Flyers 5, Blue Jackets 4
PHILADELPHIA -- Claude Giroux scored his second goal with 1:38 left to snap a tie and the Philadelphia Flyers rallied from a 3-0 deficit to beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-4 on Thursday night for their eighth straight win at home.
The Flyers (16-15-4) scored three goals in the final 4:39 to raise their record above .500 for the first time this season. Giroux had the last two 2:08 apart.
Right winger Jakub Voracek and defensemen Braydon Coburn and Erik Gustafsson also scored for Philadelphia.
Right wingers Cam Atkinson and Jack Skille and left wingers Nick Foligno and Blake Comeau scored for Columbus (14-17-4).
Giroux was falling down with his back to the net when he backhanded a shot from the right circle past goaltender Curtis McElhinney to make it 5-4.
The Blue Jackets had never lost in regulation when leading after the second period under coach Todd Richards. They're 36-1-1.
Down 3-0 going into the third period, the Flyers rallied.
Voracek started the comeback with his sixth goal in six games. He scored on a wraparound shot to cut it to 3-1 early in the third.
Then Coburn scored 1:02 later to get the Flyers within 3-2. He flipped a shot from just inside the blue line that took an odd bounce off the ice and hopped over McElhinney's shoulder.
But Columbus regained a two-goal lead midway through the period on Comeau's first goal in 16 games. Center Artem Anisimov set it up with a centering pass from behind the net.
That didn't stop Philadelphia.
Gustafsson scored on a rebound with an extra skater on the ice during a delayed penalty call. Then Giroux tied it by stuffing in Voracek's shot that hit the post.
Atkinson gave the Blue Jackets a 1-0 lead on a short-handed goal in the first period after Voracek was stripped of the puck.
Skille, a healthy scratch the last six games, blasted a shot from the right circle that sailed inside the far post beyond goalie Steve Mason's reach.
Foligno extended the lead to 3-0 with 11 seconds left in the second period when his shot hit Mason in the chest, slipped behind him and trickled in.
NOTES: The Flyers and Blue Jackets finish their home-and-home series on Saturday night in Columbus. ... This was the first of four meetings between the two teams, who played each other just 11 times since Columbus joined the NHL in 2000. ... Former Flyers G Sergei Bobrovsky, the reigning Vezina Trophy winner, did not face his former teammates. He has been sidelined by a groin injury since Dec. 4. ... Blue Jackets RW Jack Skille has scored a goal in three of the last six games he has played. ... RW Cam Atkinson's goal gave the Blue Jackets a lead over the Flyers in Philadelphia for the first time since their first meeting in 2001.
