On a night when Seth Jones, Alexander Wennberg and Scott Hartnell were out of the lineup, the Jackets found a way to put an end to the team’s six-game losing streak by beating the Maple Leafs 3-2 in Toronto.
The Jackets earned their 50th win of the year and set a new franchise record for road points (51).
After a scoreless first, the second period had all the action. The Leafs took a two-goal lead before the Jackets came roaring back with three unanswered goals in a twenty minute span. During that span, they outshot Toronto 20-9.
Matt Calvert got the Jackets on the board first at 12:32 into the second when he received a pass from Boone Jenner, put the puck on the back of his stick and shot past Curtis McElhinney to make it 2-1.
Gabriel Carlsson had the secondary assist marking the first NHL point of his career.
The score seemed to ignite the offense. Five minutes later, Josh Anderson got the puck from a falling Jake Gardiner and streaked into the offensive zone to tie the game at two a piece.
And the Jackets weren’t done. After Sam Gagner was called for interference, the first shot in play came from Cam Atkinson who snapped the puck past McElhinney for the Jackets’ first lead of the night; one they wouldn’t relinquish the rest of the game. It was Atkinson’s third short-handed score and 35th goal of the season.
Joonas Korpisalo stopped 30 of the 32 shots he faced to bring his record to 7-5–1 this season.
“We didn’t want to lose seven in a row or whatever it would have been,” Calvert said. “We were shorthanded tonight because we sat some guys, and we didn’t use that as an excuse in here. We needed a big win, we wanted to get to 50 wins, and I think you look at the season as a whole and you’re pretty happy with it.
“We played Columbus Blue Jacket hockey tonight. We got a lead going into the third and did the right thing. There are a lot of positives and we can feel good about ourselves going into playoffs.”
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