“It really, really feels good.”
Pierre-Luc Dubois, scorer of the beautiful OT goal, was humble as ever in his post-game interview. He credited Boone Jenner for scoring the goal that sent them past regulation, and Zach Werenski for putting them on the board in the first place.
But truly, it was a team effort — and it was rewarding to watch the effort pay off.
1st Period
Well, things got interesting fast. Adrian Kempe knocked in a rebound off Korpisalo just 42 seconds after the game started. Fortunately, the Jackets answered quickly — Z made us even more thankful that he’s back from injury when he scored a clean one-timer just 2:55 in for a PP goal. Remember when we couldn’t score those? Glad that’s behind us.
Things were slow for the rest of the period, sans a few clutch penalty kills on both sides, and the period ended 1-1.
End of the first, it’s a 1-1 game.
Shots on goal: 9-8 LAK
Shot attempts: 18-15 LAKTeams that play a pretty similar game and are in a pretty similar spot in the standings end up pretty even after one. #CBJ
— Jeff Svoboda (@JacketsInsider) December 20, 2019
2nd Period
Jackets kill another penalty as Seth Jones was sent off for a delay of game call, and Cam Atkinson was felled on a solid breakaway opportunity — definitely should have been a penalty shot, but it wasn’t called. Cam leaves with a lower body injury shortly after this and does not return — I mean, if a key player doesn’t get injured every other period, is it even a Blue Jackets game?
Jeff Carter scored, which we hate to see. Fortunately, he was adequately booed by the crowd — 2-1 to finish the third.
3rd Period
Well, the Jackets are in their classic third-period-frenzied-push mode to start the third one goal down, and the hustle was evident but not rewarded until Boone taps a deflection goal in off a shot by Zach with only 1:43 to go in the game.
This goal was especially significant because it happened after Korpi had been pulled — someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I think that’s the first time that’s happened this season.
Anyways, Pierre-Luc Freakin’ Dubois does his thing and scores an unstoppable shot on Jack Campbell to end the game. And it was glorious to witness. Fun fact: I took this video!
UP TOP pic.twitter.com/m7nnyDqbyc
— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) December 20, 2019
The Jackets have a brief Friday off before they face the struggling New Jersey Devils Saturday night at Nationwide. They’re on a six-game point streak right now, which is an awesome sentence to say out loud — but they can’t falter and let their guard down against the Devils.