Sometimes, a team will feel good about securing one standings point in an overtime loss. Thursday night’s game certainly felt that way, but make no mistake, the Blue Jackets had their chances to lock up the second.
Joe Pavelski’s goal – a pretty one – in the second round of the shootout was the only tally in the skills competition, and it was enough to lift the Sharks to a 4-3 victory at Nationwide Arena. San Jose goaltender Alex Stalock won his 11th game of the season and stopped all three Jackets shooters in the shootout, and to this point, has not been beated in that format on 10 attempts.
Rewind to a wild third period, and both teams could make a case that they deserved two points in the regulation window. San Jose, down 2-1 after 40 minutes, scored two quick goals to go ahead 3-2 and stun a crowd that had been really involved in the game to that point.
But as they’ve done so often this season, the Blue Jackets re-grouped and found a way to answer.
With less than five minutes remaining, the Calvert-Dubinsky-Horton went to work again (this was a theme all night long) deep in Sharks territory and Dubinsky came up with the puck along the left wing boards. With one quick backhand pass across the top, he found James Wisniewski all by his lonesome – and from about 40 feet out, he absolutely smoked a slap shot past Stalock to tie the game 3-3.
And just when the game looked like a lock for overtime, Brent Burns got caught flat-footed and tripped up Jack Johnson 200 feet from his own net with 1:29 to play. The Blue Jackets pressed, had a couple of chances but couldn’t end the game in regulation. It was on to overtime, and though they moved the puck well and kept the Sharks relatively quiet, they weren’t able to beat Stalock once more.
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