Goal Breakdowns vs. Anaheim 3/31

With their 2-1 victory over the Pacific Division leading Anaheim Ducks tonight, the Columbus Blue Jackets finally clawed their way into sole possession of a playoff spot. The Jackets managed to survive a horrendous 3rd period, where they were outshot 17-1, to force overtime. It was there that Mark Letestu capped off a two point night with the game winner. After a slow first two periods, the Ducks turned on the jets in the 3rd, keeping the Blue Jackets on their heels, with only Sergei Bobrovsky carrying his weight. With 29 saves last night, Bobrovsky finished March with incredible numbers: 9-2-3 record, .950 save percentage, 1.49 goals against average, and three shutouts.

1-0 Columbus, 9:34 2nd Period – Derick Brassard from Mark Letestu and Vinny Prospal

A full team effort on this goal. Obvious props to Brassard for the finish and Letestu for the beautiful bank pass. Prospal had a pinpoint perfect pass to Letestu for the third assist, and he had to be perfect on that feed: if he doesn’t manage to thread that through two players then the Ducks would have been off on a three on two, with Letestu and James Wisniewski defending (and Teemu was out there). I’d also like to point out the patience by Wiz. Too often he is content to just let his shot fly if he gets enough time,  shooting lane or no. This time he drew the Ducks forwards in by looking for a shot, then he fed it back down to Vinny. This helped create the passing lane that got the puck back to Letestu. And finally, Fedor Tyutin made a great play to pinch and keep the puck hemmed in the Anaheim zone following a missed net by Prospal. It was a great, quick read, as too often shots missed high and wide simply provide a breakout pass for the opposition.

1-1, 5:55 3rd Period – Emerson Etem from Andrew Cogliano and Bryan Allen

I’d like to try and find someone else to heap a little blame on here, as I usually try to go beyond the obvious mistakes, but there is no one at fault here beyond RJ Umberger. A lot of people will probably look to where Wiz goes after making the pass, but jumping up like that and providing an outlet for the wingers is something the Blue Jackets have clearly been stressing, as the defense does it very frequently. You might also worry about the other CBJ forwards flying the zone, but they merely started skating in position when Umberger first picks up the puck. He just never does anything with it. He had both forwards somewhat open for the pass, he had Wiz available in support, he could go back in the corner for Aucoin, or he could chip it off the glass and let Johansen go get it. Instead he does nothing and turns the puck over in damn near the worst possible location.

2-1 Columbus, 4:00 Overtime – Mark Letestu from Nikita Nikitin and Dalton Prout

While Letestu had a nice finish, this goal was all Nikitin. After Prout mishandles a perfect tape-to-tape pass, he throws a waist high pass back at Nikitin, who manages to handle it perfectly then thread a beautiful slap-pass right to a wide open Letestu. Great work earlier in the sequence as well by Nikitin and Ryan Johansen to move the puck and cycle high in the zone. Getting the Ducks players chasing in their own zone is what allows Letestu to sneak into open space, something he has gotten quite good at.

With last nights win, the Jackets carry their twelve game home points streak into April (even though they had that sewed up at the end of regulation). Let’s take a minute here to reflect on just how amazing the month of March was. On February 28th, the Blue Jackets had a record of 5-12-3 and sat in last place in the entire NHL. They finish one month later sitting in a playoff spot. With sixteen games in March, their busiest this season and a full 1/3 of their total games, the Jackets managed to go 10-2-4. Pretty incredible. Whether they make the playoffs or not (Sports Club Stats still only gives them a 15.5% chance), this March will go down as one of the more exciting periods in Jackets history.