Suddenly, the Blue Jackets had life, and they made the most of it. Greaves made seven saves in overtime to keep the game alive, then Kent Johnson and Charlie Coyle – the latter in a must-score situation in the third round – tallied in the shootout before Werenski’s heroics.
“That speaks to the resiliency of this group,” Fantilli said. “Monny beared down in the dot there, two quick passes from Marchy and Z, and I knew it got over quick enough so I knew I was gonna have a lane. Thankfully, it went in. And then Jet did a phenomenal job in the shootout; KJ, Coyler, they were lights out. That was such a great team win. It was awesome.”
The situation also speaks to what a difference a few days can make. Down to the final seconds Saturday vs. Winnipeg, the Blue Jackets were in almost exactly the same situation down 2-1 in the final seconds and won the draw, but Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck got over to stop Fantilli’s one-timer to preserve the win.
This time, Fantilli got the puck to go his way, with a little help from his friends.
“The game against Winnipeg, Bucky’s is a big goalie and there wasn’t much room,” Bowness said. “Here he had a little bit more room and that was just a great shot. Obviously we had to win the faceoff. You can set up all these plays you want, but you better win the faceoff, so give Sean Monahan a great tip of the hat for that one because we don’t score without that. It’s just an awesome shot.”
3. With their backs against the wall, the Blue Jackets snapped a six-game losing streak with a team effort.
Hey, no one will look at the victory and say it was a perfect effort. Greaves (34 saves) had to stand on his head at times, including an overtime period where the Blue Jackets struggled to get much going. The penalty kill gave up its eighth goal in the last seven games, and there were still times a team that described itself as “disconnected” in the days leading up to the game made things harder on itself than it had to.
But a win is a win, and more than that, the Blue Jackets created a lot more scoring chances than recent games (35 shots on goal), got the forecheck going at times, and generally much more resembled the team that won 20 of 27 games from January to March against an equally desperate Detroit team.
“Listen, we worked our butt off for 60 minutes, as they did,” Bowness said. “That was a great hockey game. Both teams were laying it all on the line. You gotta love our effort. We’re down 3-2 in the last five minutes, but we didn’t give up and we kept pushing. There’s a lot of fight left in this group.”
Bowness noted the Blue Jackets had 10 scoring chances at 5-on-5 alone in the second period, and the analytics show the team turned in a strong performance, including an edge of 3.29-1.69 in expected goals at 5-on-5 per Natural Stat Trick.
“I think obviously it’s a massive win,” Werenski said. “We just wanted to focus on Detroit and getting through that, and we did that, so we’ll use all the good stuff in it and we’ll focus on Buffalo now. But guys stepped up. It was a good game from us I thought.”