Slumping, hurting Blue Jackets edge Flyers, 4-3

Columbus left winger Scott Hartnell returned to the Wells Fargo Center on Friday night, and he and his teammates interrupted the good mojo the Flyers had built recently in his old home.

Blue Jackets 4, Flyers 3.

To borrow a Richie Ashburn-ism: "Hard to believe, Harry."

Columbus was missing eight regulars - including goalie Sergei Bobrovsky - and had entered the night on a franchise-record-tying nine-game losing skid.

But Nick Foligno and James Wisniewski each scored a pair of goals, and Ryan Johansen had four assists as Columbus snapped the Flyers' three-game winning streak.

The Flyers, looking rusty after a five-day layoff, finished 3-1 on the homestand.

"We tried to have up-tempo practices all week, but it's tough to match gamelike conditions in practice," goalie Steve Mason said after losing to his ex-team. "But we didn't do a very good job. It seemed like a sloppy game from the start."

Despite missing most of its regulars, Columbus outshot the Flyers, 38-27, and used its speed to frustrate the home team.

"We knew they were going to come out desperate, and we just didn't match it," said defenseman Michael Del Zotto, who cut the lead to 4-3 by scoring on a blast with 18 minutes, 50 seconds left. "It has nothing to do with the five days off."

Stunningly, the Flyers allowed three power-play goals on Columbus' four chances. Before Friday, the Flyers had been 24 of 25 (96 percent) in killing home penalties.

After Jake Voracek tied the score at 2 with a power-play goal with 16:39 remaining in the second period, the Flyers began swarming in the Columbus zone for the next several minutes before Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards called a timeout to stop the momentum.

It worked.

Midway through the second, Foligno skated through the slot toward the right circle and waited, waited, waited - bringing winger Wayne Simmonds and Mason to their knees - before scoring to put the Jackets ahead, 3-2. It was the first even-strength goal by either team.

Almost four minutes later, the Flyers were doing a nice job of killing a five-on-three power play. But shortly after Pierre-Edouard Bellemare missed a chance to clear the puck, Mason stopped Foligno's shot, but handed the rebound to Wisniewski, who made it 4-2.

The Flyers, who have a difficult game in Montreal on Saturday night, had won five straight at home.

During a stoppage early in the game, Hartnell received a long standing ovation when a video tribute of his eventful (and always entertaining) seven-year Flyers career was shown on the scoreboard.

"Even for us, it was touching a little bit," said Claude Giroux, one of five Flyers who had dinner with Hartnell at an Italian restaurant Thursday. "He's a good guy."

Hartnell waved his stick to the fans, clapped, and pointed to them - as if he was thanking them for their support through the years. His former teammates tapped their sticks along the boards as a sign of respect.

After the game, Hartnell turned to Twitter to thank Flyers fans. "Very emotional for me!!! Love you guys always!!!" he tweeted.

Hartnell, dealt to Columbus in June for R.J. Umberger and a fourth-round draft pick in 2015, helped the Blue Jackets take a 1-0 lead with 11:37 left in the first period, screening Mason as Wisniewski scored on a power-play point shot that double-deflected off the Flyers' Matt Read and Braydon Coburn.

About 41/2 minutes later, Giroux tied it with a power-play goal, one-timing a left-circle shot that caromed off defenseman Dalton Prout's left leg and through the legs of goalie Curtis McElhinney (1-5-1).

But Columbus regained the lead on another power-play goal, using a well-executed tic-tac-toe passing play that ended with Foligno's tap-in from the doorstep with 2:50 remaining in the first.

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