Jackets’ power play produces in wild win
It’s almost a shame the Blue Jackets do not play the Florida Panthers more.
Not only would those trips to Fort Lauderdale and the surrounding beaches be a nice winter respite, but the Jackets may just have one of the best power-play success rates in the league instead of the worst.
Yes, the Blue Jackets’ power play was clicking Sunday evening in a wild 3-2 shootout victory over the Panthers at Nationwide Arena.
Not only did the two teams combine for 92 shots on goal, but the shootout lasted eight rounds.
“We knew they were going to make a push at the end,” Nick Foligno said. “We
found a way to get it in the shootout. ... We had a purpose out there. Looking at the guys out there, they just wanted to shoot, wanted to get pucks at the net.”
So far this season, the Jackets have scored multiple power-play goals just twice — with both coming against Florida as four of Columbus’ 16 power-play goals have been acquired in two games against the Panthers.
“I look forward to playing them again,” joked Foligno, who gave Columbus the initial lead with a power-play goal 10 minutes into the game.
Coach John Tortorella has vowed to not talk about the power play — good or bad — for the remainder of the season.
He kept that promise Sunday night. Sort of. “It was nice to score a couple of goals,” he said. “I’m just being fair. I’m not going to talk about it when it’s going bad and I’m not going to talk about it when it’s going good. It’s nice to score a couple of goals.”
Florida’s power play, which hadn’t scored in seven games, got into the act as well when Jonathan Huberdeau tied the score 31 ticks into the second period on a nice feed from Evgenii Dadonov as Seth Jones sat in the penalty box.
All four goals scored in regulation came via special teams.
Tied at 1, rookie PierreLuc Dubois knocked home a Jones shot with 2:11 left in the second.
“It felt really good,” said Dubois, who was stopped by Panthers goalie James Reimer coming out of the penalty box in the third. “I would have liked to close it out on the breakaway, but we got the two points.”
Late in the game, Florida pulled Reimer (46 saves) during what would have been a 4-on-4 situation and scored the tying goal when Sasha Barkov knocked in a puck that bounced off the skate of Foligno and found him camped in front of Sergei Bobrovsky (42 saves).
“That was a terrible goal,” said Foligno, who added he was still mad about it. “I’m in the right spot and he’s lucky to have it bounce there. Sometimes those things happen. More times than not, it hits my skate and goes somewhere else.”
Columbus controlled much of the game yet was never able to put Florida away.
Numerous times, the Jackets had chances to take a two-goal lead, yet Reimer kept the Panthers in the game.
In the third, Florida brought everything it had at Bobrovsky and scored on its final of 18 shots on goal in the period.
“There were a lot of shots, it was quite intense,” Bobrovsky said.
After a back-and-forth overtime session in which both goalies stood strong, Columbus took the extra point in the eighth round of the shootout.
The Jackets scored on their initial shot when Artemi Panarin scored, yet Florida kept things going when Barkov tied it in the second round.
Jack Johnson gave the Jackets a second lead in the sixth round, but Michael Matheson answered.
Finally, in Round 8, Josh Anderson’s first career NHL shootout
Didn’t have much to do early but was strong late and made six saves in the shootout
Gave Columbus its second lead of the night by redirecting a Seth Jones shot Kept Florida in the game and helped steal a point with 46 saves
Game summary
Florida 0 1 1 0—2 Columbus 1 1 0 0—3 Columbus won shootout 3-2.
1, Columbus, Foligno 8 (Jones, Dubois), 9:47 (pp). 2, goal — coming on his first attempt — stood as Bobrovsky stoned Jared McCann.
“It goes to show how important the power play is,” Anderson said. “We have been struggling a Florida, Huberdeau 15 (Barkov, Dadonov), 0:31 (pp). 3, Columbus, Dubois 9 (Panarin, Jones), 17:49
Florida, Barkov 13 (Huberdeau, Yandle), 18:26.
Florida 2 (Trocheck NG, Barkov G, Huberdeau NG, Bjugstad NG, Malgin NG, Matheson G, Dadonov NG, McCann NG), Columbus 3 (Panarin G, Bjorkstrand NG, Jenner NG, Dubois NG, Milano NG, Johnson G, Hannikainen NG, Anderson G). Florida 9-12-18-5—44. Columbus 15-18-11-4—48. Florida 1 of 3; Columbus 2 of 4. Florida, Reimer 11-11-5 (48 shots-46 saves). Columbus, Bobrovsky 20-12-3 (44-42). 16,535. 2:55.
little bit there this year, but it came up big for us. We had a lot of shots, a lot of opportunities, and we found a way to win.”