Columbus Blue Jackets Survive Late Goal from Florida Panthers
The Columbus Blue Jackets survive a late goal from the Panthers to win in a shootout over Florida.
In front of 16,535 fans in a Sunday matinee, the Columbus Blue Jackets survived a game tying goal late from the Panthers. The game went into a shootout following an exciting overtime period that saw the Jackets on their heels. Josh Anderson‘s goal in the eighth round of the shootout was the deciding factor for the Jackets.
The opening period was dominated by the Jackets and yielded a power play goal from Nick Foligno. It was Foligno’s eighth goal of the season and first since December 14th. Seth Jones picked up an assist on the goal for his 150th career point.
If one power play goal wasn’t enough of a shock, the Jackets scored another in the second period. Thats right, TWO POWER PLAY GOALS IN ONE GAME!!! Late in the second, Pierre-Luc Dubois potted his ninth of the season. Seth Jones racked up his second assist of the game on the goal.
Columbus Blue Jackets
But these Panthers, though low in the standings, have too much talent to be left in the dust. With the Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau, Vincent Trocheck, and Keith Yandle on the roster, there is simply too much firepower to keep this team down. Huberdeau added a power play goal early in the second to tie it at one.
The third period, dominated by a relentless Panther attack, saw the Jackets cave with a minute and a half left as Barkov tied the game to send it to overtime. The Panthers out shot the Jackets 18-11 in the wild third period.
An exciting overtime period saw plenty of back and forth. Nine total shots in the five minute overtime didn’t give us a victor though.
After an exhaustive shootout that saw unlikely shooters such as Markus Hannakianen and Boone Jenner take shots, the Jackets emerged victorious in the eighth round. Josh Anderson, the leading goal scorer for the CBJ, ended the game with his goal.
A Night for the Goalies
A game that sees a combined 92 shots on goal usually ends up being closer to a 7-5 game then a 3-2 game. But both Sergei Bobrovsky and James Reimer came to play and gave their respective teams ample opportunity to win the game. In the end, Bob stopped one more shot than Reimer did in the shootout to garner the extra point for the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The win was Bob’s 20th on the season. His 42 saves on the night was his highest total this season.
The Jackets traveled immediately after the win to the great white north where they will play Toronto tonight. The Leafs are in the middle of a five game home stand and are coming off of back to back shootout wins.