The storyline that dominated the day was John Tortorella returning to Vancouver for the first time since being fired. A small lineup change as Cody Goloubef drew in for Justin Falk on the blue line, and the team decided to ride the young Finnish goalie (Joonas Korpisalo) in net.
The Jackets surrendered an early power play opportunity in the opening period and paid for it. Bo Horvat was skating with the puck down the wall on a rush and went around Cody Goloubef. Horvat then fed a pass from low on Korpisalo’s right across the crease. Linden Vey was there in the slot to fire it home for the 1-0 lead.
The Blue Jackets had some better possession in the second period, but squandered back-to-back power plays in the middle of the period, registering just one shot on net. They went into the second break still down a goal.
After killing off an early third period penalty, the CBJ went on the man advantage at 8:35. Thirty seconds in, they found the tying goal. Cam Atkinson had the puck at the top of the faceoff circle to Ryan Miller’s right. He waited and then found Scott Hartnell all alone in the middle of the penalty kill. He ripped it from the high slot and the Jackets tied it up.
Both teams were pushing late in the third with the Canucks finding church music on at least occasion. Sixty minutes was not enough and the teams went to overtime.
Midway through the extra period, William Karlsson was called for interference and the Jackets went to the PK. Vancouver once again found iron, but the puck never made it behind the line. Finally, the teams went to a shootout.
The Canucks first three shooters could not solve Korpisalo. Ryan Miller was up to the task at the other of the ice, until the third shooter. Alexander Wennberg skated in, gave a head fake, and then snapped a shot from the high slot that beat the netminder.
CBJ 2-1 SO
The Jackets improve to 3-1-1 in their last five games. The opponents have been mostly struggling in the standings but the CBJ have wins in three of their last four games.
Korpisalo made 37 saves and has looked stellar in 2016 outside of the collapse in Edmonton.
The Western Canadian swing finishes up tonight at Calgary.