The first game back off a long road trip is never an easy one to play, and Blue Jackets knew they would have their hands full with an angry Anaheim Ducks team.
All they needed tonight was a hat trick from Scott Hartnell (the eighth of his career) and 37 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky, locking up a fourth straight win and seventh in their last eight games with a 5-3 final margin.
And for a team that has struggled mightily on home ice all season long, the Blue Jackets have now won two of their last three games at Nationwide Arena. Momentum is a real thing, folks, and this is a Jackets team feeling pretty good about itself right now.
“It means a lot,” said Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards. “To go out there (tonight) and beat a really good hockey team, it leaves you with a good feeling.”
Consider this, too: the Ducks lost 7-2 to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden two nights ago, and early on tonight, they looked the part of a team ready to get the ship righted. Anaheim raced out to an early 2-0 lead, but the Blue Jackets’ “bend but don’t break” mentality served them well in the end.
Hartnell got it started for the Jackets, scoring his first goal of the evening on the power play late in the first period, a goal that settled things down and gave the home team something to feel good about going into the room. After a flat start to the second period on both sides, a spirited bout between Jared Boll and Clayton Stoner brought the building to life — and provided a palpable jolt of energy to the Blue Jackets.
They scored three goals in a span of 4:07 midway through the second period, coming out on the other side of that outburst with a 4-3 lead after trailing most of the game. Ryan Johansen scored a goal that stood up after a looooooooooooooong video review with the NHL Situation Room in Toronto (tying the game at 2-2), and less than three minutes later, Hartnell scored his second of the night just 32 seconds after Matt Beleskey restored a one-goal lead for the Ducks.
There’s more.
Nick Foligno — set up beautifully by Jeremy Morin, and, before that, some dogged work on the forecheck by Artem Anisimov — gave the Blue Jackets the lead for good at 11:48, beating John Gibson five-hole from the slot. It was Foligno’s 26th of the season, giving him the team lead over Hartnell.
Bobrovsky had to be good in the third period (14 saves), and at times, he was really good. The highlight of his final frame was a spectacular left-toe save on Rickard Rakell, who thought he had a slam-dunk goal to tie the game…but Bobrovsky powered across post-to-post and kicked out the left leg.
“We had a lot of guys step up to the plate tonight,” Hartnell said. “It was a big effort. (Anaheim) definitely had something to play for. It was a measuring stick game for us, and in these last few weeks, we’ll have to measure up against the teams we’re playing and give us confidence going into the summer. We want to keep it going.”
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