Blue Jackets show grit in overtime win against Stars
These are your Blue Jackets, ladies and gentlemen. They are a team with sterling goaltending. They have some grit to them, as evidenced by their league-best record in overtime and shootout games. Also, they can’t score.
So it was Thursday night, when they beat the Dallas Stars 2-1 in a shootout at Nationwide Arena. Fans may be inordinately frustrated by a team that thinks three goals is a mushroom cloud, but, goodness, they keep their wits about them under pressure. You’ve got to give them that much.
The Jackets’ record in overtime and shootout games is 12-0-3. Artemi Panarin continues to impress in extra time. He scored the winner against Dallas by selling his patented high-glove forehand and then tucking a backhand past goaltender Ben Bishop, who understood he’d been conned and threw his stick.
Blue Jackets goaltender Joonas Korpisalo did the rest.
The last time these teams met, on Jan. 2 at Dallas, the game was ground down to the point of being unwatchable. Oliver Bjorkstrand managed to beat Bishop — who is about the size of the Huntington Center building — twice in the third period to give the Jackets an actual regulation victory.
This time, the Jackets were coming off a five-day break. As the crowd settled in on Military Appreciation Night, the fans had to be wondering what they might be getting from their boys in blue. It was anybody’s guess.
Korpisalo was an interesting choice to start over Sergei Bobrovsky, whose career record against the Stars is 11-11. Any goaltending questions were answered well before Korpisalo made the save of the night, a post-to-post, stick-dropping, Dominik Hasek tribute save on Tyler Seguin midway through the second period.
Before that, the Jackets played a solid first. Fourthliner Jordan Schroeder staked them to a 1-0 lead with his first goal of the season at 12:33. By the time Korpisalo went all Gumby on Seguin in the middle period, it was clear that the goalie would have to be the No. 1 star if the Jackets were going to win this game. (He was.)
When a Stars goal was disallowed because of goaltender interference early in the third, there was a sigh of relief from the stands that sent a breeze swirling through the bowl. Maybe someone should install a wind sock on top of the Jumbotron.
The advantage in shots climbed in the Stars’ favor through the second and third periods. It was not a shock, then, when Alexander Radulov tied the score with 2:05 remaining in regulation. If there was a wind sock, it would have been sucked right off its flagpole.
These are your Jackets, ladies and gentlemen. When it comes to scoring goals, they are one of the six most anemic teams in the league, and the other five are non-playoff teams. They are one of two teams holding a playoff spot despite a negative goal differential. Pittsburgh is the other.
Veteran forward Jussi Jokinen, claimed off the waiver wire Wednesday, will help a little. But these are your Jackets. Unless general manager Jarmo Kekalainen gets an offer he can’t refuse, it’s doubtful the Jackets can trade themselves out of their offensive malaise.