It wasn’t enough. Simple as that. Sergei Bobrovsky turned in a pedestrian performance, the Columbus Blue Jackets couldn’t muster enough on special teams and the CBJ fell to the Washington Capitals in Game 6 in Nationwide Arena on Monday night, 6-3, losing the series, 4-2.
The Caps jumped out to a 3-1 lead after two periods and added to their lead throughout the third. The Blue Jackets showed signs of life, but couldn’t dig out of the early hole.
Nick Foligno scored twice and Pierre Luc-Dubois got his second of the playoffs. Bob wasn’t great. Washington scored once each on the power play and shorthanded.
Season over. It was fun. Time to start preparing for the draft.
First Period
The first few minutes of the game played out similar to the rest of the sereis with the CBJ hitting and Washington creating the bulk of the scoring chances.
The Capitals found the goal first when Dmitry Orlov put a long shot past his fellow countryman Sergei Bobrovsky at 12:12 of the first period. Orlov found some space through the middle of the offensive zone and blasted one high for the game’s opening goal. Just a few seconds earlier, Cam Atkinson put a beautiful deflection on the Capitals’ net but into Holtby’s chest.
1-0 Capitals, 12:12
It could’ve been worse early on. Bob made an outstanding stop shortly after Washington’s score by stoning Tom Wilson on the doorstep. A Seth Jones pass for Pierre-Luc Dubois just missed as well. Lot of potential goals kept out of the nets early.
Late in the period, Atkinson found another great chance right before the Capitals beefed a 3-on-1 (thanks in part to a great CBJ backcheck).
Second Period
The Blue Jackets drew the first power play of the game on a Nicklas Backstrom tripping infraction just 1:16 into the period. The CBJ created a great chance from Panarin and Seth Jones but couldn’t beat Holtby, a running theme throughout the night. The final seconds of the penalty went by the wayside when Boone Jenner shoved John Carlson to the ice for a delayed interference call, putting Washington on a PP of their own.
With 32 seconds left in Jenner’s penalty, Josh Anderson high-sticked Brett Connolly to give the Caps an abbreviated 5-on-3. A few Matt Calvert clears and some Bob bailouts later, the Blue Jackets returned to full strength unscathed.
The penalty kill gave the Blue Jackets some momentum, and then…some life. Ryan Murray laced a perfect pass through the neutral zone to Foligno, who broke wide and fired a shot past Holtby to tie the game at 1-1 with 11:20 left in the period. Beautiful shot from Foligno and an even better pass from Murray to even the score.
1-1 tie game, 8:40
Unfortunately for the CBJ, the tie game proved short-lived. Alex Ovechkin, posted in front of the net, slammed home a juicy rebound for his fourth of the series.
2-1 Capitals, 12:50
The teams traded chances (with the best going to the Capitals, natch) and the Caps received another power play on a truly awful holding call against Seth Jones. No. 3 played normal defense against Alex Ovechkin against the wall and went to the box for it.
Ovechkin scored, because of course.
3-1 Capitals, 18:23
The second period ended with Chandler Stephenson heading to the box at 19:53 for roughing Nick Folingo in a post-whistle scrum.
Third Period
Well, the Jackets didn’t score on the power play, but did find a goal early in the second. Matt Calvert tripped Christian Djoos and threw the puck in front for Pierre-Luc Dubois, who sniped one to the right of Holtby for a 3-2 score. Feel awful for those Capitals.
3-2 Capitals, 2:25
That didn’t last long. Devante Smith-Pelly sniped one off the rush over Bob’s glove just 91 seconds later. Bad goal for Bob to give up. That let the air out of the building.
4-2 Capitals, 3:56
The hot and heavy action continued with a Djoos interference penalty, putting the CBJ power play to work with a little over 15 minutes left in regulation. It didn’t work out. Stephenson shorthanded breakaway, went five-hole on Bob.
5-2 Capitals, 5:30
The game wasn’t over! A clean faceoff win gave the Blue Jackets possession in the Caps zone. Oliver Bjorkstrand tracked the puck in the corner and threw it in front for Boone Jenner (eventually), who spun the puck to a waiting Foligno. The Captain didn’t miss from in close and cut the deficit to two.
5-3 Capitals, 8:22
The under-10 media timeout gave the Blue Jackets a breather before their fourth power play on an Evgeni Kuznetsov roughing minor.
Columbus turned in a furious few final minutes…but you know how it ended. An empty-netter from Lars Eller with 13.9 seconds capped it with Dubois and Wilson getting into it.
6-2 Capitals, 19:47
Now time to learn who was hurt and how severely. Time for the playoff post-mortem. In the end, it just wasn’t enough.