The Columbus Blue Jackets knew the importance of Thursday night’s game. Thanks to their preparation and structure, they left Detroit with a huge regulation win.
James van Riemsdyk scored two goals. Boone Jenner had three assists while Kent Johnson scored a goal and an assist to lift the Blue Jackets to a 5-2 win. With the win, the Blue Jackets pull even with the Red Wings at 66 points. The Red Wings own one more regulation win and will remain the first wildcard.
The story of the game was how the Blue Jackets played after losing one of their most important players.
Game Recap
The first period started as well as the Blue Jackets could have hoped for. They dominated in both scoring chances and high-danger chances. The only thing they didn’t do was score.
Not only was it 0-0 after the first, Cole Sillinger was forced to leave the game due to an upper-body injury when he collided with Moritz Seider. With just 11 forwards, the Blue Jackets had to switch things up. Their new line of van Riemsdyk, Jenner and Johnson found instant chemistry.
Despite an early second-period goal by Alex DeBrincat, the Blue Jackets scored four unanswered after. JVR started the scoring with the tying goal deflecting a Jake Christiansen shot.
Then the fourth line got involved when Sean Kuraly beat Cam Talbot to make it 2-1. Johnson then tipped home a shot from Dante Fabbro to extend it to 3-1. JVR then buried a Jenner pass to make it 4-1. All three of Jenner’s assists happened in the span of 10:45 in the second period.
Towards the end of the second, J.T. Compher scored a power-play goal to cut it to 4-2. That’s as close as the Red Wings would get on Thursday night.
The Blue Jackets were in control for much of the third period. Dean Evason said he liked the structure of his team in helping shut things down. Then to ice the game, Kirill Marchenko dove at the loose puck to put it into the empty net to get to the final score of 5-2. He beat Seider in a race to that puck to make it happen.
Postgame, Evason said Sillinger had an upper-body injury and would be evaluated by the team doctors when they got back to Columbus. His status for the Stadium Series is undetermined.
On the milestone front, Joseph LaBate assisted on Sean Kuraly’s goal making his first NHL assist. Also the Blue Jackets have scored at least five goals in three straight games. That ties a franchise record. They hadn’t done that since Feb 25-March 1, 2001.
Up next for both teams is the Stadium Series Game. The Blue Jackets will practice Friday at 4:30 while the Red Wings practice at 6:30 in Ohio Stadium.