A night after defeating the Red Wings in Detroit, the Jackets were back home to face the Metropolitan Division rival New York Islanders.
The Jackets looked tired and slow to start the game, and things weren’t helped when the Islanders opened the scoring with a strange goal. As Sam Gagner attempted to clear the puck out of his zone with a backhand, the puck deflected off the stick of Josh Bailey and went high in the air toward Columbus starter Sergei Bobrovsky. Bob misplayed the puck, perhaps due to Brock Nelson waving at it as it went through the air.
1-0 Islanders: Josh Bailey (Unassisted)
From the 7:53 mark to 13:58 of the first period, it was a continuous run of penalties. Here’s how it went down:
- David Savard went off for slashing, after getting into it with Thomas Hickey.
- With 29 seconds left in Savard’s penalty, Andrew Ladd went to the box for interference, after essentially setting the pick at the offensive blueline. The Isles really need to sort out the drop-pass maneuver on the powerplay, they suck at it.
- With 16 seconds left in the Jackets’ abbreviated powerplay, Columbus was called for too much man thanks to a horrendous line change.
- With 1:06 left in the Isles’ man advantage, Matt Calvert was tripped up while attempting a shorthanded breakaway.
- With 6 seconds left in the Jackets’ powerplay, Jack Johnson absolutely blasted the puck past Jaroslav Halak for his first goal of the season. /
1-1: Jack Johnson (Cam Atkinson, Brandon Dubinsky)
The goal invigorated the Jackets, with the pace of the game clearly picking up. The intensity of the game picked up as well, with Brandon Dubinsky and Travis Hamonic dropping the gloves near the end of the period.
The story of the second period was the two teams going back and forth on the ice, and on the score sheet. The Jackets struck first in the middle period, when the Islanders were changing Johnson sprung Cam Atkinson up the middle, with #13 making no mistake in beating Halak on the breakaway.
2-1 Jackets: Cam Atkinson (Jack Johnson, David Savard)
The Islanders would tie the game shortly after. Bobrovsky made an excellent pad save on John Tavares, but with Bob completely sprawled out Tavares was able to pot his own rebound.
2-2: John Tavares (Anders Lee, Travis Hamonic)
Tavares would be called for hooking at the end of the second, giving the Jackets a powerplay to start the final frame. The Jackets weren’t able to get any shots on net however, perhaps being a bit too cute, trying to set up the perfect shot.
They’d make up for it shortly after however, with Josh Anderson picking off a Nick Leddy pass attempt out of the zone as he hopped off the bench. Anderson fired a slapper from the hash marks behind Halak.
3-2 Jackets: Josh Anderson (Unassisted)
After the Anderson goal it was all C-B-J for the remainder of the game. Brandon Saad ripped a shot past Halak after receiving a pass from Oliver Bjorkstrand.
4-2 Jackets: Brandon Saad (Oliver Bjorkstrand, Markus Nutivaara)
The apple was Bjorkstrand’s first point of the season.
After scoring his first NHL goal last night, Lukas Sedlak cleaned up some trash in front of Halak for his second on the year.
5-2 Jackets: Lukas Sedlak (Seth Jones, Matt Calvert)
…and Seth Jones would cap the rout with his fourth goal of the year.
6-2 Jackets: Seth Jones (William Karlsson, Scott Hartnell)
Halak was pulled in favor of Jean-Francois Berube with 5:37 left, and the Jackets killed a late Atkinson delay-of-game penalty to seal the deal.
Final Score: 6-2 Jackets.
The Jackets are about to embark on their Western Canada trip, facing the Oilers Tuesday, Flames Friday and finally the Canucks Sunday afternoon.