Its two victories in a row for the Columbus Blue Jackets, and five in a row against the Minnesota Wild, as the Blue Jackets took the season series against the Wild, winning their second 3-1 game against them this season to sweep Minnesota, this time in Excel Energy Center.
Brandon Dubinsky was the first to light the lamp, as James Wisniewski fed the puck through center ice and met up with Dubi at the blueline, and from there, Dubi took a wrist-shot while standing on one skate and went top-shelf on Devan Dubnyk to give the Blue Jackets a 1-0 lead before the midway point of the first period.
The Wild would tie things up later in the period, when Zach Parise redirected in the air a Mikko Koivu shot right in front of Sergei Bobrovsky, which would hit the ice and trickle past the pads to light the lamp for Minnesota. Just like he did in Columbus on New Years Eve, Parise opened the Wild scoring and did so on the power play.
The next goal wouldn’t come until the 5:35 mark of the third period, where the Blue Jackets answered with a power play goal of their own as Wisniewski somehow squeezed the puck between Dubnyk and the near-post to re-give the Jackets the lead, this time at 2-1.
Scott Hartnell joined the double-digit goal club with his final goal of the day, a redirected shot from – you guessed it – Wisniewski to give the Jackets their 3-1 lead, where it would be finalized when the clock hit quadruple-zero. With the good tonight brought – their second straight win, a fifth straight win against Minnesota, Wiz’s first ever three-point game – it also saw Ryan Johansen’s 13-game point streak come to an end. But, it nearly was extended.
With about 30 seconds left, Joey dished the puck to Matt Calvert, who shot towards the empty Minnesota net, but missed by thiiiiiiiis much, leaving Joey pointless for the first time in 2015. But, that’s okay. He can start a new streak on Wednesday.
This was a much closer game than the 3-1 final score would indicate, and if we’re being completely and totally honest, it was actually kind of boring. The first period was exciting and the final 15 or so minutes were exciting, but the middle parts were pretty dull. Not that it’s a bad thing, there just wasn’t a whole lot going on.
File this in your “strange but true,” fact of the day: this marks the first victory for Bob since he signed his extension with the Jackets earlier this month. If you’ll remember, he signed pre-game before the Maple Leafs game in Toronto, which was the first of the four game losing streak. But, he has that win, and he looked darn good doing it. There was nothing he could do about Parise’s deflection in front, but every other opportunity presented to him, he met head on and, especially during the end of the game, there was a flurry of chances and a bit of confusion in front that, somehow, the defense in front of him (which also had a solid game) was able to clear the puck and give him a breather.
And, even though Dubnyk allowed three goals, he still played a great game as well. I even referred to it as “Bob-level,” on twitter, which I still stand by. Bob turned away 25 shots (with, again, half of them seemingly right in front) while Dubnyk stopped 20 shots.
Only one game remains for the Blue Jackets before the NHL spotlight turns to the city of Columbus for the All Star Game, and that will come on Wednesday when Columbus faces the surging Winnipeg Jets.