Gritty effort by the Jackets wills them to a 4-3 overtime win against the Senators

After getting blown out by a touchdown last night, the ragtag Blue Jackets took the Ottawa Senators to overtime and promptly beat them thanks to Kirill Marchenko’s history making goal. With his 21st goal, he dethrones Pierre-Luc Dubois as the team’s all-time leader for goals by a rookie.

Yeah, it’s a bummer that Chicago now controls their own destiny in the race to the bottom. I get that a lot of fans are annoyed with every win at this point of the year. I didn’t want them to win this one prior to overtime either, but damn it felt good seeing the reaction and pure elation from Marchenko after scoring that goal. He’s a joy to watch.

Also, congrats to Jon Gillies to getting his first NHL win in over a year.

Here’s how it went down.

First Period

Two minutes into the game the Blue Jackets’ power play got them on the board first. Kent Johnson showed good patience with the puck and backed off the Ottawa defenseman before firing a low wrister that beat Senators goalie, Cam Talbot, down low.

1-0 CBJ (Johnson from Bayreuther and Gaudreau)

It didn’t take long for Ottawa to respond. Only 1:21 later, Dylan Gambrell jumped off the bench and drove the net. Erik Brannstrom found him with a great backdoor pass for the easy tip in past a sliding Jon Gillies.

1-1 Gambrell from Brannstrom

Just FIVE seconds later the Jackets regained the lead thanks to Eric Robinson’s patented far-post, top-shelf snipe off of the rush. Emil Bemstrom and Justin Richards assisted for his second career NHL point.

2-1 CBJ (Robinson from Bemstrom and Richards)

The Jackets were 2 for 2 on their shots and it looked like this one was destined to be a barn burner. Those three goals were scored in a span of less than a minute-and-a-half.

Ottawa cashed in on the misfortune of Jon Gillies when he lost a skateblade. Ottawa had control of the puck against a pretty much immobile goalie, and Mark Kastelic threw a shot on net that got under Gillies arm and into the net.

2-2 (Kastelic from Kleven)

Ten Minutes into the game there was a total of 6 shots and 4 goals. It was definitely obvious that both teams played the night before.

With just over five minutes remaining in the period Alex DeBrincat scored off an offensive zone faceoff to give his team their first lead of the evening. DeBrincat scooped up a puck off the draw and skated across the middle of the ice and wired a shot past Gillies.

3-2 OTT (DeBrincat from Greig)

A very eventful opening period wound down without further action, and the Jackets headed into the intermission down a goal. Shots were 11-6 in favor of Ottawa, and they appeared to calm down after the early flurry of goals, and looked to take over the rest of the game.

Second Period

After a few uneventful minutes to open the middle frame, Ottawa headed to the power play after a Boone Jenner tripping penalty. The Jackets penalty killers looked strong in shutting down the league’s 6th best power play unit. Jon Gillies made some strong saves and looked much more comfortable after a shaky first period.

Not that there was much happening in the second, but the little that did happen was from the Senators. At the midway mark of the period, the Blue Jackets had only mustered a single shot, and had seven for the entire game to that point. Ottawa, while they had nothing to show for it, had already generated seven shots at that point.

A much calmer second period wasn’t necessarily what I expected after the boat race that occurred in the first, but I’m sure both coaches were pleased with their teams’ play. Shots were more even that period, with Ottawa still holding the advantage with 8 shots to Columbus’ 7.

Third Period

Tired legs appeared to be taking over in the third as neither team could get much going at all in the early minutes of the final frame. The Blue Jackets took a hooking penalty four minutes into the period that presented Ottawa a chance to put this one away for all intents and purposes, but once again the Jackets penalty killers really shut down the Senators power play units. They were leading on the scoreboard, but you could see the frustration setting in for the Ottawa stars.

The Blue Jackets had a power play chance of their own with 11 minutes remaining in the period. They missed tying the game by mere inches when Jake Christiansen hit the cross bar in the waning seconds of the man-advantage.

The Blue Jackets did find the equalizer with just under six minutes remaining. Kirill Marchenko caught Brady Tkachuk playing defense and flatfooted and entered the zone with speed. The two got tangled up and went crashing behind the net, and the puck trickled back to Boone Jenner, who stepped into a slap shot and beat Talbot with a laser far-post. Jenner extended his team lead with his 26th goal.

3-3 (Jenner from Marchenko)

Neither team could find the winner in the remaining minutes and to overtime the two teams went. I’ve been lamenting all the meaningless points secured for the Jackets at this point of the season, but at this juncture, points are no longer meaningless, but hold as much meaning as if in a playoff race…only the opposite.

Overtime

For once it was the Blue Jackets who ended things quickly in the extra frame! Johnnny Gaudreau stripped Tim Stuetzle of the puck as he tried to exit his offensive zone and pushed a pass to Kirill Marchenko. Marchenko made no mistake roofing a shot over Cam Talbot to secure the win and the record for goals by a rookie in the process.

Final 4-3 CBJ (Marchenko from Gaudreau)

Up Next

The Jackets head north of the border to take on the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night. If the lineup remains as-is, it may just be the biggest gap in talent seen in an NHL game in recent history. Of course, that means they’ll probably win…