It was too little and too late for the Blue Jackets in the third period Tuesday night.
Down 2-1 with 20 minutes to play, the game was well within reach and, with a quality frame, they had a great opportunity to earn at least a point in Tuesday night’s game against the Minnesota Wild.
There were chances, flurries and close calls, but that’s where they ended. On the other side, Zach Parise led the way for the Wild (who lost their captain, Mikko Koivu, to an injury in the opening minutes), recording his fourth career hat trick in his team’s 4-2 win at Nationwide Arena.
Devan Dubnyk stood tall for the Wild and made 29 saves, but wasn’t under duress nearly as much as the Blue Jackets would have liked him to be. They threatened at times in the third period but couldn’t get past a stern Wild defense, which locked the game down in crunch time.
“The key part of the game is who blinks first,” Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella said. “I don’t have a problem with the effort. You have to give them a little credit in how they play protecting a lead. They feel very comfortable in those games and we just couldn’t find a way to score.
“You really need to capitalize when you get scoring chances against them, and we didn’t do that enough, obviously.”
Making his first start of the season after recording his first NHL win in Saturday’s bizarre finish, Anton Forsberg did his part in the Columbus net. He made 30 saves including some attention-getters in the second period to keep the Blue Jackets in the game, and was only beaten by two wicked snipes from Parise.
“He should feel good about himself,” Tortorella said. “He made some key saves. He gave us a chance.”
Feeling good about themselves after back-to-back home wins, the Blue Jackets put a solid start together and had a handful of chances to score that went by the wayside. For the majority of the opening period, they had the better of play, but faded late and it cost them an opening goal.
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