Crosby snatches win in game Jackets had to have
It was either the best or second-best playoff game ever played at Nationwide Arena. The sample size is not huge, granted, but that was one heck of a hockey game and oh, did it hurt. For Blue Jackets fans — especially those 19,092 who roared throughout Sunday night — the hurt will be memorable.
Sidney Crosby is a vessel of pain.
Crosby had a stupidly great shift, took control of the puck behind the Blue Jackets’ net, found Jake Guentzel out in front, bang- bang, and the Jackets were dead. Sudden- like, it was. Guentzel scored at 13 minutes, 10 seconds of overtime to give the
Penguins a 5-4 victory and a 3-0 lead in this first-round series. Game 4 is back at Nationwide on Tuesday night. Enjoy it, Columbus.
The Penguins are the defending Stanley Cup champions and they are playing like they want some time off between rounds.
Evgeni Malkin grows larger with every shift, like a Dementor. Phil Kessel is playing like the Blue Jackets stole his mustard. Marc-Andre Fleury, an emergency starter in Game 1, has been the superior goaltender. And then there is Crosby, who is playing like a Smash Brother, if not Super Mario himself.
Guentzel had a hat trick Sunday night. He has four goals in this series. Who is Guentzel? He is Crosby’s left wing.
Game 3 was not the Blue Jackets’ best game of the series to date; Game 2 was, in terms of possession and dominance for long stretches. That said, this Game 3 was a lode of drama, intrigue and excitement.
The Jackets came home and their offense came unstuck.
Cam Atkinson scored off a rebound just 11 seconds into the first period. There he is! The crowd went wild. Guentzel answered — and then Atkinson scored again at 5:02. Atkinson picked Crosby’s pocket, walked in and slid the puck under Fleury. Then, just 68 seconds later, Zach Werenski sent a laser of a wrist shot from the top of the left circle into the far, top corner of the net. Goodness, what a snipe — and it was a power-play goal. Power play? There it is!
The Blue Jackets had a 3-1 lead at 6:10 of the first period. Nationwide was as loud as the report from an 1857 Napoleon cannon.
Late in the second period, a shot by Kessel rode up Werenski’s stick and struck the kid in the right cheek. Werenski went down and bled profusely at the top of the slot. Where was the whistle?
If the Blue Jackets do not have the puck (and they did not), it is at the discretion of the referees to whistle down a play for an injury (and they did not). Seconds later, Evgeni Malkin scored a goal to tie it, 3-3.
Werenski went off to have the two halves of his face sewn back together. He came back for the third period wearing a full shield. He did not play in overtime because, by then, his right eye had swollen shut.
Brandon Dubinsky sent the game to OT when he put back a rebound with fewer than five minutes remaining in regulation. That was the last of the magic for the Jackets.
Crosby, Malkin and Kessel are looking forward to late-week spa time, and they are carrying the Penguins to the massage table. Even on a night when Fleury looked beatable, it just got to be too much for the Blue Jackets to handle, especially with their prized rookie defenseman being carted off to the Rocky-Creed ward of the local hospital.
It was a heck of a hockey game. The Blue Jackets needed to win it. Crosby did instead.