One and done Anderson scores 30 seconds in, Bobrovsky makes it stand
If you missed the first 30 seconds Saturday night, you missed the Blue Jackets’ winning goal.
The rest of the night was The Sergei Bobrovsky Show.
Josh Anderson gave the Jackets their fastest goal to start a game this season and Bobrovsky made 35 saves to grind out a 1-0 win over the Arizona Coyotes at Nationwide Arena one night after winning at New Jersey.
“It wasn’t pretty, was it?” defenseman Seth Jones said. “We found a way to win. We didn’t play perfect. Neither team did. We gave up a lot more chances than we wanted to, but Bob made some big saves.”
Bobrovsky notched his fourth shutout of the season and 23rd overall while playing on consecutive nights for the third time in eight back-tobacks for the Jackets.
“It was a tight game, a little pressure there,” said Bobrovsky, who has allowed two or fewer goals in 12 of his 16 wins. “It’s nice to win those games.”
To secure their 10th win in the past 13 games,
the Jackets (19-10-1) had to skate the final 2:53 short-handed after Artemi Panarin was penalized two minutes for hooking and two minutes for high-sticking.
“Yeah, Bread gave us an opportunity to work at it,” coach John Tortorella quipped.
While the Jackets’ power play has been a season-long concern, their penalty kill has been the polar opposite. So they weren’t fazed when it came down to that Saturday.
“Just an opportunity for us to get the job done,” Jones said. “The penalty kill has been great all year for us. It’s won games for us.”
The Jackets, who were 4 of 4 on penalty kills against the Coyotes, started the night ranked first in the NHL in penalty-killing at home (94.7 percent, 36 of 38) and third overall (84.9 percent, 62 of 73) after successfully killing 31 of 33 chances in the previous 15 games.
“It’s offset some of our problems,” Tortorella said. “It’s been that good.”
The same could be said for the Jackets’ top line of Panarin, PierreLuc Dubois and Josh Anderson.
Anderson notched his fourth winning goal in the opening minute as he grabbed the puck off the boards, skated to the bottom of the circle, spun and fired a shot into the far upper corner.
Panarin notched his sixth consecutive primary assist after becoming the first NHL player in 22 years to tally five primary assists in a game Friday. Dubois got the secondary assist, giving the trio 27 points (eight goals, 19 assists) in the past nine games.
The early goal was a good omen for the Jackets, who came into the game 12-3-1 when scoring first.
Bobrovsky, who said he was well-rested and “felt good,” made 11 saves in the opening period — including stopping Anthony Duclair from point-blank range during a power play — 11 more in the second and 13 in the third. Raanta finished with 33 saves in the loss.
“Bob made some key saves all through the game,” Tortorella said. “Their goalie made some saves, too. As the game went on, you knew it was going to be that type of night, as far as just grinding away. … On a back-to-back, that second game is just about finding a way, and I give our guys credit.”