Blue Jackets shut out Flyers, push race to Game 82

PHILADELPHIA -- Jet Greaves made 29 saves for the Columbus Blue Jackets, who stayed in contention for the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a 3-0 win against the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday.

The Blue Jackets (39-33-9) are two points behind the Montreal Canadiens for the second wild card from the Eastern Conference. They can still reach the postseason if the Canadiens lose to the Carolina Hurricanes in regulation on Wednesday and they then defeat the New York Islanders at home Thursday.

"We knew a lot of things had to happen for us to make the playoffs, and we're just trying to do our part, and we're doing a great job of it," Blue Jackets forward Adam Fantilli said. "We've had great goaltending stepping up. Everybody's been playing great, so it's really good to see."

Dante Fabbro, Kent Johnson and Fantilli scored for Columbus, which won its fifth straight game. Sean Monahan and Zach Werenski each had two assists.

"I think the guys are just playing great," Greaves said. "They're doing a great job in front of me, making my job pretty simple. I think it's been a team effort. Obviously, it's an important time of the year. These games matter a lot, but I think all the guys have been doing a great job."

Samuel Ersson made 31 saves for Philadelphia (33-38-10), which had been 5-1-1 in its previous seven games. The Flyers have been eliminated from playoff contention.

"I thought our start was good," Flyers coach Brad Shaw said. "I thought we started a lot like we have the other games recently. I just didn't think we had the resilience. I don't think we had the ability to stay with it and thought they sort of pulled away the second half of the game."

Fabbro put the Blue Jackets ahead 1-0 at 2:32 of the second period with a slap shot from the top of the right face-off circle.

"[Werenski] and I actually talked in between the first and second about some space we had saw coming off the draw and allow him to walk and kind of make a read and I'd just kind of slipped in behind him," Fabbro said. "He made the read to pass it over to me and I stepped in a couple feet and was able to shoot it."

That goal was all Greaves needed. Making his fourth straight start, he improved to 4-0-0 with a 0.75 goals-against average, .976 save percentage and two shutouts.

"He might be the hottest guy in the NHL right now," Fantilli said. "He's got one goal against him last three games, and it's [Alex Ovechkin]. I mean, that's pretty good. There's not much else you can say."

Greaves said he's the beneficiary of strong defensive play.

"I think just doing a really good job in front of the net, boxing out, clearing away secondary plays, obviously spending a lot of time in the offensive zone, scoring a lot of goals," he said. "I could go on and on. They're doing a great job."

Johnson made it 2-0 with a power-play goal at 17:01, one-timing a seam pass from Monahan from the right face-off dot past Ersson.

The Flyers had chances to get back into the game but went 0-for-3 on the power play.

"I think there were some chances, we just didn't finish," Flyers forward Sean Couturier said. "I think we're trying to play a little too skilled, we were a lot of one-and-done's. We get pucks there but there's not much traffic or we're trying to be on the outside and trying to make plays. Sometimes we've got to simplify it and get some dirty goals. We can't always expect to make highlight reel goals."

Fantilli's 30th goal of the season made it 3-0 at 13:26 of the third period. He was skating to the net when Kirill Marchenko's shot deflected off his knee.

It was the fifth goal during a three-game goal streak for Fantilli, who had left the team Monday to travel to Toronto for the funeral of his grandfather.

"Yesterday I flew back to Toronto and buried my grandfather," Fantilli said. "His favorite team was Philly. It's going to sound like I'm joking when I say that, but I swear his favorite team was Philly. And coming back, I'm pretty sure that one was him just giving me a lucky bounce there."

NOTES: The Blue Jackets now have 261 goals, the most they've scored in a season. Their previous high was 258 goals in 2021-22. ... Johnson's goal gave him seven points (two goals, five assists) during a five-game point streak. ... Monahan (two goals, five assists) and Werenski (two goals, four assists) each extended his point streak to five games. ... Philadelphia had its four-game home winning streak end.