Referee Ian Walsh may have done the Blue Jackets a favor.
Late in the first period, he incorrectly assessed a four-minute high-sticking penalty to Alexander Wennberg and then assigned it to Jack Johnson – but the thing is, it wasn’t a Columbus stick committing the foul in the first place.
Milan Lucic’s stick clipped Connor McDavid and it gave the Oilers an opportunity to (potentially) take control of the game; they already held a 1-0 lead and had played a strong first period, but the four-minute penalty kill gave the Blue Jackets some life and they continued to build upon it.
“Even though it was a bit of a tough call, it kind of got us going and we fed off of that,” said Matt Calvert. “We didn’t look back from there.”
“It gave us some juice,” head coach John Tortorella said of the lengthy PK.
The Blue Jackets scored twice in the third period to collect their seventh consecutive win, moving to 13 games over .500 (18-5-4) for the first time in franchise history. Cam Atkinson’s power play goal was the game-winner, set up perfectly by a great pass from Sam Gagner, who had a good night himself.
With two more points, Columbus’ .741 points percentage is tops in the NHL and they’re one point out of first place in the Metropolitan Division with games in hand.
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