Columbus Blue Jackets Climb out of Wildcard Spot with Win

Another win for the Columbus Blue Jackets to extend their winning streak to nine has them finally out of a wildcard spot.

The ride continues for the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Jackets finish a road sweep of Boston and New York on back-to-back nights with a 5-3 victory over the Rangers. Nine straight wins now for the hottest team in the NHL has the CBJ out of a wildcard spot in into the 3rd metro playoff spot.

The win was capped with Artemi Panarin doing what Artemi Panrin does to Henrik Lundqvist. Score goals. The Breadman notched his second career hat trick in the win. His other hat trick came against, you guessed it, Lundqvist and the Rangers at MSG.

Alexander Wennberg opened the scoring in the first after he buried a shot from the slot he had all day to take. Thomas Vanek should get two assist for the great backhand look that led to Wennberg’s goal.

The assist bring Thomas Vanek to three goals and five assist since being acquired by the Columbus Blue Jackets. Or, more accurately, stolen by the CBJ. They only gave up two AHLers for that production. Praise Jarmo.

Special Teams Issues

The Jackets scored at the mid point of the second period. Panarin potted the first of his three goals with assist from more skaters picked up at the trade deadline in Ian Cole and Mark Letestu.

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From there the Jackets special teams put them in some trouble. They allowed a shorthanded goal to Kevin Hayes, the six such goal they have surrendered this season. The Jackets also went 0-2 on the power play in the second and only registered one shot on goal during the man advantage.

In the third the Jackets gave up two power play goals that kept the Rangers in the game. Luckily they had a hot Markus Nutivaara who scored his second goal in three games and Artemi Panarin counter the scoring from New York to keep a one goal lead.

A great sign came right after the Ranger goal with less than two minutes left that brought them within one goal of the Jackets. After that, the CBJ imposed their will and shut down the final two minutes to secure a regulation win. Panarin’s empty netter with two seconds left was icing on the cake.

Game Notes

• Mark Letestu scored his 100th point as a Columbus Blue Jacket
• Nick Foligno had another multipoint night (0-2-2) and was 8-12 at the faceoff dot.
• Ian Cole (0-2-2) and Artemi Panarin (3-1-4) also registered multipoint nights
• Matt Calvert, in a fierce battle for the puck, lost his footing and ended up taking out Hank who was out of his crease. No penalty was called.

The ninth win in a row is the second longest win streak in franchise history. The win puts the Jackets tied for second in points with the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Pens have a game in hand and own the ROW tie breaker as well.

The win sets up a colossal showdown on Thursday in Columbus. The Florida Panthers come to town with a 8-2-1 record in March. The Panthers have games in hand on all teams in the Eastern Conference race and with the standings so tight, the game will go a long way to determine who makes the playoffs.

Thursday at 7pm at Nationwide Arena the Columbus Blue Jacket can make it an impressive 10 in a row and almost all but secure a spot in the playoffs.