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Desperate Flyers face tough weekend challenge

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Flyers won the majority of the puck battles, cleared bodies in front of the net, and outhustled Minnesota throughout the night in a 3-1 road victory Thursday night.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Flyers won the majority of the puck battles, cleared bodies in front of the net, and outhustled Minnesota throughout the night in a 3-1 road victory Thursday night.

Now comes the hard part: duplicating that impressive effort in back-to-back games this weekend in Columbus and Pittsburgh, two of the NHL's best teams.

First up: Columbus on Saturday afternoon.

The Blue Jackets (47-19-10), led by former Flyers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, are in a three-way battle for the Metropolitan Division title with Washington and Pittsburgh.

This is the Flyers' third stop on a critical four-game trip. With their playoff chances on life support, they have little margin for error.

"On the road, you have to be a little more specific and detailed in certain parts of your game, and everybody in the lineup did that" in Minnesota, defenseman Nick Schultz said.

It was the Flyers' best all-around road game since a 2-0 win over the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Jan. 25.

The Flyers (34-31-8) are not known for their speed, but they beat the Wild to pucks most of the night.

"They were faster than us, and they were on top of us at every move," Minnesota coach Bruce Boudreau said. "We looked very tired."

"Any time there was a 50-50 puck, they came out with it the majority of the time," Wild winger Zach Parise said.

The Flyers brushed aside a gaffe by goalie Steve Mason - he failed to cover up a dump-in, and Parise scored on a rebound - that gave Minnesota an early 1-0 lead.

"That stuff happens. We weathered the storm and played as a team," rookie defenseman Ivan Provorov said.

"They came at us with a ton of speed in the first couple shifts," coach Dave Hakstol said, "but I thought the players adjusted real well and played very well for 60 minutes. I thought we played with real confidence in our game."

The defensive pairings - Provorov and Andrew MacDonald, Radko Gudas and Brandon Manning, and Schultz and Shayne Gostisbehere - did a nice job clearing the front of the net and causing most of Minnesota's shots to come from the perimeter.

"We did all the right things as a group," Provorov said.

It helped that Mason was solid after his early mistake and that the penalty kill did not allow a goal for just the second time in the last 10 games. Minnesota was 0 for 2 on the power play, managing just a total of two shots.

Mason has started seven straight games and 11 of the last 12.

"He's been playing some good hockey, and we're just trying to help in front of him," captain Claude Giroux said.

Entering Friday, the Flyers were six points out of a playoff spot with nine games left.

"We're focusing on our game and we'll go from there," Giroux said.

On Saturday, they will try to win their second straight road game for the first time since Jan. 22 and 25, when they defeated the Islanders and Rangers.

Hakstol gave the team a day off Friday, trying to conserve the players' energy for the challenging weekend that awaits them.

Breakaways. Bobrovsky is 8-0-2 in his last 10 appearances and is favored to win the Vezina as the league's best goalie. In those 10 games, he has a 1.18 goals-against average and .963 save percentage. . . . The little-used Schultz enjoyed being back at his old stomping grounds and facing his former team, Minnesota: "I don't know how much longer I'm going to be playing, so it was nice to get a chance to be in the lineup," he said. . . . The Flyers are 0-1-1 against the Blue Jackets, dropping a 2-1 overtime decision in Columbus on Jan. 8, and losing, 5-3, with an empty-net goal, on March 13 at the Wells Fargo Center. . . . The Flyers' power play is just 3 for 40 in the last 11 games.

scarchidi@phillynews.com

@BroadStBull www.philly.com/flyersblog