“The thing that pisses me off is we just give them a free one,” Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella said after Tuesday night’s game.
He was referring, of course, to a pedestrian-looking overtime goal by the Boston Bruins to earn a valuable second point tonight at Nationwide Arena.
“It’s frustrating,” he continued. “It’s a simple 3-on-3, man-on-man, and we just screw it up.”
After 60 minutes of regulation expired, the Blue Jackets and Bruins were tied with five minutes on the board for overtime – and after another solid performance on home ice, Columbus looked poised to continue its torrid pace of late and pick up a third straight win.
In a fast-paced format where the first mistake is usually the last, the Blue Jackets’ trio of Brandon Saad, Alexander Wennberg and Seth Jones lost their coverage and an open Loui Erkisson scored the game-winner on goaltender Joonas Korpisalo 33 seconds into sudden death.
“You can explain it 10 different ways – it’s a blown coverage,” Tortorella added. “I’m really happy with the way we played, but just as upset as far as giving them a free one to lose the game.”
Korpisalo had another solid performance in between the pipes tonight with 28 saves, and he kept the Blue Jackets in the game early.
The Bruins came out of the gates with speed and tenacity, and controlled much of the opening period. Despite more than a few good chances, the rookie netminder remained cool, calm and collected.
Korpisalo stopped all six of the Bruins’ shots in the first six minutes of the first period, while the Jackets recorded their first shot on goaltender Tuukka Rask near the seven-minute mark of the frame.
Wennberg opened the scoring at 9:54 of the first with a backhanded penalty shot goal, which was awarded after he was hooked by Zdeno Chara on a partial breakaway.
The goal marked Wennberg’s sixth of the season, and was also his first career penalty shot/goal as well as the first penalty shot/goal for either team in the all-time series.
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