Korpisalo, Columbus bounce back
TORONTO — Two days after making an Nhl-record 85 saves in a five-overtime loss, Joonas Korpisalo stopped 36 more shots to help the Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-1 on Thursday to even the series at a win apiece.
Ryan Murray and Oliver Bjorkstrand scored in the first period for Columbus, both goals set up by Pierre-luc Dubois. Alexander Wennberg added a goal in the third.
“We’ve all seen him play this past season,” Dubois said of Korpisalo. “He’s an All-star, then he gets injured and then he comes back. Another break (for the coronavirus), but we all know what he’s capable of. We all know in the dressing room that he’s one of the best goalies in the NHL, and he’s feeling really good.”
Nikita Kucherov scored for the Lightning, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 19 saves. The Tampa Bay goalie had 61 stops Tuesday in a 4-3 victory in the fourth-longest game in league history.
Both teams looked sluggish at the start Thursday, especially Columbus, which took more than half the first period to get any offensive push going.
Kucherov grabbed a carom off the back boards and banked in
a shot off Korpisalo’s back to put the Lightning up 1-0 5:24 into the game. Columbus tied it when Dubois fed Murray with a perfect pass from behind the goal line with 7:08 left in the first.
The Blue Jackets took the lead on Bjorkstrand’s one-timer from the right circle on a late first-period power play. Columbus’ goals came on just six shots in the period.
“We lost our mojo a little bit when we gave up the lead,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said.
Early in the third period, Columbus defenseman Seth Jones — who had 65:06 of ice time Tuesday, the most since the league started tracking ice time — chased down Barclay Goodrow on a breakaway and disrupted what would have been a doorstep shot.
■ Hurricanes 3, Bruins 2:
At Toronto, Dougie Hamilton slapped in the go-ahead goal with 11:30 left in support of backup goalie James Reimer, who had 33 saves, as Carolina tied the series at one win apiece.
One day after Boston won the delayed, double-overtime opener, the Hurricanes also got goals from Teuvo Teravainen and Andrei Svechnikov to beat the Presidents’ Trophy winners.
David Krejci and Brad Marchand scored for the Bruins to back Tuukka Rask, who stopped 23 shots.
■ Stars 5, Flames 4: At Edmonton, Alberta, Jamie Oleksiak scored the go-ahead goal with 39.2 seconds left for Dallas after the Stars had wasted two twogoal leads, tying the series at one win apiece.
Miro Heiskanen scored twice for Dallas, which had a 36-26 edge in shots. Corey Perry and Alexander Radulov each had a goal and an assist, with Perry setting up Oleksiak’s winner.
With Calgary trailing 4-2 entering the third, Tobias Rieder scored shorthanded at 12:24 of the period, and Sam Bennett tied it on a power play with 2:49 to go.