Columbus Blue Jackets Hold Off Sharks for Second Win in Arow
Oh, so this is what winning feels like! The Columbus Blue Jackets were able to string together their second win in a row – and sweep the regular series season with the San Jose Sharks – as an early two-goal lead proved to be too much for the Sharks to over come, and Columbus, with the return of Sergei Bobrovsky, was able to repeat in the win column.
The Jackets struck first and lead 1-0 after 20 minutes, when David Savard scored his fourth goal of the year. Adam Cracknell was credited with one of the assists, and was the first point of his CBJ career. Columbus only gave up one shot in the opening five minutes, but after that, the Sharks found their footing – and so did Bob – as he made every save he saw in the period, showing us the IR stint didn’t affect his play. Thank goodness.
The second period was, for the most part, all Sharks, but the Jackets didn’t break, and the defense did a good job of not letting Bob face too many shots, as they kept up with the pace of play but allowed a goal late in the period when Joe Pavelski beat Bob, but that’d be all they’d get. The Jackets struck first in the period, on the power play, when Cam Atkinson found Antti Niemi out of position, and buried the puck into an open right side of the net. A think of beauty, it was.
The third period was back and fourth the whole way, and was really the Jackets playing on their heels to not surrender the lead. The Sharks racked up and added to their shot total while the Jackets played simple dump-and-chase hockey, just buying time and running the clock down. The game ended, essentially, with the Blue Jackets down a man the final five minutes, as Alexander Wennberg was tabbed for a four-minute double minor (which the Jackets killed successfully) and then the Sharks pulled their goalie for a 6-on-5 advantage. Just about the entire final moments of the game was played in the Columbus zone, but with Bob back in the line up, there was nothing to fear and the Jackets would hold off for the win. For Bobrovsky, it was his 100th career NHL victory.
Probably the best part of the game came when the buzzer sounded, and you could see how thrilled the guys were that they had won again. This was a frustrated team who has (hopefully) found their grove, and now they have about a month’s worth of frustration to get out on the next few opponents. The next of which, is Detroit on Tuesday. I’m excited.