It had been quite some time since the Blue Jackets left CONSOL Energy Center with a regular season victory, but Thursday night, they relied on two ‘crowd favorites’ to get the job done against their rivals.
Scott Hartnell opened the scoring in the first period and Brandon Dubinsky closed the book with a huge shorthanded goal in the dying minutes of regulation, helping the Blue Jackets lock up a 2-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first meeting between the two teams in Pittsburgh since last spring’s Stanley Cup playoff series.
It was an intense, snarly, physical battle between two teams that have no love lost between them, and that was evident early on and especially after Hartnell gave the Blue Jackets a lead in the first period. Checks were finished, a few liberties were taken, and there was a fight between Brandon Dubinsky and Sidney Crosby, who certainly had their battles again tonight.
“Playing Pittsburgh, I think there’s a little bit more there just based on the history of last season,” Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards said. “You could tell we were focused tonight. There was a commitment from the group in going out and doing the right things. McElhinney made some big saves for us when we needed it.
“I thought, overall in how we played, it was one of our stronger performances 5-on-5 and consistent for 60 minutes.”
Penguins coach Mike Johnston tried to get Dubinsky away from Crosby as often as he could, but there were several run-ins tonight — and it added up to another memorable chapter in a rivalry that could be on its way to something special.
The fight was the highlight of the second period, but it did not have the desired effect for the home team. Dubinsky and Crosby each sat for five minutes, but late in the second period, the Penguins were able to pay off a solid second period with a goal from Evgeni Malkin to tie it up headed to the third period — and the final 20 minutes were just as entertaining as it felt they would be.
For the first 17-plus minutes of the third period, there was no damage done. With Kevin Connauton in the box for tripping, the Blue Jackets took momentum and flipped it on its axis; a late-game Penguins power play quickly turned into disaster, and the Calvert-Dubinsky combination produced the game-winner.
Calvert scooped up the puck in the neutral zone and broke toward the Pittsburgh net. He was knocked off the puck, but the Penguins defenseman bumped into Marc-Andre Fleury and left a loose puck in the crease for Dubinsky, and he made no mistake in depositing the game winner with 2:17 to play.
“When he gets his feet moving, he’s tough to stop,” Dubinsky said of Calvert. “I saw him just bring it to the net and I figured I’d go there in case there was a rebound. He made a great play, and the rebound popped right on my stick so I just had to put it home.”
In the eyes of the coach: “I thought we did a good job staying composed and continually trying to do the right things,” Richards said. “I liked our team game; we had lots of guys moving tonight. It was a great job taking it to the net. He created a battle, their goaltender got bumped by their guy, the puck pops loose and Dubi’s able to finish it.”
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