Columbus Blue Jackets Salvage California trip with Win in San Jose
Finally the Columbus Blue Jackets pull out two points on the road to finish up a terrible California road trip.
The Columbus Blue Jackets played three playoff teams in four days and they showed their true colors. Two points out of six is a disappointing result but it’s about par for the course for this Jackets team.
Last night they held on for a 4-2 win in San Jose over the Sharks. They did their best to let the same game play out in Northern California that played out in Southern California though. The Jackets raced out to a 3-0 lead on the Sharks by the middle of the second period. Goals came from Nick Foligno, Sonny Milano and Artemi Panarin.
Even at this point in the game though Sergei Bobrovsky had made two highlight reel goals to keep the Sharks off the scoreboard. You could feel the Sharks were just a bounce or two away from making it a game.
That bounce came late in the second period when Joonas Donskoi potted his 12th of the season to bring the margin down to two goals. The late goal sparked momentum for the Sharks and we all thought the game was going downhill.
Newly acquired Evander Kane scored then in the third to make it a 3-2 game and the game, and season, seemed to be spiraling out of control. A three game sweep in California would have been devastating to this squad.
But the Columbus Blue Jackets and Bob held strong and Panarin netted his second of the game on an empty net to seal it.
Game Notes
- Panarin’s two goals (19 & 20) make the Jackets the 29th team to get a 20 goal scorer.
- His first goal arguably was Ian Cole‘s though. Stat corrections might come down the line soon on that. The assist is Cole’s first point as a Blue Jacket.
- The Jackets chased San Jose started Martin Jones after he allowed three goals. Backup Aaron Dell stopped all 14 shots he faced.
- Sonny Milano scored his third goal in four games bringing him to 11 goals in 39 games this year. That is a 23 goals per season pace.
The win was a must for the team and they will now head home to take on the Vegas Golden Knights.