First Period

Devils started this one on the right foot, immediately forcing Elvis to make two point blank saves within a minute of puck drop. This pressure caused Werenski to take his first minor of the season giving the Devils the man advantage. New jersey didn’t take long to find a net front Provorov to tip the puck in to start the scoring.

NJD PP Goal 0 – 1 Hischier (Bratt, Maercer) 1:26

The end of the Power Play was not the end of the Devils pressure, they would score again 90 seconds later.

NJD Goal 0 – 2 Palat (Gritsyuk) 3:03

Now, Columbus responded and started to create chances. They drew a penalty a few moments later and the second unit converted when Mateychuk jumped into the slot to put one behind a screened Allen.

CBJ PP Goal 1 – 2 Mateychuk (Coyle, Provorov) 9:54

A bit more back and forth the rest of the period before the CBJ earned another power play with 30 seconds remaining. No quick conversion but they would start the 2nd up a man.

Second Period

Not able to convert on the remaining power play time before going to 4 on 4 following a scrum. Near the end of the 4 on 4 action Monahan flashed some nice eye-hand coordination on a zone entry to undress a defender before beating Allen to tie it up.

CBJ Goal 2 – 2 Monahan (Sillinger, Werenski) 1:28

During the Power Play Voronkov fought Dillon after a net-front scrum and seemingly knocked him out. Dillon would return later in the period before not being seen in the third. This set the scene for the rest of the period where more time was spent post-whistle than in-between whistles. Nearly everyone got involved in a fight this period with the notable game misconduct being assigned to Siegenthaler who didn’t tie down his jersey before fighting. This brought NJ down to 4 active defenseman for the game.

Check out https://www.hockeyfights.com/ for the recap of the 2nd period.

Third Period

Continuing to channel the energy from the second, New Jersey was unable to handle the Blue Jackets forecheck and create their own offense. Finally 7 minutes in Coyle was rewarded for his strong play throughout the game.

CBJ Goal 3 – 2 Coyle (Werenski, Wood) 6:40

Weird play to set this one up when Nemec and Wood tangled behind the Devils net and Wood came away with two sticks. Unable to play the puck without a stick, Lundestrom took control behind the net and found Monahan out front for his second of the night to extend the lead less than 1 minute after taking it.

CBJ Goal 4 – 2 Monahan (Lundestrom) 7:14

Not much life from the Devils until an offensive zone slashing penalty put them back on the man advantage. The Devils struck halfway through when Bratt placed a beautiful pass through the slot to Meier on the backside for the easy finish.

NJD PP Goal 4 – 3 Meier (Bratt, Hischier) 11:50

Fortunately, the Jackets scored again when Coyle caught a sleeping Luke Hughes in the defensive zone. He picked his pocket, found Wood alone in the slot who went post and in to restore the 2 goal lead before the thoughts of collapse could start.

CBJ Goal 5 – 3 Wood (Coyle) 13:31

Sheldon Keefe is aggressive with his goalie pulls and Allen was pulled with over 4 minutes remaining in the game. Despite the best efforts of the Jackets to not clear the puck, they held strong and maintained the 2 goal lead until time expired.

Final Thoughts

Well this was a surprisingly lively Monday night game.

No idea where to begin with the second period when seemingly every remaining top line player got into a fight. The fighting certainly energized the team and got them in the right mindset to take the game to New Jersey for the remainder of the contest. Four major fighting penalties in the second period culminating in a grand total of 11 penalties and 34 PIM for the game against 10 for 40 for the New Jersey Devils.

This was a good effort to battle back from another poor start and get the first regulation win since November 13th. Charlie Coyle was a positively disruptive force all night long, as was Adam Fantilli, even though the latter was not ultimately rewarded for his efforts. Sean Monahan finally starting to convert on his looks is a hopeful a sign that the secondary scoring outside of Marchenko is starting to wake up. Mateychuk continues to show that Werenski is not the only blue liner capable of potting goals.

New Jersey has great special teams and showed their excellence converting twice on the power play, but getting a goal from the 2nd unit PP is encouraging. The Devils losing two stable defensemen might have been the key to the comeback, but Nemec and Luke Hughes both had some inexperienced moments hurt them.

Good win, carry this momentum forward, and watch the fights tomorrow at work during your entire lunch break.

Up Next

The Blue Jackets host the Red Wings at home on Thursday for another Hulu 7:30pm puck drop.