The Blue Jackets kicked off the Western Canadian swing of their roadtrip tonight with a 3-0 result in Calgary. Even more than the score, the game was all about honoring Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau. Both team wore Gaudreau jerseys for warmups, and the Flames held a nice tribute and puckdrop with the Gaudreaus and both teams pregame. Coincidentally, a depraved serial onion-cutter got loose around the same time.
First Period
The Blue Jackets appeared to get off to a quick start, with Kent Johnson setting up Zach Werenski for a goal, before it was waved off due to an offsides review.
The period continued with some pretty continuous back-and-forth after that, with three or four minutes of non-stop action without a whistle, with the teams roughly evenly matched. Zach Werenski and Kirill Marchenko had notable chances for the CBJ, with a half-breakaway on a zone exit and open shot from the high circle respectively. Z also took a hit behind his own net that he was not fond of, but it was nothing a bit of shoving and jawing couldn’t solve
With about four minutes left, Dante Fabbro took a holding penalty as he tried to defend Nazem Kadri. The Jackets would complete the penalty kill, and the period would end scoreless. Calgary led in shots on goal 6-9.
Second Period
The second period was absolutely dominated by the Flames. They were outshot 3-8, which doesn’t include the fact that the first of those three CBJ shots came 17:51 into the period. That’s suboptimal.
The good news is that, defensively, the team mostly held up. Despite having long, long stretches of play in the Jackets zone, Calgary still only got eight shots on goal. They were flawless 5-on-5, but unfortunately, a somewhat questionable slashing call against Justin Danforth resulted in a powerplay goal for the Flames.
FLAMES POWERPLAY GOAL – Rasmus Andersson from Mikael Backlund and Nazem Kadri – 10:14 2nd Period
The Jackets would take another penalty five minutes later, with Adam Fantilli getting nabbed for high sticking. This one they were able to kill off. Shortly after the kill, the Jackets were finally got a powerplay of their own, with the goalscorer Rasmus Andersson interfering Sean Kuraly. Columbus finally got shots on goal thanks to the powerplay (two from Zach Werenski, one from Kevin Labanc) before the penalty, and then period, ended.
Third Period
The Blue Jackets did well early in the period, but also didn’t get any high quality shots. Elvis, however, made a high-quality save, denying Huberdeau on a netfront deke. He would be looked at by the trainers after the play but stayed in the game.
The Flames are great at slow, grimy games, and this was no exception. Only 38 shots combined between the two teams. This continued through much of the final frame. Calgary seemed to go up 2-0 with 7:30 left to play, but a challenge that seemed to take seven and a half minutes overturned the goal. It was all for naught though; Fabbro would take another semi-questionable tripping penalty with under four minutes to play, and the Flames would capitalize yet again. An empty net goal with 20 seconds left sealed the deal
FLAMES POWERPLAY GOAL – Kevin Bahl from MacKenzie Weegar and Jonathan Huberdeau – 17:53 3rd Period
FLAMES EMPTY NET GOAL – Yegor Sharangovich from Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman – 19:40 3rd Period
The poor penalty kill continues to be this team’s Achilles Heel, as they went 2/4 tonight, resulting in the only goalscoring of the night (except the late ENG). Heading into tonight, the team was 73% on the kill, 7th worst in the league. It’s unacceptable.
The Jackets are back at it Thursday in Edmonton, before playing in Vancouver the next night. See y’all there.