Instant Replay: Blue Jackets 3, Flyers 2 (SO)

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BOX SCORE

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Despite the fact that the Blue Jackets are sitting near the bottom of the Metropolitan Division, there's something about Nationwide Arena in Columbus that haunts the Flyers like an abandoned warehouse in October.

As was the case a night ago in Brooklyn, the Flyers survived a flurry of pressure from their opponent in the early going, while grabbing the game's first goal.

This time, however, goalie Steve Mason — making his eighth start in the team's last nine games — fought off 51 of 53 shots on goal against his former team, the host Columbus Blue Jackets, before falling in the shootout, 3-2.

The loss extends the Flyers' losing streak in Columbus to eight games, although the overtime loss did pull them into a tie with Detroit in the race for the final wild-card spot.

Claude Giroux opened the scoring at the 11:42 mark of the opening period, reaching the 20-goal threshold for a third straight season. Giroux's tally accounted for his 16th point in 17 career games against the Blue Jackets.

Columbus continued to hound the Flyers in the second, lassoing the puck deep into the offensive zone with constant dump-and-chasing. The physicality that's been established as the norm between these two teams, though, was further amplified when Jared Boll was given a five-minute game misconduct for his interference on Pierre-Edouard Bellemare.

Boll's devastating blow to Bellemare completely upended the fourth-line forward, inspiring a group of teammates, including Ryan White and Radko Gudas, to retaliate.

Despite the extra adage of emotion, the scoring was held to a stalemate into the third period with Mason preserving the razor-thin lead with an array of saves from all over the ice, including a sprawling pad save on William Karlsson.

Mason's thievery was rewarded later in the period with a power-play goal by White to pad the lead to two.

The night belonged to Mason up until the waning minutes of the third, when Boone Jenner scored a shorthanded goal to cut the lead to one. Then, with 8.9 seconds left in regulation and Sergei Bobrovsky out of net for the extra attacker, Cam Atkinson tied the game to force overtime.

After stopping four Columbus skaters in the skills competition, it was Jenner who slipped the game-winner past Mason to cap off an improbable comeback win.

The Flyers are now 6-2-2 for the month of March.

Goalie report
The showdown between goalies Bobrovsky and Mason may not carry the allure it once did, but Bobrovsky's second straight win against his former team was as big as any previous triumph.

Mason was ambushed from the beginning, turning away a career-high 51 of 53 Columbus registered shots on net.

Bobrovsky, on the other hand, entered the contest with a 4-1-0 record and a 1.79 goals-against average against the team that signed him as an undrafted rookie in 2010.

Power play
Although White was sent to the penalty box for two minutes for his part in the scrum with Boll, the Flyers' first power play yielded little results.

They would not see another opportunity until the 9:16 mark of the third period, leading to White's 10th goal of the season.

The Flyers finished the night 1 for 5 on the power play.

Penalty kill
The orange and black killed off both first-period penalties, a pair of hooking penalties called on Shayne Gostisbehere and Michael Raffl less than three minutes apart.

They would go on to snub the league's 18th-ranked power play once more by surviving a Brandon Manning high-sticking penalty that carried over to start the third period.

In overtime, the Flyers survived a 4-on-3 penalty to Sean Couturier.

Injury report
Despite Bellemare's scare in the first period, the fourth-line forward returned shortly after receiving the brunt of the contact enforced by Boll.

The Flyers remain relatively healthy, with goalie Michal Neuvirth and defenseman Michael Del Zotto held out of action due to their respective ailments.

Del Zotto missed his 18th game since falling victim to a left wrist injury, while Neuvirth missed only his third tilt after suffering a left knee injury.

What's next?
The Flyers continue their road trip on Thursday night when they travel to face the Colorado Avalanche.

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