Columbus kicked off their 4-game, 75% California road trip with a game in Ottawa against the Senators. Some horrid special teams play, especially in the first period, would create a hole too big to climb out of.
First Period
The Johnson-Voronkov-Marchenko line started off hot, with a great opening shift followed by Kent Johnson and Dmitri Voronkov linking up to put the CBJ on the board, with a bit of help from Jacob Bernard-Docker.
BLUE JACKETS GOAL – Dmitri Voronkov from Kent Johnson and Kirill Marchenko – 7:11 1st Period
Shortly after the goal, Erik Gudbranson got nabbed for tripping. Facing a big kill, the CBJ folded like wet tissue. Brady Tkachuk scored twice in 42 seconds, and it’s a minor miracle that Vladimir Tarasenko didn’t get one seconds before.
SENATORS POWERPLAY GOAL – Brady Tkachuk from Josh Norris and Claude Giroux – 9:48 1st Period
SENATORS GOAL – Brady Tkachuk (2) unassisted – 10:36 1st Period
Luckily, the Jackets would get a chance to respond, earning a powerplay after Jakob Chychrun and Mathieu Olivier had a fun little scum going into a commercial break. They scored! Bad news: “They” is Ottawa, specifically Claude Giroux.
SENATORS SHORTHANDED GOAL – Claude Giroux from Parker Kelly – 14:46 1st Period
The Senators appeared to score another shorty 42 seconds later, but it was ruled the Pierre Joseph interfered with Daniil Tarasov to knock the put into the net. They’d do a whole bunch of nothing to get to intermission.
Second Period
After the first, I really didn’t want to continue watching this game. And with my stream being incredibly laggy, it felt like my laptop didn’t want me to either. Unfortunately that made it hard to get a sense of the flow. The Jackets appeared to play better, but failed to make any ground in the middle frame.
The second period began with some fantastic pressure from the CBJ’s top line, with Anton Forsberg robbing Johnny Gaudreau from the slot. But, it ultimately led to nothing. Less than nothing, in fact!
SENATORS GOAL – Ridly Grieg from Vladimir Tarasenko and Shane Pinto – 5:37 2nd Period
After killing off a tripping call against Zach Werenski, the Jackets began to fight back. Werenski and Gaudreau got the puck up the ice and to Boone Jenner, who would snipe it top corner over Forsberg. After four more minutes of pressure, Jack Roslovic would call the Captain’s shot and raise him a no-looker.
BLUE JACKETS GOAL – Boone Jenner from Johnny Gaudreau and Zach Werenski – 10:41 2nd Period
BLUE JACKETS GOAL – Jack Roslovic from Erik Gudbranson and Jake Bean – 13:54 2nd Period
Suddenly, it was 4-3, and there was a glimmer of hope. Until Z was nabbed for his second tripping infraction of the period, and Brady Tkachuk would take advantage of an injured Ivan Provorov to complete the hat trick and restore Ottawa’s 2-goal lead.
SENATORS POWERPLAY GOAL – Brady Tkachuk (3) from Claude Giroux and Thomas Chabot – 16:38 2nd Period
With a minute to go, a bit of extracurriculars. Jenner collided with Ridly Grieg (aka the empty-netter slapshot guy) in the neutral zone, the latter went after the former with a crosscheck as he left the ice, and Voronkov, who came on for Jenner, would cause a kerfuffle. End result was a powerplay for Columbus, which did a total of jack and shit.
Third Period
Good news: Aside from some bad-to-mediocre powerplays and some time on the penalty kill, the Jackets consistently outplayed Ottawa in the third period, especially in the back half of the frame. Bad news: Nothing would go in.
One consistent issue, especially with the extra attacker, was lack of movement. All CBJ skates would stay relatively stationary, allowing for easy defense on the Sens’ part. I know, shocking.
The Jackets would pull their goalie with three minutes to go, and despite both teams’ best efforts, it’d take nearly all of that time before someone scored. Erik Brannstrom would ice the game with nine seconds left.
SENATORS EMPTY NET GOAL – Erik Brannstrom from Anton Forsberg – 19:51 3rd Period
Jackets are off for the next three days before embarking on their California road trip over the weekend.