Well, within a rounding error. That’s how far the Columbus Blue Jackets were from a regulation win in their last game, a 3-2 loss at the hands of the New York Islanders. That four point swing might have massive implications down the line. Let’s see how they respond.
First Period
FLAMES GOAL – Morgan Frost from Jonathan Huberdeau and Matt Coronato – 0:56 1st
FLAMES GOAL – Blake Coleman from Joel Hanley and Samuel Honzek – 1:32 1st
Well, that’s suboptimal.
For the second straight game, and the second straight 92-second stretch. The Jackets allowed two goals almost instantaneously. Cut it any way you want, that is straight up unacceptable. The first one was a good deflection from Morgan Frost, but immediately giving up a second… cannot happen.
Shortly after, Adam Fantilli took a hooking penalty after nearly getting juked out of a third goal. This led to a classic stoppable force meets movable object matchup, with the Flames abysmal power play going against our woeful PK. But Columbus had the more dangerous chances, with both Sean Monahan and Kirill Marchenko getting mini-breakaways, and the latter didn’t miss.
BLUE JACKETS SHORTHANDED GOAL – Kirill Marchenko from Boone Jenner – 6:57 1st
The Jackets were able to kill the rest of the penalty, and things mostly leveled out from there. Fantilli found Miles Wood on a wraparound chance that Dustin Wolf got the knob of his stick on, and the teams alternated stretches of zone time throughout the last bit of the period. Despite starting the game down 5-1 in shots, the Jackets were able to pull relatively even, 13-10.
Second Period
Columbus came out flying through the first eight minutes, with the vast majority of play being in the Flames zone. Fantilli and the Monahanov line had some great moments, especially. With the Jackets just down one, en-
FLAMES GOAL – Nazem Kadri from Joel Farabee and Rasmus Andersson – 7:47 2nd Period
FLAMES GOAL – Adam Klapka from Yan Kuznetsov – 8:24 2nd Period
… gosh darn it.
With the Jackets swirling in the zone, Dante Fabbro biffed a point pass to Zach Werenski, leaving Miles Wood alone to defend a 2-on-1 situation. Nazem Kadri roofed one off the pass to celebrate his 1000th NHL game. 37 seconds later, Calgary got another 2-on-1, and Adam Klapka beat Greaves low glove side.
From there, play kinda leveled off for the rest of the period. No great chances from either team (despite Werenski’s individual efforts). The best one may have been Adam Fantilli to the side of the slot, getting fed the puck on his own, but Wolf was all over it.
Important stat at the end of two: Blocked shots. Your Columbus Blue Jackets with one (1), the Flames with FIFTEEN. Yikes.
Third Period
The Jackets got a Powerplay early, but were unable to convert. They dominated the shots game 22-6 in the third, but the Flames were doing a lot of keeping things to the perimeter. Maybe six or seven of those shots were from below the hashmarks.
Sean Monahan had an awkward collision midway through the second, and would leave midway through the third. He did not return.
Dmitri Voronkov and Rasmus Andersson got into some extracurriculars, leading to some 4-on-4 play. After the next TV timeout at the five minute mark, Jet Greaves was pulled. Good 6-on-5 drill, but again no real high danger chances. The Flames would get one in the empty net with 48.7 seconds to go.
FLAMES EMPTY NET GOAL – Mikael Backlund, unassisted – 19:12 3rd
The Jackets return to action Saturday against the Vancouver Canucks, now hoping to avoid a three-game losing streak.