The Blue Jackets very nearly dug themselves out of an early hole in one of their more entertaining games of late.
We’ve seen the script before: they gave up two first-period goals to the Washington Capitals, trailed 2-0 after 20 minutes and needed a big second period to get back in the game. They chipped away in the second period, got within a goal after two, fell behind by two again in the third period, scored midway through to pull within a goal, got a power play late and could not convert (got all that?).
“If we had the answer, it wouldn’t be a problem,” said Jack Johnson of the team’s slow starts.
The end result was a 5-3 loss at Nationwide Arena Tuesday night – the seventh consecutive defeat for the Blue Jackets – but they had plenty of chances to break that streak in this one. Yes, Washington led all the way through, but they withstood a 40-minute push from the Jackets and got some timely saves from Braden Holtby to lock up two big points in the playoff race.
Columbus fell to a 2-2-1 in the season series against the Capitals after tonight’s final meeting, which was the most eventful one of them all.
There were multiple fights, plenty of disagreements, big goals and wild momentum swings. Sergei Bobrovsky made his return to the net and was under siege early, seeing 16 shots in the first period as the Capitals came out with a flurry.
Alex Ovechkin scored his first of two goals 3:37 in, Eric Fehr added another late in the period and the Blue Jackets had to play catch-up from there. Scott Hartnell led the way, scoring two goals of his own to get the Jackets within one on two separate occasions, the second one a power play tally with 10:53 left — at a time when it almost felt inevitable that the Jackets would tie the game.
They got a power play chance with 2:16 remaining on a bizarre penalty call. The Capitals iced the puck, had already used their timeout and Marcus Johansson tried to show the officials his stick was broken. He cracked it over the crossbar, and almost immediately, was sent to the penalty box.
Bobrovsky was on the bench for an extra attacker with under 90 seconds to go, but the Blue Jackets couldn’t get a fourth goal past Holtby. It was an all-out push by Columbus in the final two periods, putting 24 shots at the Capitals net and shooting from all angles.
“We knew that if we kept going on the path that we were on (in the first period), it was going to be a long night,” Johnson said. “We went out there and tried to throw everything we could at them in the second and third and see if we could tie it up. Goals haven’t been the easiest thing for us to come by all year, so when start in the hole, it’s an uphill battle all night.
“We still believed we could get it into overtime or a shootout and have a chance to win the hockey game.”
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