Columbus Blue Jackets discuss 7-6 shootout win over Vancouver Canucks
It took two big comebacks plus a bounceback from a blown lead for the Blue Jackets to nip the Canucks in a shootout and move back into a playoff spot.
The Blue Jackets still need work on their starts, but their finishing kick is more impressive by the game.
Despite trailing 3-0 after the first period Friday night at sold-out Nationwide Arena, the Blue Jackets pulled back into the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference after a wild 7-6 shootout victory over the Vancouver Canucks in front of 18,586 who were treated to an exhilarating third period, overtime and shootout.
Trailing 5-3 early in the third, the Blue Jackets (33-29-9) overcame that deficit and took a brief 6-5 lead on goals by Denton Mateychuk, captain Boone Jenner and Mathieu Olivier — including the last two separated by just 22 seconds. Aatu Raty tied it back up for the Canucks (34-26-13) on the shift after Olivier’s goal, which forced the game into overtime and then a shootout decided by Kent Johnson’s goal in the first round plus three saves from Elvis Merzlikins.
“I’m very proud of our group and the way we handled tonight,” Olivier said. “After the first period, the messaging stayed the same in the sense that we were positive. We knew we out-chanced him in the first. We had a couple mistakes that we could’ve avoided, but, overall, it was a good first. We just kind of built on that and kept going and came back a couple times in the game. Resilience was a big thing tonight.”
Earning two points pulled the Blue Jackets (32-29-10) into a tie at 75 points with the Montreal Canadiens and gave Columbus the control of the second wild-card spot via tiebreaker. The New York Rangers sat a point behind with 74 and faced the Anaheim Ducks in a West Coast game with an opportunity to supplant Columbus.
The Canadiens (33-30-9) lost 4-1 at the Carolina Hurricanes, while the New York Islanders (74 points) were idle Friday.
“I don’t think it’s a shock that this team handles adversity pretty well,” Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason said. “I mean, we did. We got down 3-0, we got some (unfavorable) calls and whatever, and they just went about their business and kept playing hard. We were fortunate to catch a couple of breaks, a couple of bounces, but we did like our resolve a lot.”
Vancouver got off to a 3-0 lead with three straight goals in the first period by Linus Karlsson, Brock Boeser and Jake DeBrusk. The Blue Jackets matched the Canucks in shots (10-10) during the first but paid for key mistakes that resulted in power play goals by Karlsson and DeBrusk.
The Jackets went to the locker room for the first intermission amid a smattering of boos, but it didn’t take long to turn those into cheers. Jenner, Kirill Marchenko and Dante Fabbro scored three unanswered goals in the first 8:44 of the second to tie it 3-3 and breathe life back into the Jackets’ hopes.
They found out the hard way, however, why falling behind by multiple goals in the NHL is so difficult to overcome. Vancouver scored the next two goals to build a 5-3 lead, getting an ugly short-handed goal from Tyler Myers with 8:33 left in the second and Raty’s first of two in the game early in the third to make it 5-3 on a wrist shot that beat Merzlikins under the glove.
Mateychuk’s fourth goal of the season, assisted by Jenner and Adam Fantilli, cut it to 5-4 on the next shift, and that’s when the game took an upward tick in havoc. Justin Danforth appeared to tie it, 5-5, with a goal off a rebound of Cole Sillinger’s shot with 8:07 left, but it was overturned by a coaching challenge that showed Olivier interfered with Canucks goalie Kevin Lankinen in the crease.
About five minutes later, madness ensued.
Jenner capped a power play to tie it 5-5, Olivier gave the Jackets their only lead in regulation 22 seconds later, 6-5, and Raty re-tied it 6-6 with his second goal of the period just 23 seconds later. In overtime, Merzlikins made four saves to force a shootout where he stopped attempts from DeBrusk, Conor Garland and Jonathan Lekkerimaki to make Johnson’s goal in the first round stand up.
“Elvis did an unbelievable job tonight with all the swings and everything, and he stayed completely locked in for the shootout and overtime,” Fabbro said. “He just was a rock for us. We capitalized when we needed to capitalize, and it was just a lot of fun to be a part of tonight.”
Blue Jackets reporter Brian Hedger can be reached at bhedger@dispatch.com and @BrianHedger.bsky.social
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