Top Columbus Blue Jacket Moments from 2013

February 21, 2013; Detroit, MI, USA; Columbus Blue Jackets center

(22) receives congratulations from teammates after scoring a goal in the third period against the Detroit Red Wings at Joe Louis Arena. Columbus won 3-2. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Next up is a handful of memorable goals, goals that made fans’ hair on the back of their necks stand on end. We just got done talking about this guy, yet here he is again, and against those turds from Detroit. This goal comes two weeks before the point on February 21st, and it comes with 24.7 seconds left in a 2-2 game. Vinny receives a beautiful pass at the crease, turns and slides the game winning backhander past Jimmy Howard, as he falls on his backside. It was a masterful play all around, and Vinny capped it off with an amazing goal.

Matt Calvert brings us the next “throw your hands in the air and go crazy” goal. This one was in overtime, and it came against the Vancouver Canucks on March 7th. This one was all Calvert, with a little over a minute left in overtime Matty Calvert beat one Canuck, then chipped the puck past another and slipped by the defenseman, settled the puck and cut towards the middle of the ice and snipped a wicked wrister, high glove side past Corey Schneider. This goal will forever live vividly in my mind, just like a lot of the goals and memories from last season.

Dec 6, 2011; Montreal, QC, CAN; Montreal Canadiens defenceman Josh Gorges (26) gets a hooking penalty while trying to stop Columbus Blue Jackets forward RJ Umberger (18) on a breakaway against Canadiens goaltender Carey Price (31) during the 2nd period at the Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports

The next two goals are from the same game, one was an equalizer, the other a game winner. Up first is the equalizer and it came to us courtesy of Mr. R.J. Umberger. It was late in the third, with about 1:20 left to go and the Blue Jackets found themselves down by 1. Ryan Johansen slid a pass that got tipped by an Avalanche player, which made it 100 times better than his pass alone, Umberger turned on the burners and caught up to the puck. He proceeded to slide a slick little shot through Jean-Sebastien Giguere‘s five hole to send the game into overtime. Talk about foreshadowing, as the next goal came about 5 minutes later (game time) off the stick of Nick Foligno. He received a pass from Fedor Tyutin, who was on one knee by the way, and Foligno raced up the ice. He had Umberger with him to make it a 2 on 1 chance for the Columbus Blue Jackets late into overtime, and he did enough to keep the defender with RJ before he fired a wrister past the glove side of Giggy. Umberger flew past the goal line, and then he and Nick almost took each other out, but that didn’t stop them from celebrating yet another last-minute game winning goal! This team had so many dramatic game winning goals, it was hard to list them all. I think this group of four is a great starting point.