Jackets find way to win tight one
It wasn’t easy, but the Blue Jackets were rewarded this time for playing a strong game.
The defense was stingy, Sergei Bobrovsky notched his first shutout of the season and captain Nick Foli- gno scored the only goal in his 800th career NHL game to upend the Vegas Golden Knights 1-0 in front of 15,008 on Monday night at Nation- wide Arena.
“You’ve got to learn from your experiences, and in this game, it was, ‘Who’s going to break first?’ ” said Foligno, who scored his eighth goal 40 seconds into the third period. “We talk about that a lot. The game is kind of a stalemate at first and then all of a sudden, it’s that one opportunity and finding the way to put it in the back of the net when you have that chance.”
The captain found it and the Blue Jackets (18-12-3) improved to 2-2-1 in the first five games of a season-high, six-game home stand. They capitalized in a game that presented a good chance to bounce back from a 2-1 overtime loss Saturday to the Anaheim Ducks, but it was harder than it could have been.
Despite playing without star Artemi Panarin, who is day-to-day with a lower-body injury, Columbus faced a team playing the finale of a back-to-back and starting
THURSDAY’S GAME
Devils at Blue Jackets, 7 p.m., FS Ohio a backup goaltender who hadn’t played in a month.
Not only that, but Malcolm Subban was 0-4-0 with a bloated 4.03 goals-against average, frigid .859 save percentage and had allowed seven goals the last time he played, a 7-2 loss Nov. 19 at the Calgary Flames.
Combine all that with the Jackets playing much better defensively and one might think it might stack up to a multi-goal victory for the home team. Instead, it was just the opposite. Columbus outplayed Vegas for two periods, dominating the second, but had nothing to show for it starting the third.
It was scoreless after 40 minutes despite the Blue Jackets holding the edge in shots (21-14), attempted shots (31-22) and scoring chances — which according to the website naturalstattrick.com favored the Blue Jackets 16-8 overall and 12-3 in the second period.
The opportunities were numerous, b ut Subban denied them all until Foligno finally beat him.
“When you play the right way and you focus so much defensively on your game that way, you just want to finally start getting those goals,” Foligno said. “We could feel it coming.”