Jackets take latest step with win in Dallas
Second straight victory is only third streak of year
The Blue Jackets’ 3-2 win over Dallas on Thursday wasn’t perfect, but it may have been a building block. In a tumultuous season, the result carried some added value for the Jackets.
Columbus nearly coughed up a 3-0 lead — built on goals by Boone Jenner, Oliver Bjorkstrand and Eric Robinson — but prevented a full tumble after allowing the Stars a pair of third-period goals 3 minutes, 13 seconds apart.
A collapse might have fit neatly into a confounding season had those Stars goals led to another gut-wrenching loss, but that’s not what happened. Instead, the Blue Jackets wiggled out of trouble with the aid of some old-fashioned gumption and a well-placed TV timeout.
The most meaningful aspect was the win itself as the Jackets improved to 1010-5 and won consecutive games for just the third time this season. It was a building block. It didn’t have to be pretty.
“I’m not going to jump up and down and do cartwheels here,” coach John Tortorella said. “We’ve got to stay on top of ourselves and continue to try and get better in all aspects.”
Here are some takeaways:
Let it ride
After the Stars pulled to 3-2 on goals by Miro Heiskanen and Jason Robertson, Tortorella had to decide whether to spend his one timeout to help his team regroup or let them play through to the next built-in TV break, which he knew was approaching.
He chose the latter, which paid off after a nerve-wracking stretch of 1:54 that included blocked shots by Zach Werenski and Seth Jones before the stoppage.
“I knew we were close to a TV timeout,” Tortorella said. “When I saw the next rush come down (for Dallas), they threw a play backdoor. I started kicking myself a little bit. If they score that goal, maybe I should’ve (taken the timeout). But after the TV timeout, I think we collected ourselves.”
Here comes Boone
Jenner had another productive night with his goal and the primary assist on Robinson’s goal, which proved the winner.
Jenner’s goal was his eighth of the
season, scored after an impressive deke to elude a defender, and two points pushed his total to nine — five goals and four assists — in the past 11 games. Jenner also filled the stat sheet with four hits, two blocks and a 55% success rate on face-offs (6 of 11).
“Remember, last year during the playoffs, in our last game, he was struggling so bad … I mean, I didn’t play him,” Tortorella said.
“I think he has really tried to focus to be that complete guy. He plays a major part in our game, as far as face-offs, and has been one of our more consistent players.”
Blade of glory
Robinson’s goal was scored off the type of bounce the Blue Jackets haven’t gotten much this season.
Jenner shoveled a shot toward the net that stayed low to the ice before nicking Robinson’s right skate blade and between the pads of goalie Anton Khudobin for a 3-0 lead.
“(Robinson) said it hit his skate and I couldn’t really see it to be honest,” Jenner said. “I just tried to get it on net and he was in a good spot there and we get a good bounce.”
Solid in goal
Goaltender Joonas Korpisalo enjoyed a low-stress night, making 22 saves to earn the win in his sixth straight start. Korpisalo is pulling a heavy workload because of a pair of upper-body injuries for Elvis Merzlikins, but is showing signs that he could be back to looking like the goalie who shined brightly last season.
Since allowing five goals in a pair of starts — a 7-3 loss Feb. 15 to Carolina and a 6-5 shootout loss Feb. 20 to Chicago — Korpisalo has allowed just nine goals in his past five games.
“I’ve been feeling good all the time,” said Korpisalo, who has a 1.82 goalsagainst average and .932 save percentage in that stretch. “I don’t look at the stats. I focus on my things and what I can do and trying to get better every day. So, yeah, I feel good.” bhedger@dispatch.com @Brianhedger