Columbus Blue Jackets Close 2014 By Reaching .500, Defeat Minnesota 3-1

The Columbus Blue Jackets ended 2014 with a bang, three to be exact, as they had to play from behind to sent the Minnesota Wild out of Nationwide Arena with a loss, and bring the month of December one to remember, as Columbus set a franchise mark with a 10-1-1 record after closing out the year and a five game home stand with a 3-1 victory.

The first period started solidly for the Blue Jackets, but the back half of the period wasn’t pretty. A pair of penalties in the middle of the period took all the wind out of the Jackets’ sails, and on their second power play opportunity – put on the man advantage after a holding call against James Wisniewski – Zach Parise caught Sergei Bobrovsky completely out of position to put the puck in the back of the net.

Fortunately for Columbus, and somewhat rather miraculously, that’d be the only time the Wild would light the lamp, even after a slow back half of the first period for the Jackets and a slow beginning to the second period.

The turning point in the game came just before the halfway point of the middle period, in which the Jackets had not one, not two…actually, I’m not 100% sure how many opportunities they had, exactly, to score, but it was a lot. However, they’d be denied each time, sometimes by a body in front and others by Wild goaltender Darcy Kuemper who stood on his head for a majority of the game.

The Blue Jackets would eventually score before the second period would end on kind of a freak goal, as Kevin Connauton, with his back literally against the boards, threw the puck towards the goal and it slid by Kuemper to tie the game with less than a minute to play.

Columbus would take their first, and only, lead of the game in the third period on the power play, when David Savard stepped up and ripped a pass sent by Connauton from just above the faceoff circle to give the Jackets a 2-1 lead. Ryan Johansen would extend his modest five game point streak with an empty net goal to seal the deal and close December, the home stand and calender year on a winning note.

As for the game itself, while the Jackets were able to grab the win, it wasn’t a “good,” win. Both teams got off to rather sluggish starts, and especially for Columbus, it seemed like they were waiting for the game to come to them as opposed to taking control of the game and shoving it to the Wild. But, as the old adage goes, you’d rather win ugly than lose pretty, and that’s exactly the case tonight. And, with the win, the Blue Jackets’ 10-1-1 mark sets a franchise best for winning percentage in a month. Not too shabby after the November this team had.

That will not only do it for the Jackets in 2014, but us as well! Thank you for reading, following, retweeting, favoriting, responding – whatever you do to interact with us and make us apart of your Blue Jackets reading, we thank you. Hope you have a safe and happy New Year’s Eve & Day, and hope you’ll be back with us for the rest of the year in 2015 and beyond!