Radko Gudas' 4-point game helps Flyers dominate Blue Jackets

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Steve Mason and Michal Neuvirth have asked Radko Gudas to tone it down a bit in practice. Gudas’ shot, Mason said, is “probably the hardest” he’s ever faced.

Yes, that same Radko Gudas who entered Saturday night’s game against Columbus with seven career goals and 31 assists in 183 games over parts of four seasons.

The same Gudas who is second on the Flyers in penalty minutes.

And the same Gudas who had more calls from the NHL’s Player of Safety Department and more match penalties than goals entering Saturday.

Well, he still has more match penalties (three) than goals (two), but the ratio got a bit closer.

In Saturday night’s 6-0 win over the Blue Jackets (see Instant Replay), Gudas — acquired from Tampa Bay at last year’s trade deadline in the Braydon Coburn trade — scored his first two goals in a Flyers uniform.

“It’s a wonder he hasn’t scored yet,” Mason said before saying Gudas has a shot that “hurts when it hits you."

“Heavy, fast, hard,” Mason said later. “It just hits you with a thud … he can break your hand pretty easily.”

Perhaps that’s why Columbus goalie Curtis McElhinney let Gudas’ slap shot from the red line fly past him 11:45 into the first period. With the Flyers making a line change, Gudas, instead of just dumping the puck behind the Columbus net, wound up and fired the puck on net.

McElhinney looked a bit confused as the puck whizzed by.

“I’m not going to say I was expecting it to go in,” said Gudas, 25, who picked up his first multi-goal game in the NHL, also adding two assists for his first ever four-point game.

Gudas’ only other multi-point effort came on March 22, 2014, when he had two assists against Pittsburgh while playing with the Lightning.

“We’ve been waiting for it all year,” Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said jokingly.

“You know what, he played a good hockey game. His first one, obviously, from center ice, we got a break on it. But that allowed us to push the momentum in the first period, which I thought was key, especially when we had a team coming in here on a back-to-back night.”

Gudas’ first goal helped the Flyers take a 2-0 lead into the first intermission. They dominated the period, outshooting Columbus, 17-6.

The Flyers, who moved to three points out of the Eastern Conference’s final playoff spot with the win and a Pittsburgh loss, never took their feet off the gas pedal.

Gudas, who had a game and career-high seven shots on net, scored the game’s final goal, a point shot that fought its way through traffic and by McElhinney.

He said the last time he remembered scoring twice in a game was back in his junior days.

The Flyers got a power play late in the third period. Gudas got a rare opportunity on the man advantage, and the fans remaining in the building were yelling at him to shoot whenever he had the puck.

Gudas, with a laugh, said he heard them, but quickly switched the focus to the bigger picture.

“For us, right now, we need to play every game like it’s our last game,” he said. “Every game is a must-win for us. Obviously it helps if Pittsburgh loses, but for us it doesn’t change a thing.”

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