The Blue Jackets finished their mini-roadtrip in Tampa Bay with a 5-3 loss. Here’s how it went down.
Prior to the game, Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy was honored for his 500th career NHL game, which was last Thursday in Calgary. Well deserved, and giving his son a silver knee hockey goalie stick was incredible.
First Period
The Tampa Bay Lightning, being very good at this whole hockey thing, were pushing around the Jackets from the getgo. Jet Greaves had to stop an early 2-on-1, before Luke Glendenning pulled off an absolutely disgusting tip on a Nick Perbix point shot.
LIGHTNING GOAL – Luke Glendening from Nick Perbix and Emil Lilleberg – 3:21 1st Period
Meanwhile, the Blue Jackets weren’t really able to get anything going, or even really enter the Tampa zone with possession. The Lightning kept pushing, until Kent Johnson drew a tripping penalty eight and a half minutes in. And the Bolts still dominated. The top unit never even got set up, and the Lightning possessed the puck for most of the first minute. Not “stole it and dumped it down to force a reset” possessed, like straight-up had the puck possessed. The second unit was better though, and got a couple chances, including a nifty Cole Sillinger tip that was a bit off target.
With about five minutes to go in the period, the Jackets had their best shift of the night so far, thanks to… their fourth line and third pair. Sure! Nick Paul would then come flying down the ice and get about as close to scoring as one can get without actually doing it. Greaves got a toe on the puck, it went straight up off the post and crossbar, and then back down in the few inches between Greaves and the goal line. Jet would continue to make several nice saves on Tampa’s top line as the period came to a close.
Second Period
The Lightning struck early and often in the second, starting with Nick Paul giving Greaves snake eyes before blasting it past him from the top of the circles.
LIGHTING GOAL – Nick Paul unassisted – 1:28 2nd Period
A few minutes later, Dante Fabbro would suffer a knee injury after Morgan Geekie’s leg caught his as the defender passed the puck up ice. It didn’t to me look like a malicious hit, just unfortunate mishap, but Geekie still got a two minute minor for kneeing. The powerplay was predictably pedestrian, Geekie was gifted with a breakaway as he left this box, which Greaves stood tall to defend.
The Blue Jackets would respond with a great shift from Kent Johnson, Sean Monahan, and company, keeping the puck in the Tampa Bay zone for what felt like two minutes. But in vintage Blue Jackets fashion, when the Lightning did clear they got a goal, with Jake Guentzel banging in his own rebound after rushing up the ice on a 2-on-1 with Nick Paul. Ivan Provorov could’ve done a bit more on the backcheck there, too.
LIGHTNING GOAL – Jake Guentzel from Nick Paul – 7:36 2nd Period
Their momentum freshly squashed, the Jackets once again relied on Greaves to weather the storm (pun 100% intended). Without him, this game was likely six- or seven-nothing.
At the halfway point of the period, all hell broke loose.
Cole Sillinger decided to take exception to Geekie’s knee-on-knee collision with Fabbro earlier in the period by literally mugging him, dropping his gloves and throwing punches before Geekie even realized what was happening. A massive scrum ensued as players on both sides had an opportunity to process the big feelings they were experiencing. End result: 10-minute misconduct for Sillinger, four offsetting roughing penalties, and a five-minute major powerplay for the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Jackets would kill 4 minutes and 24 seconds off said powerplay, and did a fine job of it too, before Mitchell Chaffee got open in the slot in put it past Greaves.
LIGHTING POWERPLAY GOAL – Mitchell Chaffee from Nick Paul and Brandon Hagel – 14:18 3rd Period
Nothing much else to report besides Columbus getting their third powerplay of the game with 1:11 left and doing a whole walloping of nada with it.
Third Period
Time for a bit of a behind the scenes moment here. My strategy for writing these is to take notes on my phone during the period, and then write each period’s recap during the intermission.
As such, there will now be a significant tonal shift in this article.
The third period was great! It started with yet another powerplay opportunity, but this one was actually pretty decent! The team kept the puck in the zone, got pucks on net, created some netfront scrambles, and came scant inches away from scoring once or twice. On the other end, Jet Greaves was back there again to resist the Lightning’s surges early in the frame.
Columbus finally got on the scoreboard 7:23 into the frame. Sean Kuraly stole a puck from Victor Hedman, spun and found birthday boy Mikael Pyyhtia, who slung the puck under Vasilevskiy’s blocker to spoil the shutout. Neat!
BLUE JACKETS GOAL – Mikael Pyyhtia from Sean Kuraly – 7:23 3rd Period
42 seconds later, Anthony Cirelli botched a point pass, which slid into the neutral zone and created a 3-on-1 for the Jackets. Kirill Marchenko got Ryan McDonaugh to bite on the would-be crossing pass to Dmitri Voronkov, before sliding the puck up to the trailing Adam Fantilli, who fired it into the net no problem. Suddenly, it was only 4-2, and we had ourselves a game.
BLUE JACKETS GOAL – Adam Fantilli from Kirill Marchenko – 8:05 3rd Period
The Blue Jackets would continue their relentless attack, and Jet Greaves continued to be a brick wall. After a turnover, he’d face a mini-2-on-1 against Tampa’s top line like it was nothing. Even Damon Severson got into the fun, showing off some nifty dangles to get from point to slot with around 8:30 to go.
With just over seven minutes to go, the Blue Jackets got another powerplay, and finally capitalized. Marchenko and Werenski would work the puck down the near wall, before Voronkov found Sillinger with a little bump pass, and the Columbus native put the postage stamp in the top right corner.
BLUE JACKETS POWERPLAY GOAL – Cole Sillinger from Dmitri Voronkov and Kirill Marchenko – 14:11 3rd Period
Unfortunately, the comeback was not to be. Columbus kept up the pressure, but shortly after pulling the goalie, the Lightning’s top line dismantled poor Jake Christiansen and sealed it. The Jackets would pull Greaves again to run the 6-on-5 drill some more, and did a great job of it, keeping the puck mostly in Tampa’s end and getting some decent shots, but that was all she wrote.
LIGHTNING EMPTY NET GOAL – Brayden Point from Nikita Kucherov and Jake Guentzel – 17:51 3rd Period
The two stars of this game for Columbus were Jet Greaves and Zach Werenski. After Fabbro’s injury, Z was left without his normal partner and down to being one of five defensemen. He just casually dropped 30:12 of ice time and was on ice for two of the three CBJ goals, and could’ve gotten a tertiary assist on Sillinger’s. And then Jet Greaves put up one of the most impressive .871 save percentage/4.15 GAA performances I’ve seen. The Lightning had 15 high danger chances, and Greaves was the only thing keeping this mildly within reach going into the third. I probably would’ve liked him to stop Nick Paul’s goal, but it was still a great performance from the young netminder.
The Jackets are back home Thursday against New Jersey.