Down 3-1 with 10 minutes left in regulation, the Blue Jackets needed something to jump-start a rally.
So they turned to the guy who, despite an illness that kept him out of the morning skate, has been swinging the hot bat of late. Jack Johnson wasn’t feeling great this morning and so the Blue Jackets sent him home to rest, and he turned this afternoon feeling “good enough to play” and just so happened to score a goal that got his team back in it.
“Good enough to play” ended up being “good enough to score a goal to turn the game around.” Or something like that.
It was the time in the game when more chances are taken, the defense activates and the element of risk is further elevated because your team needs a goal. After a flurry around the Islanders’ net, Johnson batted in a puck out of mid-air to pull Columbus within 3-2 with 8:52 left in regulation.
When all was said and done, the Blue Jackets completed the rally, hung on late in the third period and got the job done in the shootout to win 4-3 over the Islanders and tie a franchise record with an eighth straight victory.
“It’s nice to win, especially against a really good hockey team,” Johnson said. “We were down 3-1 and we started to throw everything we could at them, and started taking a few more chances. It paid off for us.”
And there was a lot to write about tonight. So let’s recap.
Eric Boulton got the Islanders on the board 2:54 in, jamming in his own rebound on the door step while Sergei Bobrovsky didn’t have much help at all.
The Blue Jackets got even at 7:06 when Brandon Dubinsky re-directed a point shot from Dalton Prout past Jaroslav Halak, but another early period goal put the Islanders in front in the second.
John Tavares tipped in a drive from Johnny Boychuk just 2:03 into the middle frame and the Islanders had the lead once again. They increased it to a two-goal lead 55 seconds into the third period when Ryan Strome buried a rebound off, again, a point shot — this time off the stick of Travis Hamonic, who had jumped up on the rush.
Remember that “bend but don’t break” team you’ve heard about the last few weeks? They were at it again tonight as the third period wound down.
Johnson’s goal got it started and got a vocal Nationwide Arena crowd back in the game, and the “C-B-J” chants were roaring down the stretch. Ryan Johansen’s 26th goal of the season — a rebound cleanup in the crease — tied the game 3-3 with 3:43 to go and the Jackets played with a noticeable strut the rest of the way.
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