Tonight’s big headline was the return of Ryan Johansen. After morning skate today, Coach Tortorella spoke to the assembled season ticket holders regarding Johansen’s scratch in Arizona. The coach said that Johansen had been developing bad habits, and that he wanted to sit him to work on getting those habits corrected. Tortorella also said that the benching was not a punishment so much as it was a process with Johansen, and that Torts cannot just “let [Johansen] play through” the issues that he is having right now. Tortorella emphasized that he and Johansen have a great relationship and they do not intend to have any issues in the media like Torts has had with players in the past.
Joonas Korpisalo would man the net for the Blue Jackets on this night, after Curtis McElhinney allowed 5 goals in Arizona against the Coyotes. To the highlights!
FIRST PERIOD HIGHLIGHTS
Your Blue Jackets starters: Boone Jenner, Ryan Johansen, Nick Foligno, Fedor Tyutin, Ryan Murray, Joonas Korpisalo
The Blue Jackets started fast, outshooting Philadelphia 4-1 early.
CHANCE! William Karlsson had a solid chance denied by Steve Mason.
Philadelphia power play. Ryan Johansen took a tripping penalty at 3:42, in his second shift back from his healthy scratch. The Blue Jackets killed the penalty, allowing 2 shots.
Wayne Simmonds from Philadelphia hit the goal post at 8:20.
Philadelphia power play. Dalton Prout went to the box for boarding RJ Umberger at 8:47.
CHANCE! Gregory Campbell had a shorthanded breakaway at 9:55, but was denied by Steve Mason.
The Blue Jackets successfully killed the Philadelphia power play, allowing only one shot.
JACKETS ON THE POWER PLAY! Scott Laughton off at 12:01 for hooking.
Chance for Philadelphia. Nick Foligno turned the puck over, leading to a shorthanded Philadelphia breakaway, but Chris VandeVelde wasted the chance.
BLUE JACKETS GOAL!! KNEEL BEFORE SAAD! Brandon Saad puts one in at 14:01. Assists to Brandon Dubinsky and Kevin Connauton.
Extended shift in the defensive zone for the Blue Jackets at 17:45. Andrew Bodnarchuk and Justin Falk were the defensemen on the ice for this shift, which may have contributed to clearing issues.
CHANCE! Foligno has his shot stopped, but a quick whistle on a loose puck denies any chance of a follow up.
FIGHT!! Late in the period, and after a hit from Brandon Dubinsky on Jakub Voracek, Wayne Simmonds went after Dubinsky, leading to a scrum. After it was all sorted out, Voracek was fine to continue. Brandon Dubinsky took 5 minutes for fighting and 2 for kneeing. Wayne Simmonds took 2 for instigating, 5 for fighting, and a 10 minute misconduct. Matt Calvert took 2 minutes for roughing, as did Radko Gudas. They also took 5 minute fighting majors. Brandon Dubinsky will likely hear from the league for his hit on Voracek.
The period ended with the Jackets leading 1-0, and outshooting the Flyers 16-9.
SECOND PERIOD HIGHLIGHTS
Evgeny Medvedev held Boone Jenner on an attempted walk-around move in the neutral zone less than one minute into the period, but no penalty was called.
RJ Umberger made a nice move to get a shot off, but Dalton Prout broke it up at 2:45.
SAVE! Korpisalo denied Voracek from point blank range at 3:00.
Jackets on the power play! Claude Giroux took a penalty for interference at 3:51.
David Clarkson took a faceoff on the power play. That is all there was to say about the Blue Jackets on that power play.
End to end action through the middle part of the period. Lots of up and down rushes, but no real clear chances for either team through the 12:00 mark of the second period.
Save by Korpisalo at 14:00!! He may have been helped by the far post, but either way, the score remained 1-0.
Jackets on the power play! David Clarkson drew a high sticking penalty at 15:13. RJ Umberger took a double minor for drawing blood.
Chance for Philadelphia. Shorthanded, a puck got through Korpisalo, but Foligno cleared it out of the crease.
The Blue Jackets struggled to get any offensive zone pressure for the first two minutes of the double minor.
BLUE JACKETS GOAL! Ryan Murray on the power play at 18:09!! After a good zone entry, Nick Foligno threw a pass to Ryan Murray in front of the blue line, who then put it top shelf. Assists to Foligno and Scott Hartnell.
It cannot be overstated how poor the first 3 minutes of the power play were, though. The Blue Jackets had almost no offensive zone time.
CHANCE! As Boone Jenner tried to hammer in a rebound, he dislodged the net with ten seconds left in the period.
The second period ended with the Blue Jackets leading the Flyers 2-0, and outshooting the Flyers 26-19.
THIRD PERIOD HIGHLIGHTS
Dalton Prout with a big chance! He was denied by Mason at 1:30. Prout had been getting shots through from the point all night; it was nice to see him playing well.
Clarkson was later returning to the bench following getting some work done to his face. He looked like he’d been in a pretty good fight, but it was a result of the high stick.
Korpisalo knocked to the ice hard at 2:11 by Matt Read, drawing a penalty for goaltender interference. Korpisalo was okay, but looked shaky for a moment. It appeared that Read’s knee hit Korpisalo high on the head. Philadelphia successfully killed the penalty.
Lately, the CBJ have been executing a power play…um, play where one skater is parked on the goal line and looks to pass the puck across the goal mouth to another skater. It seems to generate great chances.
Flyers goal. Following an inability to clear the zone by the Blue Jackets, Scott Laughton rips a shot from the slot that beats Korpisalo. Assists to Matt Read and Nick Schultz at 5:32.
Philadelphia’s goal seemed to energize the Flyers, who pressed hard at the 7:00 mark.
Jackets on the power play! Cam Atkinson drew a hooking penalty on Nick Schultz at 7:19. The Jackets were unable to generate many chances, and Philadelphia killed the penalty, allowing one shot (and successfully killing 5 of the 6 penalties to this point).
Of note: Ryan Johansen has been mostly invisible to this point since the midway mark of the second period.
Mason makes the save on Johansen! Mason comes up huge at 11:45 to keep the deficit for the Flyers at one.
KORPISALO! Big save at 13:05 as he covered the puck to take the Blue Jackets to a TV timeout.
The Blue Jackets had blocked 20 shots at the 13:12 mark of the third period, to only 8 for the Flyers.
Flyers goal. Jakub Voracek tied the game at 2 off of a quick entry at 14:19. Dalton Prout was unable to break up the give and go. Assists to Sean Couturier and Radko Gudas.
At 15:10, Matt Calvert had his nightly breakaway saved by Steve Mason.
ATKINSON JUST MISSES AT 15:45! So close to the go ahead goal.
KORPISALO ROBS VORACEK AT 16:56! Easily the save of the night, moving laterally across the crease to keep it 2-2.
The third period ended 2-2, with the Blue Jackets outshooting the Flyers 34-31. To bonus hockey!
BONUS HOCKEY HIGHLIGHTS
Blue Jackets overtime starters: Brandon Dubinsky, Cam Atkinson, and Ryan Murray.
Dubinsky attempted to redirect an Atkinson pass, but Mason made the pad save.
Chances galore. Mason made saves on Saad and Johansen.
Icing call against Columbus at 2:48. Tortorella used his timeout so he could rest his players. It’s refreshing seeing a coach use smart timeouts.
Interesting wrinkle with one minute to go- 3 forwards deployed (Foligno, Saad, Alexander Wennberg).
No score in overtime. To a shootout the teams would go to settle this one.
CBJ- Atkinson scores, Johansen denied, Wennberg denied, Foligno denied, Saad denied, Dubinsky scores
Flyers- Giroux denied, Voracek denied, Simmonds scores, Laughton denied, Read denied, B. Schenn denied
FINAL: Blue Jackets 3, Flyers 2
THREE STARS
*** Brandon Dubinsky
** Steve Mason
* Joonas Korpisalo
QUICK THOUGHTS
Congrats to Korpisalo for notching his first NHL win, in shootout fashion. No more needs to be said right now.