Barkey gets first multigoal game, Flyers hold off Blue Jackets

COLUMBUS -- Denver Barkey scored two goals for his first multigoal NHL game, and the Philadelphia Flyers held on for a 4-3 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena on Saturday.

Barkey's second goal of the game put Philadelphia ahead 4-3 at 11:54 of the third period. Noel Acciari knocked down an attempted pass from Damon Severson out of midair at the Columbus blue line and fed a pass to Barkey, who beat Jet Greaves from the slot to the blocker side.

Matvei Michkov and Trevor Zegras scored for the Flyers (6-10-6), who are 2-0-2 in their past four games and ended their five-game road trip 2-1-2. Joseph Woll made 28 saves.

“We knew we were a resilient group from last year and I think we're starting to show it a little bit more game by game right now,” Barkey said. “We're just putting forth a good 60-minute consistent effort. There's less ups and downs and we're staying in structure more, playing fast, playing north. I think the biggest thing right now is our forecheck.

“This whole month, even this road trip, I think we've been building a lot.”

Dmitri Voronkov, Matthew Knies and Adam Fantilli scored for the Blue Jackets (7-11-0), who have lost four straight. Greaves made 17 saves.

“We come out with nothing to show for it, so it's definitely frustrating,” Columbus defenseman Zach Werenski said. “I thought we played one of our better games tonight in terms of chances; playing with speed, playing fast.

“We’re behind the eight ball. I think everyone knows that. Obviously, we've had some games we probably should have won and when you don't, next thing you know you fall far behind. But the only way to go is forward and learn from it and try and get on a little winning streak here.”

Voronkov put the Blue Jackets up 1-0 at 3:19 of the first period. Valeri Nichushkin's initial shot bounced off the end boards, and Voronkov buried it blocker side from the bottom of the left face-off circle for his first of the season.

Knies made it 2-0 at 4:19 with a wrist shot from the top of the right circle.

“Some nights it's going to be tougher than others, but as long as we find some more consistency in our game, I think we'll be all right,” Philadelphia captain Sean Couturier said. “Obviously, there's some downs at times. It depends how you weather it. I thought we did a good job tonight.”

Zegras cut the deficit to 2-1 at 16:06 with a one-timer from the slot off a pass from the left wall by Tyson Foerster.

Michkov tied it 2-2 at 1:19 of the second period. He stole the puck from Fantilli at the Flyers blue line, raced down the ice on a breakaway and backhanded the puck over Greaves' left pad.

“They capitalized on our turnovers,” Fantilli said. “Starts with mine. Like, I just gave them a free breakaway.”

Barkey gave Philadelphia a 3-2 lead on the power play at 2:21 when he beat Greaves with a wrist shot glove side from the bottom edge of the left circle.

“We were a little tired tonight, a little sluggish, and we grinded it,” Flyers coach Rick Tocchet said. “We got some big plays out of some big players for us. Power play, we killed the penalty and then we just grinded out the win.

“Those are the type of games you have to win those games, so give the guys a lot of credit.”

Fantilli tied it 3-3 at 5:44, scoring on a wrist shot high to the blocker side from the high slot.

Blue Jackets coach Rick Bowness missed a second straight game due to a health issue. Assistant coach Don Granato was in charge behind the bench and said the result was a case of miscues costing them the game.

“We didn't outscore those mistakes,” Granato said. “You know, we wouldn't be talking about those mistakes if we outscored them. We might be joking about them, but yeah, the discretion was not good.”

NOTES: Michkov extended his point streak to three games (one goal, two assists). ... Blue Jackets forward Sean Monahan did not play after suffering an upper-body injury in a 3-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday.