Flyers face critical home test vs. Columbus

Goalies Steve Mason and Sergei Bobrovsky will oppose their former teams Thursday, adding to the intrigue surrounding the critical matchup between the Flyers and Columbus Blue Jackets.

The Blue Jackets are fighting for their playoff lives and figure to bring an air of desperation to the Wells Fargo Center.

The Flyers, third in the Metropolitan Division, haven't clinched a playoff spot, but they have a four-point lead over the fourth-place Blue Jackets. Both teams have seven games remaining.

The top three teams in each division, along with two wild-card teams in each conference, will earn playoff berths under the NHL's new format.

Columbus owns the second wild-card spot, one point ahead of Toronto and two points in front of Washington.

The Flyers are three points behind the second-place Rangers in the Metro, but they have two games in hand on New York. They want to finish second and earn the home-ice advantage in case they face New York in the first round. The Flyers have lost eight straight to the Rangers at Madison Square Garden since 2011.

That should also make the Flyers a desperate team Thursday.

"It's huge," defenseman Nick Grossmann said. "As I've said the last few weeks, every game is huge now. You can't take a night off, a shift off."

Tuesday's 1-0 shootout loss in St. Louis enabled the Flyers to salvage a point against the best-in the-West Blues. That gave the Flyers an eye-opening 4-0-2 record against NHL heavyweights St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Boston since March 15.

"It's been a tough stretch of games against teams that have been dominant all year, and I think it puts us right there with the elite teams in the league," winger Scott Hartnell said.

"The guys are coming together well, playing for each other, and playing with a lot of heart and determination," Grossmann said. "It's good to see and that's what we need - we need that from everyone. We still have a lot of work to do here, and we have to stay humble, stay on path, and keep working at it."

The Flyers are 1-2 against Columbus this season. They scored five third-period goals and stunned the visiting Blue Jackets, 5-4, on Dec. 19. The Jackets won 6-3 and 5-2 decisions in Columbus, both against Ray Emery.

In the Flyers' 5-4 win, which came with Mason in the nets, they scored three goals in a late 3:01 span, including a backhander by Claude Giroux as he was falling down with 1:38 left, to overcome a 4-2 deficit.

Columbus has averaged five goals per game in the three matchups against the Flyers, who have since tightened their defense considerably.

Breakaways. Defenseman Kimmo Timonen is expected to return to the lineup after missing one game with a facial injury. . . . With winger Steve Downie almost ready to return from an upper-body injury, coach Craig Berube may soon have a difficult choice: Does he reinsert Downie on the third line, move Michael Raffl from the third to second unit, and bench Tye McGinn? Or does he keep the lines intact? . . . Giroux, pointless in his last two games, has five points in the three games against Columbus. . . . Andrew MacDonald played a staggering 27:25 against St. Louis and blocked three shots.

The Flyers' Steve Mason and Columbus' Sergei Bobrovsky are expected to face their former teams Thursday. Here are their numbers this season:

Steve Mason

Record    GAA    Save %

31-17-7    2.53    .916

Vs. Columbus

1-0       4.06    .862

Sergei Bobrovsky

Record    GAA    Save %

27-19-5    2.47    .919

Vs. Flyers

1-0       2.01    .929

- Sam Carchidi

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