Denver Barkey Scores Twice as Flyers Beat Blue Jackets 4-3

Denver Barkey scored twice on Saturday night in Columbus, lifting the Philadelphia Flyers to a 4-3 win at Nationwide Arena and wrapping up their five-game road trip with a 2-1-2 record.

The victory followed a familiar script of early trouble for Philadelphia. Back on Oct. 27, the Flyers dropped behind the Blue Jackets by a 3-0 score in Philadelphia, rallied for a tie but wound up losing by a 4-3 score in overtime. On Saturday, the team once again fell behind early by a 2-0 count before clawing back to secure the win.

With the score tied at 3-3 in the third period, Barkey tallied his second goal of the night at 11:54 off a feed from Noel Acciari. It marked the first two-goal game of Barkey’s NHL career as he continues to find his footing after returning from an injury.

“I think we stuck with it,” Barkey said. “All month I think we’ve been getting better. Keeping our consistency and nice to see us get rewarded tonight as a team. Ending the road trip the right way.”

Barkey scores twice, Flyers come back to beat Blue Jackets to end road trip — NBC Sports Philadelphia

Barkey’s power-play marker gave the Flyers a goal with the man advantage in 11 of their last 13 games. Rick Tocchet explained the decision to place the young forward in the middle of the power-play unit.

“We put him in the middle there because he comes up with loose pucks,” Tocchet said. “If you analyze the game, he’s quick on pucks. Power plays are about retrievals. He’s really supplied that for us.”

Denver Barkey scores twice to end Flyers road trip with WIN in Columbus — PHLY Sports

Tocchet also praised the broader trajectory of the team’s younger skaters.

“Just the trajectory of his play,” Tocchet said. “You just look at his maturity and his growth. What I like about these young guys, they are developing really well. And Barkey’s one of those poster childs for that.”

Columbus jumped out to the early two-goal edge in the first period. Dmitri Voronkov opened the scoring off a rebound from the end boards, and Matthew Knies followed a minute later with a shot past Joseph Woll. Trevor Zegras answered for Philadelphia at 16:06, breaking a seven-game goal drought by capitalizing on a clearing attempt blocked by Tyson Foerster.

Down 2-1 after one period, the Flyers tied the game early in the second. Matvei Michkov skated in on a breakaway and flipped a shot over Jet Greaves’ left pad at 1:21 for his team-leading 11th goal, giving him 14 points in his last 14 games.

“Today we win and I’m so happy,” Michkov said of the emotional week surrounding the team. Regarding the rest of the roster, he added, “All the guys are happy, too.”

Barkey then put the Flyers ahead 3-2 at 2:21 with a close-range power-play shot just under the crossbar. Columbus responded when Adam Fantilli tied it 3-3 at 5:44 before Barkey secured the game-winner in the third.

Physical play also flared up during the second period when Owen Tippett and the Blue Jackets’ Dante Fabbro dropped the gloves for five-minute majors, marking the first official fight of Tippett’s NHL career.

“That was great for ‘Tip,’ sometimes those things break you out of whatever,” Tocchet said. “It’s good to get emotion and mix it up. It gave the team a little bit of a jolt. Kind of woke up our team a little bit. He’s a strong guy.”