationwide Arena into a frenzy.
After a scoreless 3-on-3 overtime, Jenner finished the comeback, beating Mason, who finished the evening with a career-high 51 saves, on the stick side during the fifth round of the shootout and securing the season series advantage of 3-1-0 against the Flyers, while extending their home win streak against their Metropolitan Division rival to eight games (see Instant Replay).
"I hate to say it, but they deserved it," said a bewildered Ryan White. "They outplayed us most of the night. I think what's most disappointing is Mase. I think [he had] a helluva game tonight and gave ourselves a chance to win and it's a tough loss for sure, but no, I don't think we deserved better than what we got, I'll tell you that."
Despite outshooting the Flyers by a margin of 53-33, it was the Blue Jackets who stole this game, spotting the Flyers with a two-goal lead starting with Giroux's 20th of the season in the first period.
The game remained tight throughout, but it appeared the Flyers finally broke the spell of Nationwide Arena after White deposited his 10th tally of the season with a power-play goal at the 11:54 mark of the third period.
Thanks to Mason's efforts, the Flyers should have a one-point lead on the Red Wings for the final wild-card spot in the East. But the shootout loss means the orange and black are stuck in a tie in points (83) with the Red Wings after Detroit dropped a 6-3 decision at Tampa Bay on Tuesday. However, the Flyers are still ahead of Detroit based on the fact they still have a game in hand on the Red Wings.
Still, the Flyers' captain was in no mood to reflect on silver linings.
"These are gonna be big games coming up on the road, so we gotta put this one behind us," Giroux said. "We gotta learn from this, and when you have a 2-0 lead you have to find a way to hold that lead.
"At the end of the day, we gotta worry about ourselves and if we play like that, even if we make the playoffs, we'll be out soon, so we need to find a way to play better because it's not good enough."
While the rollercoaster ride continues, it's worth pointing out that the Flyers just completed their fifth game in a span of eight days, and their third back-to-back set of the month.
While no one in the dressing room jumped to make excuses, they all appeared to acknowledge the toll of the condensed schedule.
"Definitely, that's a factor in the game, but our goaltender played well, everybody battled hard. We put ourselves in a position to take two points."
Unlike his captain's disgust, though, head coach Dave Hakstol gave a positive outlook on the 1-0-1 start to the four-game road trip, which next takes his squad to Denver to face off against the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night.
"We got three out of four points here … I mean, no matter how it happens, we get three out of four points in the first two games this road trip," Dave Hakstol said. "We get a long trip out west and we gotta take tomorrow and get ourselves refocused on the next job at hand, and that's how it is."
While the Flyers will undoubtedly look to wash away the stain of yet another loss in Columbus, they'll travel to face a Colorado team that sits just outside of the Western Conference's final wild-card spot with 80 points, a single point behind the Minnesota Wild. But the Avs will be missing their top two scorers in Matt Duchene and Nathan MacKinnon, who will both miss the contest with knee injuries.
But the Flyers found out the hard way on Tuesday not to take anything for granted.