Sunday night’s game was a historic one for the New York Islanders, and the Blue Jackets were certainly determined to crash the party.
It has been a recurring theme in the season series between these two teams: blown leads. The Islanders blew a two-goal third period lead last week at Nationwide Arena and lost in a shootout, and Sunday, they scored two quick goals to take a 3-1 lead early in the third period.
Eric Boulton and John Tavares scored 55 seconds apart to turn a 1-1 tie into a 3-1 lead for the Islanders, playing their final regular season game at the storied Nassau Coliseum before moving to Brooklyn next fall. The building was rocking, the Islanders were flying and they nearly broke it open if not for Curtis McElhinney, who was brilliant in goal for the Blue Jackets in his first start in nearly a month.
McElhinney made 48 saves — 20 of them coming in the first period — to give the Blue Jackets a fighting chance. He made three saves in the shootout to set the stage for Cam Atkinson’s forehand winner, a 5-4 final that set a new Columbus franchise record with points in 13 straight games (12-0-1), and improving the Blue Jackets’ record to 15-1-1 in their final 17 games of the season.
“Guys are getting healthy and it feels like this is the team we want to play with,” said center Alexander Wennberg. “Right now we’ve been playing the best hockey we did all season and it’s too bad it’s a bit too late. I think it’s a great look for next season to see what we’re capable of doing.”
The Blue Jackets finished 42-35-5, a final record that’s going to leave them yearning for more after a season riddled with injuries and inconsistency. But their trademark has been a steely resolve and a belief that they’re never out of a game, and tonight, it was on full display once again.
Brandon Dubinsky, who left the game late in the first period after getting cut by a high stick and eventually returned, scored a huge goal with 10:23 to play to pull Columbus within 3-2. He was just hanging out behind the net and threw the puck in front, getting a member’s bounce off the skate of Islanders forward Josh Bailey and into the net.
The momentum built from there and Blue Jackets tied the game 1:34 later courtesy of Wennberg’s fourth goal of the season. On a delayed penalty, the Jackets zipped the puck around the Islanders’ zone and seconds before scoring the tying goal, Wennberg had an eerily similar chance that sailed wide of the net.
He got another chance with Halak swimming in the crease and made no mistake, tying the game with 8:49 to play.
Nikolai Kulemin put the Islanders back in front with 4:24 left in regulation, but you just knew the Blue Jackets had another response up their sleeve. With McElhinney on the bench for an extra attacker, Artem Anisimov set up Scott Hartnell in the slot for a quick shot through traffic that made it a 4-4 game with 1:35 to go.
The drama didn’t stop there, either; after a furious, fast-paced overtime, the Islanders took an early lead in the shootout but McElhinney shut the door after an opening goal by Tavares. The Blue Jackets got goals from Wennberg and Atkinson, completing the comeback and spoiling the night for the Islanders, who also lost home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs by not picking up two points.
It’s accurate that the Blue Jackets will not be taking part in the Stanley Cup playoffs, but there was a lot of pride on the line for a team that’s admittedly disappointed in its inability to deliver postseason hockey to the city of Columbus this spring.
They finished on the aforementioned 13-game points streak and gave themselves a reaffirmed confidence that they have a train gathering steam in the right direction.
“The way we’ve been playing the last month or so, it’s just been phenomenal,” McElhinney said. “We’ve been able to put three pucks or more in the net, and we did it again tonight to come back twice, so it was great to see.
“(The play of late) is indicative of what the plan was at the start of the year. This was nice to see, the last month here, just all the guys on the same page playing well for the most part and getting results.”
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