On the heels of blowing a lead late to lose to the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday afternoon, the Columbus Blue Jackets returned home to Nationwide Arena to take on the Boston Bruins.
The Jackets made no changes except swapping Spencer Martin for Elvis Merzlikins on the back to back.
Here’s what happened.
First Period
Columbus goal (1-0): Voronkov from Chinakhov, 15:52
The Jackets looked to extend the lead to 2-0 late in the period, but the puck was ruled to not have crossed the line before the net came off its moorings.
Second Period
The Jackets opened the second period on the power play, but the Bruins killed it. The Jackets managed to extend their lead anyway behind an Ivan Provorov shot.
Columbus goal (2-0): Provorov from Jiricek and Sillinger, 5:38
The Bruins changed goaltenders after the second goal, bringing in Linus Ullmark for Jeremy Swayman. The Jackets earned a power play at 9:15 that was killed. The Bruins went to the power play 7:10 to go and the Jackets matched the kill.
Columbus goal (3-0): Chinakhov, unassisted, 16:42
Third Period
The Jackets withstood a solid Bruins push early before drawing 1:20 of a 5 on 3 early in the third. The Jackets capitalized and scored a power play goal on their 5 on 3.
Columbus goal (4-0): Marchenko from Jenner and Laine, 4:51
The Bruins got one back just over halfway through the third – tic-tac-toe passing got the visitors on the board.
Boston goal (4-1): Poitras from McAvoy and Heinen, 8:24
The Jackets got a power play at 9:21 but the Bruins killed it. The Bruins pulled Ullmark with seven minutes to go down by three goals to try to make up the deficit. Justin Danforth scored an empty netter to ice it.
Columbus goal (5-1): Danforth from Kuraly and Jenner, 13:41
The Bruins got a goal late that took a weird deflection, rolling up the Bruins’ stick and over Martin’s glove. Not much he could do there, but too little too late for Boston.
Boston goal (5-2): Beecher from Shattenkirk and Frederic, 17:38
Final
Columbus Blue Jackets 5 Boston Bruins 2
Final Thoughts
Not sure I’ve ever seen a coach pull a goalie down just 2-0 less than six minutes into the second period, but Jim Montgomery did tonight. Bold strategy trying to shake things up. I get it in a way to motivate his skaters, but that is just wild. Early in the first or at the start of the third makes sense, but at that segment of the game was odd.
Dmitry Voronkov, subject of relocation rumors of late, played a whale of a game for the Blue Jackets. He scored the opening goal, provided a massive screen on the second goal that chased Swayman, and he was physically felt every shift. He received chants, had signs made in his honor, and fans showered him with love due to reports of homesickness. Hopefully he can gradually feel more comfortable here and continue acclimating to the NHL.
Spencer Martin has been an incredibly capable backup this year. Obviously Elvis deserves accolades for resdiscovering his form, but Martin has been invaluable as a waiver claim to play backup netminder.
Johnny Gaudreau continues to look more the part of the superstar the Jackets need him to be. He did not score tonight, but he had two breakaways and made several nice plays in the offensive zone and drew a slashing penalty. The goals will come, but Gaudreau looks far more engaged right now.
I get why Eric Robinson was hammering away on the rebounds below the goal line very in the first period, but I wish he had more hockey IQ to pull it out and re-cycle it to keep the pressure up on tired Bruins defenders and really pressure them. It worked out because of drawing a penalty on the draw when Patrik Laine got slashed, but you know what I mean. A similar situation happened later on the 5 on 3, but the puck was instead cycled and led directly to the Marchenko PPG. Better hockey IQ and passing led directly to the goal.
All four Russians for the Blue Jackets – Voronkov, Provorov, Chinakhov, and Marchenko scored goals for the Blue Jackets tonight. That may have contributed to this report by Portzline in the middle of the game:
Up Next
The Columbus Blue Jackets hit the ice on Wednesday night as they host the Montreal Canadiens in Nationwide Arena. Faceoff is scheduled for 7:00 PM ET.