OK, this is getting ridiculous. Stop me if you’ve heard this one: final score of 4-3 after one team being up 3-1. After the first period it was hard to be too optimistic that lightning would strike for the 4th time in a series and that we’d be on the favorable end of it. Tonight the CBJ faithful were treated to nothing less than a fairy tale story of a young, playoff-inexperienced team that simply didn’t know how to die. I left Nationwide Arena to thunderous echoes of ‘CBJ! CBJ!’ from an inspired and excited fan base. Here are the players that made the magic tonight:
3rd Star: Ryan Johansen
He’s actually so good that it’s starting to get easy to take Ryan Johansen for granted. Tonight he brought two points in the form of a power play goal scored from his camping spot in front of Fleury, where he sat unmolested and a monster blind centering pass that contributed to the game tying goal. Joey had a respectable 57% face-off percentage for the evening as well going an impressive 100% against the likes of Lee Stempniak and Evgeni Malkin. The kid simply comes up big time and again.
2nd Star: Nick Foligno
Foligno only had one shot on goal tonight in his 14 minutes of play but he sure as hell made it count.
I really can’t imagine that Foligno thought that puck was going to go in, it seemed designed to generate a rebound that hopefully Umberger or Anisimov would be able to capitalize on but nobody’s going to argue with the results. Second only to Brandon Dubinsky, Foligno played the body well tonight.
1st Star: Brandon Dubinsky
A goal, an assist, he led the team in hitting and continued to shut down the marquee players of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Dubinsky has come to embody the “whole game” style that all of the Jacket players need to buy into to go deeper into the playoffs. We may never know what was going through Fleury’s head when he decided to play the puck with 22.5 seconds left in regulation but the resulting game tying goal that sent Nationwide Arena into pure mayhem was absolutely monumental. Youth made a connection with a more experienced player to take advantage of an out of position net minder. Huge tip of the hat to Ryan Johansen for this assist. Whether he knew where he was being trailed by Dubinsky or not, he put the puck exactly where it needed to be for Dubinsky to bury the puck in the net.
Tonight’s Game in One Picture comes courtesy of Ashley WareStud: Boone Jenner
Boone continues to impress with his gritty yet skillful play. His deflection on the power play that hopped right over Fleury’s head into the net opened the scoring for the Blue Jackets and he was frequently the fastest/hardest working guy on the ice from either team. He earns stud distinction for the evening as such.
Dud: James Wisniewski
Yes, Wiz had two assists on the evening but tonight really seemed like an off game. The Penguins’ first short-handed goal was one in which we saw Wiz get out-hustled by his near man. He seemingly gave up on the play that resulted in Neal’s goal and took a horrible tripping penalty against Tanner Glass in the 3rd after Glass made a break with a puck that seemed to have hopped over Wiz’s stick and out of the zone. I’m a big fan of Wiz and his series has been largely very impressive but is there a chance that tonight may have served as a reminder of what we get with Wisniewski when he isn’t paired with someone like Ryan Murray? Hopefully Murray will be back soon.
Who’s ready for Saturday? It’s been confirmed that the Jackets and Pens will have a 7pm start at the Consol Energy Center on Saturday evening to begin what amounts to a fresh 3 game series. Predictions for which team will win 4-3? I’ve got my money on the Jackets.
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