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Game #70 Recap: Jackets Beat Bruins 7-4 in Game That Had Everything

Posted on by Ryan Real

Fans who attended Tuesday night’s game at Nationwide Arena certainly got their money’s worth: An Artemi Panarin fight, a Boone Jenner hat trick, a nearly-blown 5-1 lead, and a huge two points for the Columbus Blue Jackets in a wild 7-4 win over the Boston Bruins.

Jenner notched his first career hat trick by scoring an empty-netter from his own zone in the final minute of Tuesday’s win. The goal capped a night that saw the Blue Jackets take a 5-1 lead in the second and have to fight off a hard-charging Bruins team that pulled within one during that same period.

Jenner may have scored three goals, but Josh Anderson and Zach Werenski led all players with four points apiece by each scoring a goal and tallying three assists. Werenski’s power play goal in the third gave Columbus the breathing room they’d been searching for in a night where goals, which had been hard to come by recently for the CBJ, flew fast and furious from both sides. Ryan Dzingel also finished the night with three points, as well as his first goal as a Blue Jacket.

Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 27 of 31 shots, several of them big-time saves that kept the Bruins from tying the game. Tuukka Rask stopped 19 of 24 before Jaroslav Halak entered in relief in the second. Halak made nine saves on 10 shots.

Columbus registered 13 high danger scoring chances to Boston’s eight and outshot the visitors 35-31, according to NaturalStatTrick.com.

First Period

After doing their customary thing where they let the opponent score first (Patrice Bergeron finishing off an odd-man rush shorthanded), the Blue Jackets potted three unanswered goals to lead 3-1 at intermission.

The teams traded quality chances in the first minute—a Sean Kuraly breakaway and then a solid CBJ deflection—before Brandon Carlo took an interference penalty at 3:29. Just 31 seconds into the Columbus power play, Brad Marchand found Bergeron for a shorthanded goal—his third shorty in the last week.

It was around this point where Jack Edwards noted Columbus is the “fourth most-sensitive team” when it comes to giving up the first goal and losing the game.

The Blue Jackets evened the score a little more than three minutes later when Josh Anderson took a Zach Werenski pass and beat Rask with a beautiful backhand.

Ryan Dzingel picked up an assist on Anderson’s goal, but seven minutes later would be the recipient of another Werenski assist for his first goal as a Blue Jacket.

Jenner took a reckless tripping call with 2:26 left in the period, giving Boston its first power play of the game. With 39 seconds left on that penalty, Nick Foligno closed his hand on the puck while scooping it out of the zone to give the Bruins a 5-on-3.

No matter. Boone came out of the box and atoned for his sin with this gritty shorthanded tally, giving the Blue Jackets a 3-1 lead after the first period.

Thus ended a stanza that saw Columbus hold Boston four (!) shots while tallying 13 of their own.

Second Period

While Columbus scored three unanswered to end the first, Boston flipped the script and scored three of its own to end the second.

The home side kept up its offensive assault to start the second with goals from Matt Duchene and Boone Jenner. Duchene, on a line with Anderson and Dzingel, got loose in front and slammed home a perfect feed from Dzingel at 7:09 to make it 4-1 Columbus.

Exactly one minute later, Riley Nash hooked up with Boone Jenner on a carbon-copy play for Jenner’s 14th of the season and the goal that finally chased Rask from the game. Hard to fault Rask on many of the night’s goals, including his last two.

With a 5-1 lead and the game not even halfway over, Columbus took its foot off the gas. Brad Marchand made it 5-2 at 13:07 by whacking in a loose rebound in front of Bobrovsky, setting off a change in energy that saw a rare Artemi Panarin fight with Charlie McAvoy.

That’s the second fight of Panarin’s career, joining a 2016 scrap with Scottie Upshall. Columbus did come out of the fight with a power play, albeit a fruitless one.

Chris Wagner scored for Boston at 15:36 and Marchand netted his 30th of the season with 97 seconds left in the period to slash the Blue Jackets’ lead to just one goal. Fun Fact: Tom Reed pointed out the Blue Jackets only had four players off the faceoff for Marchand’s goal—Jenner, Nash, Werenski and Jones.

The period ended with a shocked, nervous and probably angry Nationwide Arena crowd sending its team to intermission ahead with a tenuous 5-4 edge.

Third Period

Josh Anderson drew a Steven Kampfer slashing call at 1:43 for the CBJ’s third power play of the night. A few puck retrievals out of their own zone later, the Blue Jackets were 0-3.

Newly-minted bad boy Artemi Panarin slashed Torey Krug at 10:08, but the Blue Jackets caught a break as Danton Heinen went off for hooking 41 seconds into the Boston PP.

Bob made an incredible stop on Marchand as the 4-on-4 for expired, sending the puck the other way for Anderson while Panarin left the box. Anderson found Panarin in the deep corner, who then immediately hit Zach Werenski in stride for a laser that beat Jaroslav Halak.

Wonderful celebration and a 6-4 Columbus lead.

Boston turned up the heat for the final five minutes by swarming the crease and pumping shots at Bob. Bob was up to the task and the puck rarely left the CBJ zone, until Jenner fired one into the empty net with 46.1 seconds to seal the win and complete his first career hat trick.

Final Thoughts

  • Josh Anderson has been one of the best players for Columbus this season and Tuesday marked his first-ever four point night.
  • Keep the Anderson-Duchene-Dzingel line together. Eight points between ‘em against the Bruins.
  • Will Chase pointed out that Riley Nash logged 17:39 of ice time, more than every other forward except Foligno and Jenner. That kind of night. Alexander Wennberg only played nine minutes, and 1:13 of those came shorthanded.
  • Columbus won 64 percent of its faceoffs and held the third-ranked Boston power play to no goals on three chances.
  • Zach Werenski is good. The monkey’s off his back now.
  • Boston’s going to be ready for this team Saturday, but the CBJ have two days before playing Carolina at home on Friday night at 7 p.m.
  • Pretty good heatmap from NaturalStatTrick.com. They should try to shoot from that close every time./

Talking Points