If you don’t enjoy watching these guys, please check your pulse. The Blue Jackets, on the strength of 21 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky in regulation/overtime and two more in the shootout, earned their fifth consecutive win Sunday night, a 3-2 decision at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. Columbus has earned points in seven straight, and finished the five-game season series against the Red Wings with a 4-0-1 record.
How did it happen today? Well, it had a familiar feel from yesterday’s 3-0 win at Nationwide Arena but the difference today was that the Red Wings kept battling back, as one would expect. Derick Brassard’s rocket slap shot from the right circle gave the Blue Jackets a 1-0 lead at 3:10 of the second period, a high rising puck that seemed to catch Jimmy Howard off-guard as it beat him high to the glove side.
But Detroit answered right back 30 seconds later. Jakub Kindl found space high in the slot as the Blue Jackets had a brief defensive breakdown, and Kindl wired a slapper past Bobrovsky to tie the game at 1-1. Rather than see the Red Wings take momentum back, it was the Blue Jackets who once again stuck to their game plan and continued to get the puck deep into Detroit territory and let their forwards go to work.
A turnover by Henrik Zetterberg landed right on RJ Umberger’s stick later in the second period, and Umberger turned and cranked a slapper – again – over Howard’s glove hand to restore a 2-1 lead for Columbus. The goal capped off a stretch of 1:15 in which the two teams combined for three goals, and it was by far the craziest period of an entertaining hockey game.
The Blue Jackets ran into some penalty trouble late in the second period when Ryan Johansen and Umberger took back-to-back penalties, giving the Red Wings nearly two full minutes of 5-on-3 time. Detroit needed 25 seconds of the third period to even things up on a Johan Franzen goal, whipping a wrister over Bobrovsky to pull it back to 2-2.
After a whirlwind overtime with both sides trading chance after chance, it was on to the shootout where the Red Wings got the better of Columbus on opening night at Nationwide Arena. But this time, it was much different.
Pavel Datsyuk opened the shootout scoring with a snap shot through Bobrovsky’s five-hole, but two of the Jackets’ youngsters stepped to the fore and delivered in the clutch. Johansen went forehand-backhand-something crazy and over Howard in the first round, and Matt Calvert flat-out undressed the Red Wings netminder to give Columbus a 2-1 shootout advantage.
It came down to the top cop in town (with apologies to Jay Onrait of TSN), and he got a blocker on Zetterberg’s attempt to seal a fifth consecutive win for the Blue Jackets.
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