The Columbus Blue Jackets entered a critical game in the wild card race with some reinforcements in Sean Monahan and Erik Gudbranson. Could they make up ground on the host New York Islanders?
First Period
Oh yeah, Monahan’s back.
Sadly that was about the only thing that went well in the first period. Possession was fairly even early on, but the Islanders completely dominated beginning with their first goal of the game. It began with Damon Severson failing to dump the puck deep enough into the offensive zone. The Isles recovered immediately and swung the play back the other way. Pierre Engvall made a nice move to draw Zach Werenski towards the slot, then Engvall shifted back to the right and got a shot past Elvis Merzlikins.
With less than two minutes left, the Isles extended their lead. Bo Horvat had the puck behind the net, and somehow had the attention of all 5 Blue Jacket skaters. No one noticed Kyle Palmieri sliding into the slot. Nice pass and shot, but just absolutely atrocious defense here.
Through 20, the Islanders were doubling up the Blue Jackets in shot attempts and expected goals. Not good!
Second Period
It seemed like things were going to keep going wrong as Damon Severson was called for a penalty early in the frame. It was tripping on Bo Horvat, but guest commentator John Davidson thought it was a bad call. It was a hit that knocked Horvat down, but it’s not clear that it was really a trip. Fortunately the Islanders have an even worse power play than we do, and the penalty kill got a couple of breakaway opportunities.
Back at 5v5, the Jackets got on the board thanks to a neat passing sequence from Elvis to Dante Fabbro to Adam Fantilli, and then a nice mid-range shot from Fantilli on the rush. That’s a goal-scorer goal.
With three minutes left in the period, Justin Danforth went to the box for delay of game after knocking the puck over the glass. The penalty kill struck again, this time with Monahan setting up a Boone Jenner breakaway. The captain seems to struggle with converting these sorts of chances, but this one found its way in.
That’s 11 points in 14 games for Jenner. Can we stop acting like his return is the reason for the losing streak? He’s been playing well. It’s everyone else who went cold. Plus, this team won Boone’s first 4 games back. It was the absence of Sillinger (in addition to Monahan) that left this team to shorthanded up the middle.
Just after the penalty expired, the Islanders still had possession in the offensive zone and Anders Lee cycled the puck from behind the net out to the point. That’s where former Jacket Adam Boqvist collected the puck and passed across to the other point to another former Jacket prospect, Mike Reilly. He fired the puck inside where Lee tipped it past Elvis. Lee was in the crease and may have blocked Elvis from being able to move to the left. Evason chose to challenge for goalie interference.
I think it was a reasonable challenge for a few reasons. The kill was playing well, and the penalty for an unsuccessful challenge would be split up by the intermission. It was also worth rolling the dice in the hopes of maintaining some momentum going into the third period with a tied score. Alas, the goal stood.
The possession numbers were more even in this period, though the Islanders still had more quality chances.
Third Period
The delay of game penalty was successfully killed. Shortly after, Dmitri Voronkov made a nice indirect pass to Werenski, but Z was slashed and lost his stick before he could get the puck. This led to the first (and only) Columbus power play of the night. Monahan was back in his usual spot at the bumper, and Jenner returned to the top unit at the net-front spot. Marchenko and Johnson were on the wings and each got some good looks. The first pass of the power play went to Monahan in the middle, but led to an early turnover.
Penalty killed. Vronk makes nice indirect pass to Z, whihc would have set up a breakaway but Z got slashed and lost his stick. First CBJ PP of the night. Monahan gets passed to in the bumper spot right away, but there’s a turnover. Boone is at netfront in place of Vronk. 86 and 91 still on wings. Good shots for each.
The Jackets took over control of the game even after the unsuccessful power play. Midway through the period, Kirill Marchenko tied up the game on a set play following a faceoff win by – who else? – Sean Monahan. Marchy has been ice cold during this losing streak so it’s great to see him get off the schneid.
With 9 seconds remaining in regulation, the Islanders appeared to score the game winning goal, but the referee immediately waved it off. The play went to Toronto for review, and after a long wait it was determined that the call on the ice was correct, and Kyle Palmieri had made contact with Elvis while the goaltender was in the crease. The crowd was understandably upset, but I was glad that the results of two goaltender interference reviews were balanced out.
After being outshot 27-11 in the first two periods, the Jackets outshot the Islanders 17-4 in the third period.
Overtime/Shootout
Evason started the overtime period with Monahan, Marchenko, and Werenski. They ended up stuck out there for over a minute each. Eventually Monahan and Marchenko were able to switch off, and Elvis had to make some big saves.
Jenner had another breakaway attempt with 10 seconds left, but it was easily glove saved by Sorokin. KJ made a block on a shot attempt as the horn sounded.
23/86/8. After a minute Monahan changes for Jenner but the other two are stuck out there. 1:41 Marchy switches for KJ. Flurry of shots on net but Elvis makes a couple big saves while getting crashed into.
In the first round of the shootout, former Jacket Anthony Duclair whiffed on the puck and didn’t get a shot off, then Johnson’s shot went right at Sorokin’s pads.
In the second round, Elvis made a save on Palmieri, then Fantilli deked left before using his backhand to shoot over Sorokin’s left shoulder for the goal. Bo Horvat’s attempt to keep the shootout going went high, and the Jackets secured the extra point.
Final Thoughts
Zach Werenski played a career high 33:44. That’s also the highest in the NHL this season and the third highest in a regular season game in CBJ history (Jack Johnson exceeded that twice in the 2013 season). Z’s time on ice included 10 of the 20 minutes in the third period, and 3 of the 5 minutes in overtime. That’s trusting your best player, I guess.
This team definitely missed Monahan and it’s great to see him with two points in his return. That makes it 43 points in 42 games, for those keeping track at home.
The underlying numbers for Gudbranson aren’t good, and he was part of the bad defense on that Palmieri goal, but after that I thought he looked solid, actually.
John Davidson made a great point at the end of the broadcast: a game like this is so important for the development of the young players. This was a high pressure game and they faced adversity in the first period. They found a way to bounce back from that and found a way to win. More importantly? It was guys like Fantilli and Marchenko stepping up. They had 5 and 4 shots on goal, respectively. Voronkov was also very noticeable in the back half of the third, constantly throwing his body around the Islanders net trying to create chances.
Up Next
The Jackets get a much needed breather with three days at home for rest and practice before hosting the Vancouver Canucks at Nationwide on Friday night.