No Monahan and a swap of Sillingers. Could the Jackets draw even on the season against the Kraken?
First Period
Tough start early with a long shift in the d zone after a few mishandled pucks. The Kraken had the better of play in the early going. But eight minutes in a good forecheck from the 4th line led to a Provorov shot that Kuraly tipped passed Grubauer.
CBJ Goal 1-0 Kuraly (Provorov, Olivier) 11:58
Lead didn’t last long, Tolvanen put a shot behind Elvis 10 seconds later.
Sea Goal 1-1 Tolvanen (Wright, McCann) 12:08
Not too much excitement the rest of the period. CBJ had a good looking power play sixteen minutes in but couldn’t convert. Pyyhtia tripped Montour with 17 seconds left to give the Kraken a man advantage to start the 2nd.
At 5v5 per NST, Kraken led shots 11-6 and xG 0.88-0.5.
Second Period
No worries killing the rest of the Pyyhtia penalty to start the period. Shortly after the kill, the 2nd line got possession in the offensive zone and JVR carried the puck down the side wall before flipping it towards the net where LDBB was posted up to knock it past Grubauer to score in his first game of the season.
CBJ Goal 2-1 Del Bel Belluz (JVR, Severson) 3:29
Some back and forth action mostly driven by the CBJ eventually led to a burst of scoring from the CBJ. First a terrific passing sequence from the new top line ending with Fantilli selling a shot before finding Werenski for the snipe past the Kraken goalie.
CBJ Goal 3-1 Werenski (Fantilli, Voronkov) 10:53
Another strong play from JVR to through the puck through the crease where Mateychuk was at to get his first career NHL goal.
CBJ Goal 4-1 Mateychuk (JVR, LDBB) 12:27
A clean breakout and entry leads to a slick drag and wrister from KJ that ended Grubauer’s night. Aside from the sick release, Jack Han comments on the little play in the NZ KJ does to match the speed of the play.
CBJ Goal 5-1 Kent Johnson (Werenski, Fabbro) 15:45
This period was all Columbus. Per NST CBJ had the edge in shots 14-7, and xG 0.89-0.57.
Third Period
After an exciting second, the third was generally pretty calm. The Jackets did a good job of limiting Seattle’s chances to get possession and look dangerous. They didn’t succeed all period though, as Chandler Stephensen did enter the zone cleanly eight minutes in and laid a pass back for the trailing Tolvanen who sniped in his 2nd of the game.
Sea Goal 5-2 Tolvanen (Stephensen, Montour) 8:44
Dante Fabbro took an interference penalty halfway through the period, but another strong kill dashed any concern there.
D’Accord was pulled with 4 left minutes left, that pressure led to an Owen Sillinger hooking with about 3 minutes remaining. Despite having the puck for a long time in the o zone, the Kraken didn’t really have a grade A chance. Marchenko was able to collect the puck a little after the penalty expired and get through the neutral zone before finding the empty net to seal the game.
CBJ EN Goal 6-2 Marchenko (Mateychuk) 19:31
Seattle with the advantage in shots 9-2 and xG 0.64-0.06 in the final period as the Jackets were largely content to protect their large lead.
Final Thoughts
How about the young guys? Fantilli did not look out of place on the top line without Sean Monahan, LDBB looked good on the new Initials line between JVR and KJ, and Mateychuk tallied his first goal and an assist on the night. Owen Sillinger played respectably on the 4th line and the new look 3rd line contributed to the score sheet as well. The possession metrics with Fantilli up top were never going to be as good as Sean Monahan’s but his pass to setup Werenski’s goal was a beauty and he’ll continue to grow in that role.
Good night from the back end for everyone except Fabbro, but even his night was fine. He just seemed to be fighting it a little tonight with some misplayed pucks and a penalty in the final period. Severson was good in his minutes, and being able to actually play a third pairing more than 10 minutes a night will be helpful in keeping Werenski’s minutes down. Please keep these pairings, Dean.
Elvis was really solid tonight including a take down of Mahura in the third.
Seattle isn’t a top flight team, but if this team wants to remain in the playoff hunt this is a great win following a tough shootout comeback two days before.
Up Next
Blue Jackets travel to St. Louis for their second Saturday night match in a row against the Blues.